Carys Bray's "A Song for Issy Bradley"

Carys Bray completed an M.A. in creative writing at Edge Hill University in 2010. That same year she won the M.A. category of the Edge Hill Prize for the Short Story, and her stories have since been published in a variety of literary magazines. She was awarded the Scott Prize for her debut collection, Sweet Home. She lives in Southport, England, with her husband and four children.

Here Bray dreamcasts an adaptation of A Song for Issy Bradley, her first novel:

I didn’t have any actors in mind as I wrote A Song for Issy Bradley, so it was a somewhat tricky task to look back and pair the characters with actors. Having said that, it was also quite fun!

A clean shaven, bespectacled Jude Law would make a good Ian Bradley, but David Tennant would also be great – in fact, my children are ardent Doctor Who fans and would be immensely impressed if David Tennant appeared in the film of my novel, so I’ll plump for him. Suranne Jones would be perfect for Claire Bradley (she has appeared in a number of British television shows including Scott and Bailey, The Secret of Crickley Hall and the Crimson Field). I’d like to see Robbie Coltrane as the rather eccentric but very kind-hearted Brother Rimmer. He’s the right shape and size, and I think he’d do a great job of playing a character who is ever-so-slightly bonkers.

The other important characters are children, and I found it difficult to select child actors - when I checked online, they were all much older in reality than they were in my imagination. So I decided to cheat and pick actors who might need to borrow the Doctor’s TARDIS and undertake some time travel in order to appear in the movie. I’d have Holly Bodimeade as Zipporah Bradley, Bill Milner as Alma Bradley and a very young Asa Butterfield as Jacob Bradley.

While I’m in charge of the film I’d also like to stipulate that the beach scenes are filmed in Southport, where the novel is set. And I’d like David Tennant to pop round to my house for tea at least once during filming – that’s not too much to ask, right?

Visit Carys Bray's website.

--Marshal Zeringue