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Authors Interviewing Characters: Liz Webb

January 25, 2024 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

THE SAVED by Liz Webb

She thought his death would destroy her … but his return was far worse.

Nancy and Calder have moved from London to an isolated slate island, off the west coast of Scotland. Nancy is focussed on their new beginning, but is increasingly unsettled by the stark island, the mysterious inhabitants and Calder’s dark past, which he’s kept hidden from her.

Then one of Nancy’s nightmares plays out in real life: she finds Calder’s boat upturned in the bay, his body adrift in the icy water. He’s clinically dead with no heartbeat. But miraculously the doctors manage to bring him back to life …

Liz Webb’s exclusive interview with Nancy Ryan, wife of Calder Campbell who recently ‘came back from the dead’. ‘Interviewer’s Note: I met Nancy in the canteen of the hospital late at night, two weeks after Calder’s miraculous recovery. After much deliberation, I’m publishing my complete unedited interview, despite Nancy’s pleas not to do so.’

LW Excuse me, but aren’t you Nancy, Calder Campbell’s girlfriend?

NR Yeah. Who are you?

LW Local writer. I don’t mean to intrude, but would it be possible to have a brief chat?

NR God. Why are you all so obsessed with him?

LW Well… because he’s literally ‘come back from the dead’.

NR Sure. It’s all such a ‘miracle’.

LW I’m sorry? Has he taken a turn for the worse?

NR No, no, he’s fine. Going home tomorrow in fact. The doctors are all very proud of themselves.

LW Why wouldn’t they be, he was clinically dead for six hours.

NR Umm.

LW Did he… see anything, when he was away? A beckoning light perhaps?

NR No – he was dead!

LW I’m sorry. But it’s what people always ask.

NR Well he doesn’t remember anything at all. Not even how he ended up in the sea.

LW Ok, let’s back up a bit. Can you give me a bit of background. You’d only recently moved to the Scottish island of Langer I believe? Why did you move to such an isolated place, with such a tiny population, just one shop, one pub?

NR That seems like a lifetime ago. We’d had enough of the London rat race, the long hours, high rents. And then Calder’s mum Isla died, leaving him her cottage. So we thought, why not have a fresh start on the island.

LW A ‘clean slate’ so to speak.

NR Why d’you say that?

LW Just silly word play – cos you’d moved to a slate island.

NR Oh. Well, I don’t think anyone ever gets a clean slate, do you? Your sins follow you, wherever you go.

LW I don’t quite…

NR Forget it. I’m just tired.

LW That’s understandable. You’ve been through a lot. It was you who found Calder’s body I gather?

NR Yes. I’d just got up and saw his boat overturned in the bay. So I rushed out and found him floating in the freezing water. Dead.

LW Must have been terrifying.

NR He was stone cold. Eyes staring. His pupils were so huge and fixed, like a doll’s. It was the worst moment of my life. He was the love of my life.

LW Was?

NR But then the paramedic in the helicopter transporting his body said the strangest thing. ‘You’re not dead, till your warm and dead’.

LW What did he mean?

NR It’s a ridiculously dramatic way of saying that if you have a heart attack when you’re freezing cold, your organs need way less oxygen and sometimes you can be brought back.

LW That’s so cool. So what happened next?

NR They slowly fed oxygenated blood back into him… I’m not sure whose blood… but anyway, when he was warm enough, his heart was restarted with an electric shock.

LW Ha! Like Frankenstein’s monster. Which would make you the Bride of Frankenstein as I hear that you got engaged here in the hospital. Congratulations! How romantic.

NR Umm. In Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein’s the doctor’s name, not the monster’s and the doctor’s wife is murdered by the monster. So lucky me!

LW I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be flippant. I just meant that all this sounds… so unbelievable. Though this kind of recovery has happened before?

NR Oh yes, a skier in the Spanish Pyrenees, a hiker in the French Alps and a boatload of youths in a Danish Fjord: seven of them were pulled ashore, with everyone shouting ‘they’re dead, they’re all dead’ and then they were brought back to life six hours later. But…

LW But?

NR I don’t know if…

LW It’s ok, take your time…

NR It’s just that the doctors, the nurses, they’re all so ecstatic, so certain he’s fully back – but they don’t know Calder like I do. Just because all their tests say he’s fine … When he first opened his eyes, I was so ridiculously happy to have him back, but he seemed… distant. Like I was trying to see him down the end of a long pipe. That must sound stupid.

LW Not at all – perhaps it was to be expected, after such an extreme event.

NR That’s what I thought at first. That I’d eventually find my old ‘click’ with him. But as the weeks have passed and his body’s got stronger, I still don’t recognise him. He seems… like another person. Sorry, I’m rambling.

LW These kinds of traumatic events can perhaps be harder for the relations?

NR So stress has made me delusional?

LW No, no, I’m sorry…

NR Because whatever they say, that man I’m going home with tomorrow… who looks like my Calder… who sounds like my Calder… he really isn’t my Calder anymore.

LW But surely you are… glad he’s back?

NR Maybe…

LW What?

NR Maybe that Frankenstein book was right, we shouldn’t meddle with science. Maybe Calder should have … stayed dead.

LW What!

NR Ignore me, I’m overwrought. Please don’t print any of this. I have to go.

THE SAVED, published by Allison & Busby on 25th January 20224 is available in hardback, eBook and audio at https://amzn.eu/d/0mF8eyr

Liz Webb’s Website is https://lizwebb.co.uk/.

Her first novel THE DAUGHTER was published in 2022: ‘One of the best crime books of 2022’ The Sunday Times. ‘Pitch Perfect’ The Daily Mail. She was previously a stand-up comic then BBC radio drama producer.