Don’t they realise that, unlike writers for adults, we children’s writers always have our young readers prominent in every choice we make? There is a lot of banning going on in the United States today, the argument being that many truths – about gender, about feminism, about race – would cause harm to a child. How important do you think it is for writers, in particular children’s writers, to discuss these themes in the narratives and plots of the stories they write? You touch on racism, misogyny, sexism etc which unfortunately in various parts of society is as extensive today as it was back then. It was also a public relations effort by the US government to justify its continuing presence in the Philippines. The Philippine Reservation occupied 47 hectares of the Fair – its presence jived with the Fair’s celebration of American territorial expansion. The territory included land from 15 states, including what is now Texas! The World’s Fair was supposed to happen on the 100th anniversary of the purchase in 1903 but there were delays and it happened in 1904. The Louisiana Purchase in 1893 was when the United States bought the territory of Louisiana from the Kingdom of France. I decided early on to simplify it but I did explain about the Louisiana Purchase in one of the videos on my Instagram page. Is there a reason why you changed the name? You describe it in your acknowledgements by its original name of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The St Louis World’s Fair of 1904 was an amalgamation of cultures from all over the world. Here's the second part of Sarah Broadley's interview with author Candy Gourlay about her novel Wild Song and her latest project – a graphic memoir.

Is it a Mermaid? by Candy Gourlay