Librarian Lucas Maxwell draws on his own childhood growing up in Nova Scotia for his YA debut

For 12 years, Lucas Maxwell has been championing children’s books and helping young people at a South London secondary school, where his work as librarian won him the British Empire Medal in 2024. Now, he is stepping into a slightly different role as an author with the release of A Million Tiny Missiles All at Once, his heartfelt coming-of-age story about addiction, family and neurodivergence.

Maxwell’s debut, which won the 2024 Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition (securing a publishing contract and the offer of agent representation), is about an autistic 14-year-old boy growing up in Nova Scotia. Elias is very close to his older brother, Bo, but when Bo starts to get involved in drugs (which is hinted at, not made fully explicit) Elias realises there is a growing gap between them that is tearing the family apart. Meanwhile, Elias’ school is organising a talent competition. He decides that if he can be the best at telling jokes he will win the prize – a meal at a pizza restaurant – and bring the family together again. Of course, life is not that easy, which he learns as the novel progresses.

Maxwell drew heavily on his own upbringing in Nova Scotia, where his dad (like Elias’) was a policeman, lending the novel real emotional authenticity. “This was in rural Canada, so people would drive by and see the police car in the yard and think, ‘I will go there instead of the police station,’” he says. “We had a revolving door of characters [coming to the house], sometimes people at their absolute worst, and I witnessed a lot of it, as did my brother.”

I knew this character, and I knew him really well because it was me at that time

Something Elias does not understand at first is Bo’s addiction to drugs, which is again drawn from real life, because Maxwell’s own brother struggled with addiction. Rather than centring addiction directly, the novel explores it through the eyes of a younger sibling who does not fully comprehend what is happening. “We first meet Bo when he’s 17 and he’s had his vehicle taken away from his parents [and] he’s left his job at the lumber mill. He hides that from his parents and he’s getting involved in things he shouldn’t be. He is going down the path of destruction and can’t seem to get out of it, and then ultimately he gets tied up with people who are kind of scary.”

Elias initially struggles to understand, both because of his young age and because he is neurodivergent. Maxwell was diagnosed with autism at a later age (39) and Elias’ way of looking at the world reflects his own. “I struggled with communication and figuring things out. I struggle with nuance and stuff like that. I knew this character, and I knew him really well because it was me at that time.

“I don’t think I could write a novel that didn’t reflect my own experiences, and I wouldn’t personally feel comfortable creating a neurodivergent character if I wasn’t neurodivergent,” he explains. “I don’t think I even mentioned it initially. I wanted the character to be like this because I don’t know any other way.”

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