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1. You have written one war trilogy-the Some Other War trilogy (First World War); the opening volume of the Shouting Wind trilogy is set during WorldWar II; and both The Nowhere Girl and your latest novel, Flightsend, explore connections between contemporary characters and the wartime past. Can you explain your interest in the theme of war?
Both wars interest me because they were a time of tremendous social change and upheaval, the First World War in particular. That's why I began "Some Other War" with a very traditional set-up - the Essex village, the large country house and the twin brother and sister who are employed there as groom and maidservant. That very English way of life, for which we have a kind of collective nostalgia in spite of its blatant social inequalities, was about to disappear. In "Some Other War" I used both a male and a female viewpoint; in "The Shouting Wind" I specifically wanted to write about Bomber Command from a female perspective, that of a young WAAF. In wartime, ordinary people do extraordinary things, and I wanted to show the bravery of women, for example Kay's mother in the flying bomb raid. In the other two novels you mention, both with contemporary settings, I wanted to show how the past brushes against the present; in "The Nowhere Girl", it's the impact of the German occupation on a village in rural Normandy, rather than actual combat. There are at least two more stories still to be published …
2. We'll talk specifically about the wartime books later. But let's begin with your new book, Flightsend. Many a novel has been written about the effect of separation and divorce on child characters, often with children despising a newly-arrived step-parent. But not so many have touched on the fonder feelings which children can develop for step-parents, particularly when a new relationship breaks down. Did you especially set out to deal with this aspect of family relationships.
I didn't begin with such a plan, no. My original intention was that Charlie's mother, Kathy, had recently parted with Sean, but that Sean wouldn't appear in the story. Once I started writing, though, and made him a P.E. teacher at Charlie's school, he became more important than I had expected, and now is crucial to the development of the novel. I started to think about how the relationship between him and Charlie would be seen by others; he wasn't married to her mother, so there's no official term for his relationship to Charlie now, but she misses him painfully, and doesn't know what to expect when she sees him at school. Her five-year relationship with him has been abruptly terminated; because of her mother's breakdown, no one has thought of how this will affect her.
3. Flightsend is a compelling novel, in terms of both character and setting. Indeed, there is something so knowing about your portrait of the girl Charlie's yearning for a rapprochement between her mother and Sean that the reader is tempted to believe the book was written out of an intimate knowledge of such situations. Is this the case? Sean is a teacher, and the point in the book when he is told by the headteacher that any public display of familiarity with Charlie would be unwise is very telling.
No, there's nothing like that in my own background! But the warning from the headteacher does draw on my knowledge of things that happen in schools. There's been a lot of publicity recently about pupil-teacher relationships, not least the one involving Chris Woodhead. Of course the Sean-Charlie relationship is completely innocent, and it comes as a shock to both of them to realise that it could be seen otherwise.
4. The book is told from Charlie's point of view, and the mother, who is in a withdrawn state, is shown at one remove. And yet the reader gains a very strong picture of the woman. This is partly achieved by the references to her gardening, and her plant selling. What other aspects of the narrative do you feel helped achieve this strong characterisation?
Charlie feels that Kathy has disregarded everyone's advice in making several drastic changes - breaking up with Sean, moving out to the remote village, giving up her job. Yet Charlie feels obliged to support her, and because of this feels herself to be more mature and responsible than many people her age. Her sympathy for Sean, and her desire to have a normal teenage life of her own, occasionally make her lose sympathy for her mother, seeing her as obstinate, awkward or self-centred. There is constant friction between them, even though Charlie usually succeeds in keeping it low-key. And yes, the gardening is a kind of metaphor for Kathy's recovery.
5. There are references to Jane Austen in the course of the novel, which is written in a quiet and unhurried style. When you wrote it did you feel you were writing for a broadly feminine audience, or at least one that was primarily interested in subtle domestic drama? And what do you feel about the cover, which, if you'll forgive the observation, is very 'romantic fiction'.
When writing, I don't think much about who will read the book - perhaps I ought to! Now, having finished it, of course I can see that it will be read by girls, though I hope not exclusively. All three males who have read it so far (pre-publication) have had positive things to say about it! I'm not sure what you mean by "romantic fiction" - I don't think anyone would confuse it with series-type teen romance. All I know is that if I saw it in a bookshop, I'd pick it up and have a look. The picture looks to me intriguing rather than romantic - and in fact the encounter shown isn't a romantic one at all. Scholastic have recently found me my "own" artist - her name is Anne Magill and I think she's terrific at capturing atmosphere. She's also done the lovely new cover for the Point edition of "The Nowhere Girl", which I'm sure will get it off the shelves and into readers' hands.
6. Re-reading that title, the Carnegie-nominated The Nowhere Girl (1997), which, as you say, is due to be reissued by Scholastic in August, I was struck by the number of parallels between it and Postcards from No Man's Land (1999) by Aidan Chambers. In America, Young Adult fiction is regularly used in the classroom. This can sometimes mean that Medal-winning books immediately become worthy and educational. On the other hand, there is a tremendous amount of first-rate teenage fiction published in the UK which is never properly read or studied. If I were a teacher of English in a secondary school, I would want to get a class to read your novel alongside the Aidan Chambers book, to compare the different viewpoints. As a writer of Young Adult fiction, what's your view about its profile in secondary schools?
Aidan Chambers is a writer I admire enormously, so I'm very pleased by your comparison. And I heartily agree with what you say about teenage fiction in this country. There are a number of factors which contribute to its neglect. The prescriptiveness of the National Curriculum now limits the time available for current fiction in schools, requiring teachers to move on quickly from one tick-box to the next. Although I believe the National Curriculum has brought some benefits, this is one of its major drawbacks. It infuriated me when David Blunkett issued a peremptory statement that boys should read adventure stories like Coral Island, and were put off literature by being made to read Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. If he knew anything about current publishing, children or reading, he'd be recommending Robert Swindells, Morris Gleitzman and Philip Pullman. And if he believes that the novels of Austen and Bronte are wimpish or soppy, then he knows nothing about them and should keep quiet.
I think, too, that many teachers undervalue teenage fiction - since, quite understandably, the pressures of their work don't leave much time for keeping up with new publications. Many English teachers I know put pressure on children to move on to adult fiction too young, giving the impression that teenage fiction is childish or an easy option. This is far from true, as Aidan Chambers' books amply illustrate.
7. You organise writing courses for children. In Flightsend Charlie works at an adult education centre, and there is an amusing interlude when one of the courses is run by a writer "stout and fierce-looking, with orangey lipstick, and iron-grey hair pinned back and fastened in a bun." Charlie overhears her talking about Rottweilers, and thinks she ought to be running a Dog Obedience Class rather than a writers' group. Presumably your own writers' classes bear no resemblance to Dog Obendience Classes?(!)
I hope not! I find the writing workshops tremendously rewarding, especially now that I'm involved with such a wide age-range, from year 4 to adults. Children of primary age are amazingly responsive and uninhibited, which gives freshness and vitality to their writing. Also, the courses have introduced me to new friends, poets Fred Sedgwick and John Cotton, who each time give me renewed inspiration for getting children to write well.
8. Whistling Jack is an amusing story for younger children about a dog, Roger, who becomes separated from his canal-boat owner. Their mutual efforts to find one another again have a slapstick element. When one goes back through the tunnel, the other travels in the opposite direction overhead. Anthony Lewis's illustrations help make this a minor classic of the short humorous tale. Were you especially pleased with this book? And was it based on any actual incident?
Yes, I am pleased with "Whistling Jack", and Anthony Lewis's illustrations are perfect. I spent a week's holiday on a narrow-boat with my husband and two friends a while ago, and recently the same friends visited Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum with us, on the Grand Union canal. We were standing by the mouth of the tunnel wondering what would be the name of the next boat to come through. I said "Whistling Jack," and started thinking about the story from there.
9. Ice Cat, another of your books for younger readers and notable for featuring a father who has become something of an invalid, was not (in my view) quite so successfully illustrated or presented. It's the kind of story which almost needed long picture book treatment. Can you explain how the idea for this book came to you, and how it developed from that point through to its finished state?
Long picture book treatment would be great! "Ice Cat" is due to be re-issued in the autumn, with a more striking cover. I have to thank my husband for this story! One snowy day in winter we were cooking in the kitchen when the cat-flap opened and in came one of our cats, Hamish, dripping wet snow on to the floor. My husband said, "Ice cat," and I thought, "Hmmm ... " I started with the idea of a boy making a snowman that turned into a cat, the ice cat coming to life at night; and then I wondered what the sinister, prowling cat would mean to the boy; why his imagination had conjured it. That's when the invalid father came in.
10. 'The Shouting Wind', the first volume of your second-war trilogy, is an enormously impressive novel, justifiably nominated for the 1996 Carnegie Medal and included in the Children's Book Pick of the Year. It is exactly the kind of Young Adult novel which could be enjoyed as much by a 70 yr. old as by a 17 yr. old. Did you wish it could have been marketed for adults as well as older children?
I wish it had been marketed at all ... But in fact it DID reach some adults - I had letters from war veterans, ex-WAAFS and one member of the House of Lords! I hope lots of editors are reading your comments, especially "enormously impressive novel" (thanks!) - it would be great to see it back in print!
11. I know you are disappointed that the whole trilogy has gone so quickly out of print. You wrote recently to Books for Keeps on the subject of publishers cutting backlists, and the pernicious effect that this has, particularly on writers of teenage fiction. Would you care to elaborate?
I'm not the only writer who is occasionally plunged into gloom because of the short lives of teenage books. At least one author I know, who has written many excellent novels for teenagers, has turned away from that area to concentrate on younger fiction. I can understand why. My books for young readers sell far more copies, sell more readily for translation, earn me a great deal more in royalties and from library loans, and have longer lives than my teenage books.
If my sole purpose in writing was to make money, I'd have given up writing teenage novels long ago. But I wouldn't mind the disparity in earnings if the teenage books stayed around. It's particularly disappointing when books which I'd consider to have lasting relevance (like "Some Other War" and "The Shouting Wind") are allowed to disappear so quickly. As I said in the Books for Keeps letter, I'm often asked by secondary schools to talk about those novels - how I did my research, why I've written about wartime, etc. The only consolation is that the books do still have a life in schools and libraries, even if pupils can't buy copies of their own.
I'm pleased that my teenage novels are now published by Scholastic, who are committed to quality fiction for this age group, even if sales aren't high. The arrival of Internet bookshops such as Amazon will soon start to make a difference, as most of them include backlist titles. And, of course, ACHUKA is very good at publicising reissues and authors' backlists. I hope these factors will eventually encourage publishers to give books a longer life.
12. Which time period in The Shouting Wind trilogy did you feel most comfortable writing about, and do you think it shows?
I'd probably say the middle one - "The Cliff Path" - because Abigail was a teenager at around the time I was. Although I didn't do the stupider things she does, I do have fond memories of hippy culture in the late sixties and early seventies. It's the only book in which I've made specific reference to rock groups and songs - Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, etc. At one point I wanted to include part of the lyrics for "A Free Man in Paris", but Joni Mitchell wouldn't let me! I like bolshie Abigail - she is far less cautious than either of the other two in the trilogy. But I enjoyed writing all three books, because they were so different.
13. In addition to war, Ireland is also a recurring theme in your books. On the Acknowledgements page of The Wearing of the Green (the final volume of the Some Other War trilogy, you refer to particular research and background reading. Did the Irish interest stem entirely from library research?
No - I have Irish connections on my mother's side, though we don't know much about them. My grandfather is called Percy Patrick and was born on St. Patrick's Day! I've visited Ireland several times now, and I particularly love the west coast. I'm proud to have climbed Carrauntuohil, the highest mountain in Ireland, and also Croagh Patrick, accompanied by my mountain-leader friend Pakie O'Callaghan from Cork, who did the climb in bare feet and made me recite Hail Marys at various points on the way up. I am fascinated by the intricacies of the Irish situation before and after the First World War, and in "The Wearing of the Green" I wanted to portray a character, Patrick, who is torn between his sympathies with the Irish revolutionaries and his duty to the English army. In "Riddle Me This" I explored a similar division of loyalty through Catherine's involvement with two men, one a shell-shocked Englishman, the other a young Irishman with revolutionary sympathies whose brother died on the Somme.
14. In the back of the same book you describe how the idea for one novel gradually grew into a project which resulted in a series of novels, encompassing a range of viewpoints (male, female, Irish). Do you find it difficult to contain ideas?
I suppose so, partly because I'm such a bad planner. I don't like planning my novels and rarely do much at all now, other than having an overall idea of the shape. I start by thinking of place and character, and let the story grow from there. This means that I sometimes get into difficulties with the plot, or have to do drastic revision once I know how things turn out. I find revising my books very rewarding, so I don't mind having to re-work. With "The Nowhere Girl", I got to a point, about two chapters from the end, where I couldn't think how to finish - poor Cass was in such a dreadful state that I didn't see how she'd ever start to get herself out of it. But I like the fact that almost every book starts me off in a new direction, and produces ideas for more.
15. Later this year, Transworld will be publishing Star's Turn, a Young Corgi Pup. What can you tell us about this book?
That I wrote it one very wet morning in a hotel cafe in the Dordogne!
16. What are you currently working on?
I've almost finished the first draft of a new young adult novel, "The Damage Done", which is to be published next year by Scholastic - but I have a superstitious dislike of talking about books before they're finished, so that's all I'm saying. Also, Chris d'Lacey and I have written a book together by e-mail - "From e to you", which is to be published next April. Fortunately, Chris and I like to work in the same way - we did no planning at all for this book, but just played off each other. It was fascinating - totally different from anything else I've ever done, and one of its strengths is that the voices of the two characters are completely different. We've got a few oddities to sort out over the next few weeks. Besides that, I'm working intermittently on an adult novel, though I can only do that when I have unrestricted time to spend on it. As that doesn't happen very often, it's on hold at the moment.
17. Can you describe a typical writing day?
I get straight out of bed and start work - ideally at 5.30 a.m., sometimes not till 6. That's my most productive time of day. I never do much at a stint; two and a half pages at a stretch would be good progress. On a really good day I'd do several bursts, alternating with gardening, and a swim at lunch-time. Swimming lengths is very conducive to thinking and plotting. On a good day, working on and off till last thing at night, I write about 1,200 - 1,800 words. But a day devoted entirely to writing is quite a luxury - more often I do my hour or two in the morning, then go off to teach my classes or visit a school.
18. If you could change one thing about children's books publishing, what would it be?
I wish editors weren't so bound by the limits of their series - I'm not at all good at writing to a prescribed length or style, and often editors will say, "We loved it but it doesn't quite fit into our Starlings / Crackers / Tadpoles series." One editor even asked me to reduce a book to half its length in order to make it fit! I refused, and sent it elsewhere. I can see that these imprints help sales people and booksellers, but they shouldn't become a straitjacket for authors.
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