Sherril asked John Ironmonger:

It's so interesting to me how many of my friends on goodreads, including myself have come upon Not Forgetting the Whale during the time of the current pandemic. Of course I, like many, kept asking myself how is it that this author published a book in 2015 that was so prescient to what's happening in 2020? I guess that's my question. I have a feeling I'm not the first to ask. The book was a treasure. Thank you.

John Ironmonger Hi Sherril - I'm so pleased you enjoyed the book. It has been interesting how things have turned out – like the beached whale in Essex (did you notice it was a fin whale?) But someone wrote to tell me they are less sympathetic to Joe now because his raid on the wholesaler now looks like greedy hoarding – which had never occurred to me before. I'm not sure it was all that prescient. Pandemics come along quite often. I suspect it was a mixture of good research and luck (if you can call it that). Not sure why. Someone asked me recently if I thought it would ever be made into a film and I said, ‘no.’ I think the Coronavirus has probably killed off pandemic stories for a while. Everyone knows too much about pandemics now. People would be asking if there was a furlough scheme in St Piran and if Sainsbury’s were able to deliver …
I hope you get a chance to read my new novel out in August - The Many Lives of Heloise Starchild. And thanks again. :) John

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