Lauren James went from a scientist to bestselling author. Now she’s back with her new Young Adult novel, The Quiet at the End of the World.

“I wanted to tell a story about how vulnerable life is when the human race is an endangered species on the brink of extinction. And how easily the smallest thing could push it over the edge,” she said talking about her inspiration for the book.

“As a writer, I didn’t want to write a dystopia full of villains and evil governments (there’s enough of that in real life). I just wanted to write about humanity in isolation.” Lauren wanted to put a twist on the apocalypse setting and focus on the quiet after the storm when there is nothing left to do than to live a happy life in the time you have left.

This London-based book is about Lowrie and Shen, the youngest people in the world after a virus caused global infertility. Surrounded by an ageing community, humanity is on the edge of extinction – until a secret is uncovered and the two must decide what they are willing to sacrifice to save the human race.

Lowrie is a suited and booted, treasure-hunting, tomboy who always has some tools on hand. She is accompanied by Shen, a Chinese, alien enthusiast and bookworm.

Lauren has a theme in her books to include multimedia content. There’s been fan fiction, emails, and letters from past and The Quiet at the End of the World will continue this trend. The book has a plotline set eighty-five years earlier which will be told through social media posts.

Lauren was in her last year of university studying chemistry and physics when she got a book deal, taking her hobby of writing into an amazing career.

When she began writing she was just doing it to relax when she wasn’t studying at university. Writing was so different from the course she was on, it was easy to do. “There was no pressure to write something good. I was just writing for myself, telling myself a bedtime story after classes,” Lauren said.

She’d never planned to become an author that’s why she didn’t study Creative Writing or English. At the time, she wanted to keep it as her hobby and rather than turn it into work. But Lauren’s love for writing took over, turning her into a published author.

When it came to writing her second novel, she described it as being ‘twenty times harder’ because she’d gotten a book deal and suddenly there was a lot of pressure. “I had to push past a lot of fear which had never been there before.”

“Most of the YA I read is female written and intrinsically feminist, even if it’s not about that. I find it very hard to read books written for an adult audience now -not because it’s too complex or mature, but because it doesn’t have that level of feminism and equality embedded in the text,” she said explaining what draws her to read and write Young Adult fiction.

However, Lauren never intended to write for this audience. She was just writing for herself, as a hobby, it just so happened that at the time of writing her first novel she was a young adult.

“I’m so glad I ended up writing YA though, it’s such a loving and considerate community that’s creating really innovative work,” she added.

If Lauren hadn’t gone into writing, she’d most likely be a research scientist focusing on physical chemistry. So, it’s no surprise that science is a big part of her books. Not only do they each have scientific elements to the plot, but each book has featured a female scientist.

She’s spoken to many teenagers over the years about their enthusiasm about science, but many don’t progress to university levels. That’s why she likes to have scientists in her books that are just ordinary people who have a love for science but who might not know their stuff. Someone who can fail but still get up again to encourage everyone who wants to go into science to give it a go.

“I think there’s a danger of having hugely clever characters like the Doctor be the only representation of female scientists in the media because it implies you need to be a genius to study science.”

Lauren thinks media representation is a big part of why girls are less likely than boys to be dawn to scientific studies. Typically, in films and books scientists are portrayed as nerds, especially male nerds. It’s not seen as cool to study science.

Lauren was one of the only girls in her physics class at the age of 16. That being said, she thinks that school are doing a great job in trying to encourage girls into studying science. “I was a member of a female computer programming after school class when I was 14, which was incredibly inspiring for me,” she recalls, adding that having her peers doing the same things you want to can be a big encouragement.

Lauren James’ The Quiet at the End of the World is out in March 2019.