‘My life is not about cystic fibrosis, I just happen to have it’

10th November 2024

Back in 2020, Polly Crosby celebrated the publication of her debut novel virtually because she was classed as clinically extremely vulnerable. Four years on, Polly has just published The House of Fever, a novel based, in part, on her experiences during the pandemic and set in Norfolk. Amanda Loose finds out more

‘Covid time wasn’t fun,’ says Polly, as we chat over Zoom. ‘I think living with something like cystic fibrosis, you’re always aware of your own mortality. I have a different view of life and death compared to a lot of people, because I’ve always known that I might not be around forever. Covid was just another extra layer of fear and stress at a time when I was meant to be celebrating my most momentous, exciting time as a debut author.’

Polly’s latest novel, The House of Fever is a gripping, moving and sometimes sinister story set back in the 1930s at the luxurious Hedoné House, a fictional TB sanatorium.

‘I think The House of Fever was my way of looking back on our own pandemic and how it affected me,’ Polly tells me. ‘I didn’t want to write a pandemic novel, exactly; I wanted to find a way of understanding what I had gone through in those very isolating months.’

During lockdown Polly wrapped up and wrote in a gazebo in the garden of her home in South Norfolk, which she shares with her husband, Matt, their son, and rescue cat and dog. ‘I had written The Unravelling [her second novel] and remember emailing my editor and saying: “If I don’t survive this, will you still publish this book?” It’s those very poignant moments which make you realise just how life-changing the pandemic was. But it was life-changing for everyone. I might have been isolated and stuck in my house, but I was pretty safe there. My version of Covid was not special, it was not harder, it was just different to a lot of people’s.

‘When writing The House of Fever, I think because TB and Covid and CF all have similarities, I felt like I was able to draw on my own experiences of living with a chronic illness, but I didn’t want to write a book about illness. I wanted that to be the setting, but I didn’t want it to be about sick people; I wanted it to be about people that just happened to be unwell – because that’s me, my life is not about cystic fibrosis, I just happen to have it.

‘Generally, I don’t talk about my CF. I’m not particularly private about it, but I see it as such a small part of things – hopefully there are more exciting things about me! But I think because of what happened with Covid, it suddenly felt like a much larger part of my identity.’

‘My version of Covid was not special, it was not harder, it was just different to a lot of people’s.’
Polly Crosby

Polly researched sanatoriums in the UK and Europe for The House of Fever, which is her first novel set in Norfolk: ‘All my books for adults so far had been set in Suffolk [where Polly lived for her first 23 years] and I think now that I’ve lived in Norfolk for 20 years, I finally feel like I’m qualified to write about it!’

Of the novel, Polly says: ‘I really wanted to up my plotting… I do love writing dark and this is as dark, if not darker, than most.’

Scholastic, meanwhile, is set to publish The Vulpine in January, Polly’s second novel for young adults. ‘It’s a dystopian fairytale set in a world where people with chronic illness and disability are locked away in a hospital. I remember, after I got the covid vaccine and was finally allowed out into the real world again, all these ideas for pandemic-related stories were rattling around in my mind. I think I’ve managed to exorcise all that now though!’

And so, Polly’s next adult novel will take readers back to Suffolk and the more distant past; it’s ‘a haunting, gothic, witchy mystery inspired by local folklore’ she teases. We’ll keep you posted.

The House of Fever by Polly Crosby is published by HQ, £9.99