By Sophie Aires
Polly Crosby’s soon to be published new young adult novel, coming in January 2025, sheds light on the difficulties of living with disabilities such as her own: cystic fibrosis. In a recent article, Crosby talks about the difficulties she faced during COVID-19, how she lacked control over her own position in society and faced anxieties surrounding her health at that time.
She also sheds light on the lack of representation for those with illnesses such as her own in literature, and how this impacted her growing up. She talks about how much of the representation people with cystic fibrosis have has been about end-of-life stories, and how this can be damaging as “there is so much more to us.” She also says that characters or protagonists with a disability rarely feature unless their illness is a plot point.
These ideas were what spurred her on to write The Vulpine, which has been described by Waterstones as a novel about “a darkly dystopian world full of eerie folklore, in which illness and difference have been prohibited.” Children classified as imperfect are sent to a government-owned “hospital” where they can be “looked after properly.” Later, some children are said to have been kidnapped by the Vulpine – fox-like animals who live underground. Orla knows about these creatures from stories she has heard and goes on a quest to discover if they are as monstrous as people believe. The novel raises questions about our own society and the way in which people with illness and disability are treated.
The first baby in the world to be diagnosed with cystic fibrosis with the heel prick test, Polly has spoken about how her illness has driven her to achieve in her writing. “It has always made me want to push to do things as quickly as possible and plan ahead in the hope that I will get things done while I'm well enough. It made me want to get a book published because I knew the chances were going to be very slim but if I was going to do anything with whatever years I had, that was my top priority that’s why I kept trying and kept trying.”
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