Mary-Rose MacColl's "In Falling Snow"

Mary-Rose MacColl's first novel, No Safe Place, was a runner-up for the Australian Vogel literary award. Her first non-fiction book, The Birth Wars, was a finalist for the Walkley Awards. She lives in Brisbane, Australia, and Banff, Canada, with her husband and young son.

Here MacColl dreamcasts an adaptation of In Falling Snow, her North American debut:

Oh, what a lovely thing to while away some time on!

With the main story set during World War I, In Falling Snow would make a great film, not least because this was such an iconic time in our history and because it has such great roles for women.

There’s Iris and Violet of course, 21 and 25, respectively, during World War I and full of such wonderful idealism, both still so spirited by the late 1970s when they are in their eighties. There’s surgeon and chief Miss Frances Ivens and the other doctors at Royaumont Hospital, and then in the 70s, there’s Grace, a 39-year-old obstetrician with three children. I didn’t have a film in mind while I wrote the novel but I can see the film so clearly, down to the dust motes in a ray of light at the start of the Royaumont scenes, and the snow when Iris arrives at the old abbey. And the scenes at Royaumont as a hospital, oh, they’d be marvellous.

In the present story set in the 1970s, old Iris would have to be played by Meryl Streep, I think, or Dame Judi Dench, to have the presence for the role. For young Iris in World War I, I’d probably have trouble selecting between Abbie Cornish and Mia Wasikowska. And young Violet could be played by Kate Winslet who’s just wonderful.

Grace is Cate Blanchett or Naomi Watts, such strong female leads. Grace’s husband David is George Clooney (with the added plus that he started out playing a doctor on ER) or Matt Damon (who I just love). This is sounding like a film I’ll go and see! Oh, and Ewan McGregor would be Dugald McTaggart, of course. He may have been a cad but he was a likeable cad.

Learn more about the book and author at Mary-Rose MacColl's website, and follow MacColl on Facebook and Twitter.

--Marshal Zeringue