NEW!!
Visit the new 'Listener's Corner' to hear a few exerpts from some of my most popular books.
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What
were you like at school? I was shy and not very bright. I travelled in the gleaming wake of an older sister and brother who were both brilliant, so I suppose I was a bit of a disappointment. The teachers (with one exception) certainly made me feel so. You might have thought they would notice that I loved the literature we studied – Keats and Shakespeare and so on – but love did not seem to count for very much. I had a good time, though, writing stories for my mates and reading them out in breaktime. |
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| What did you
want to be when you were a child? A horse. A knight. A North American Indian. A spy. |
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| Which three
words describe you best? Forgetful Fantasist – I forget what else. |
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| What is your
favourite word? euphonious |
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| What makes you
cringe? People explaining jokes . |
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| What are you
afraid of? Spiders (and dying, of course). |
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When did you last have a really good laugh? Watching Daisy lick the dust out of her empty sack of dogfood. You've heard of chicken-in-a-basket? This was dog-in-a-bag. Just a very waggy tail left sticking out. |
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| What is your
most treasured possession? A brooch my best friend Emma made me – a silver Peter Pan – when I wrote Peter Pan in Scarlet. I have to wear it whenever I do anything in public. She died soon after, cycling to work, so be careful, everybody on two wheels: the world can’t do without you. |
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| What do you
do as a hobby? I write. |
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| What do you
day dream about? I have a whole imaginary world I never write about, peopled by all sorts of characters it is good to spend time with. |
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| What profession
other than yours would you like to attempt? I would like to be a photographer for much the same reasons that I write – to capture a moment in time and fix it on paper for ever. |
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| If you could
meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be? Aphra Benn – a woman playwright in Elizabethan times. |
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| What quality
do you most admire in a person? Self-containment – they keep their thoughts and sorrows secret while all about them are prattling on. (oh and I admire anyone who can act or dance, because you always admire most in other people the things you can’t do yourself) |
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| What is the
most interesting place you have ever visited? Albania before it opened up to the outside world. There were machine gun emplacements on the rooftops and signs hanging in all the trees saying “Beware of Spies”. Almost everyone on the expedition turned out to be secretly writing a novel set in Albania, me included. (Mine didn’t get published.) |
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| What is the
best advice anyone has ever given you? Hitch your wagon to a star. |
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| What would you
most like to change about yourself? I’d like to be able to get spoken words out as well as written ones. … Mind you, another good piece of advice I was give was: Don’t apologise for not being able to be someone else. |
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| What has life
taught you? Some people are different from the rest of us – and so are the rest of us. (Clive James said it first, but he’s not wrong) |
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| How long have
you been a writer? I’ve been writing stories since I was 8 – so I suppose I’ve been a writer for 50 years. I’ve been getting published, though for only 30 of those years. |
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| Was there a
specific moment in your life when you decided to become a writer? No. I thought you had to be clever and go to university to be a writer, so it never occurred to me. Why, am I a writer, then? Gosh! |
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| Where do you
do your writing? In bed, if I’m allowed. I used to write in the bath, but now and then the notebook would fall in the water and I would lose weeks of work. |
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| What are the
best and worst things about being an author? The best thing is travelling inside my own head to places I’ve never been and doing things I could never achieve in real life; investing my hero/heroine with all those qualities I don’t have; going on adventures without actually getting killed. What’s worst? Having to get up and talk about it. |
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| Where do you
get your greatest ideas from? Snippets of fact I’ve read or seen on TV. Real Life comes up with much stranger scenarios than anything you could invent just sitting looking at the all and sucking on a pencil. |
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| What
do you do to combat “writers’ block”? If anyone knows, please tell me. |
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| What
was your favourite book as a child? Joseph and his Brothers in Egypt. The illustrations showed men in transparent white skirts with their legs showing. It seemed wonderfully exotic to me. The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell and Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe came later. |
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| What book do
you wish you had written? Jeremiah in the Dark Wood b Allan Ahlberg – perfect spacing, perfect placing of the perfect word. |
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| What advice
would you give to aspiring authors? Don’t do it unless you don’t care two pence whether you get published or not. That way no one can break your heart by rejecting your work. The joy needs to be all in the writing. |
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As
a child I remember enjoying The Ship that Flew by Hilda Lewis
as well as horsey books like Silver Brumby and historical novels
by Rosemary Sutcliffe. I think now that Alan Ahlberg's Jeremiah
in the Dark Woods is literally 'perfect' - not a word wrong,
not a comma out of place. My favourite adult books get inside
the heads of each character in turn and makes you like and
understand every single one. |
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I
can sometimes work myself into a good frame of mind by going
to the theatre. It makes me feel things more strongly and see
things in sharper focus. I often also style my characters on
actors because real people don't use their faces and voices
as much as actors on a stage; they exaggerate movements and
expressions in the same way a writer needs to. |
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Home,
definitely, though I do like hot sun and blue-sea-side and bright,
bright light. I get gloomy in the winter. |
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The
first one I remember is the Orchard book of Greek Myths.
I didn't really start to appreciate the novels until
I was 11 or so. Now I really like the fact that I am
the first person to see them. Mum tries them out on me.
She even believes me when I tell her what needs changing!
My favourites are The White Darkness, A Pack of Lies
and Not the End of the World. One day I'm determined
to act in one of her plays.
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Daisy,
a Golden Retriever. Until recently we had never had pets - except
for fan-tail
doves which the neighbourhood cats quickly ate. |
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English Literature
- though it was better at college, where the teachers asked what
we thought of the books instead of telling us. |
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I write. The
only time I get really miserable is when I can't get any work done.
I only put off working when a novel is proving really difficult and
I know the day's writing won't go right. |
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I'd like to
write more plays - for stage and radio and schools. Maybe Peter Pan
will give me the chance. I'd like to get on a train or Tube or bus
and see
the passenger opposite reading a book of mine. One day! |
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Geraldine McCaughrean Copyright 2006© |
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Featured Books |
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The
Death Defying Pepper Roux |
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U
S Edition On Sale January 19 2010 |
