There are many examples of stories about twins (or triplets, in one case), both in fiction and real life. As a writer, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of twins, and I’m clearly not the only one. These are some of the stories I had in mind while I was writing about Debbie and Ruth.
Three Identical Strangers
This documentary, about male triplets who were all adopted separately and didn’t know about one another until they were in their late teens, is an extraordinary watch and set the wheels in motion for my novel. It made me question what it might be like to discover you had a twin later in life, which is what led me to create Ruth and Debbie.
The Parent Trap
I never watched either version of this film (1961 or 1998) as a kid, but I watched the more recent one, starring Lindsay Lohan as both twins, with my daughter while I was writing this book. The premise is that twins have been raised separately by one parent each with no knowledge of one another until they meet at camp one summer.
Beside Myself by Ann Morgan
This novel is about child twins who agree to swap identities for a day. At the end of the day, one twin refuses to swap back. I found it slightly terrifying that it could be so easy to switch from being the less dominant twin to being the more dominant one, with no one outside the twin relationship aware of the change.
Tell Me Who I am
This documentary deals with a man who has memory loss following an accident and whose twin fills in the gaps for him but leaves out the traumatic elements of their childhood. When the man initially wakes up, he recognises his twin immediately despite not knowing his own name.