Sometimes it only takes a stranger in a dark place… to say we have the right to be here, to make us warm in the coldest season.
In 2019, Neil Gaiman asked his Twitter followers: What reminds you of warmth? From the thousands of replies he received, he composed an extraordinary poem in aid of UNHCR’s 2019 winter appeal. This poem will now be available in a beautiful hardback edition, featuring contributions from 13 extraordinary illustrators. Every copy sold will be supporting the work of UNHCR.
What You Need to Be Warm is an exploration of displacement and flight from conflict through the objects and memories that represent warmth in cold times. It is about our right to feel safe, whoever we are and wherever we are from, and about welcoming those who find themselves far from home.
I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of this book and it is so beautiful, the notes from the illustrators (*so* many talented creators) about how they approached their page are very moving. It, unfortunately, remains very pertinent.
There is a celebration at Waterstones Piccadilly on the evening of the 2nd November, I’m sure it will be a wonderful event.
An extraordinary story about friendship and betrayal. Of revenge and retribution but also redemption. Perfect for 11+ readers who enjoy Stranger Things. Hex never meant for the girl to follow him and his friend Tommo into the woods. He never meant for her to fall off the rope swing and break her arm. When the finger of blame is pointed at him, Hex runs deep into the woods and his fierce sense of injustice leads him to a strange clearing in the woods – a clearing that has never been there before – where an old lady in a cottage offers him a deal. She’ll rid the world of those who wronged him and Hex can carry on his life with them all forgotten and as if nothing ever happened. But what Hex doesn’t know is someone else has been offered the same deal.
When Hex’s best friend Tommo wakes up the next day, he is in a completely different world but he only has murmurs of memories of the world before. Moments of deja vu that feel like Tommo’s lived this day before. Can Tommo put the world right again? Back to how it was? Or can he find a way to make a new world that could be better for them all?
The Song From Somewhere Else is a truly beautiful book, in all senses of the word, so when I saw that A.F. was writing another story set in that world also illustrated by Levi Pinfold I was a mixture of “YES PLEASE” and “how can it possibly compare…”. I needn’t have worried though. The Worlds We Leave Behind is completely different but equally enthralling. I asked A.F. Harrold a few questions:
The Worlds We Leave Behind is wonderfully philosophical. I love how you don’t talk down to young readers while also pitching it so as to not go over their heads, do you ever have ideas that you think are too complicated to include in a children’s book?
I imagine there probably are ideas ‘too complicated’ for a kids book, but, much more importantly, there are a million ideas that are perfect. And some of them might look complicated, until you begin to think about them.
I think about the science ideas a writer like Christopher Edge builds his stories around, or Dom Conlon’s Meet Matilda Rocket Builder – perfect books with big complicated ideas behind them. Of course, those are scientific/engineering ideas, and your question began with a thought about philosophy, but I think it’s much the same, and of course, the scientific explanations throw up ethical and psychological questions. Take Chris’s The Many Worlds of Albie Bright – it shows how quantum physics, alternate universes and ethics are all intertwined, and does it with heart and love.
It’s important to remember that we swim in a soup, where none of these subjects and ideas are separate, it’s all mixed up together and you can’t look at one ingredient without bumping into another.
Did you know before you started writing TWWLB that it would be one for Levi Pinfold to illustrate?
Yes. It took a long time for me to find out what I could write next, and the key turned and the spark ignited the moment I realised I could just take a character from our previous book together (The Song from Somewhere Else) and continue their story. And so, since it was continuing that world we’d already spent time in, I wrote it with Levi in mind. That isn’t the same as knowing your publisher will agree to let Levi illustrate it when you hand the story in, however. We were fortunate, though, that my editor, Zöe Griffiths, agreed with me that it ought to be Levi. And even more fortunately, when they approached Levi, he said yes, I think without having actually read it, because we didn’t have a final draft at that point.
Because Levi is such an amazing and in demand illustrator, we knew we had to wait a while before The Worlds We Leave Behind would reach his desk, so Zöe and I were able to work on the story and the text for two years before it reached the final final state. After the first year (draft 3) the story was pretty much what’s in the book, and Levi was in the UK for a rare visit (he lives in Australia), and he came over to my house one afternoon, and we sat in my shed (office at the end of the garden), and I was able to sit with him and tell him the story as we drank tea and looked out at the bare trees. I enjoyed that very much, because he is so delightful a person, so engaged and so talented. He’s about ten years younger than me, but our growing up experiences, in small English towns, kicking around down the rec, were similar enough that we seem to fit together well, and he understands what I’m on about. And then, after that storytelling session, he flew back to Australia and within a couple of weeks the first lockdown was announced and our world changed forever. Zöe and I finessed the 4th draft, the final version, into shape over that summer (while also seeing me and Mini Grey’s The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice to press – a quite different adventure), and it was only the following February (2021) that Levi got to read it (having heard it almost exactly a year before).
It was a long process, but it gave everything time to settle into place, all the words, all the action and then, finally, all the pictures.
How soon in the draft process did you get him involved? Did you note what scenes you would like to have illustrated or leave it entirely up to him?
So, as you see from the previous answer, he wasn’t actually involved (as in drawing), until the writing was all done, but that is misleading, because he was involved from the moment I hit the first key on the keyboard and wrote the word ‘Hex’ at the top of the page. (My works in progress are usually just named for the character, titles are a pain in the bum to be thought about years down the line!) Having done The Song From Somewhere Else together I knew the style Levi draws this world in, I had an idea of how it looks because he’s already shown that to me, and so I was able to write with the thought in my head, ‘What would I like to see Levi draw?’ and so that led us into the forest, that gave us big dogs, that gave us brooding shadows and a fairytale cottage… What would you like to see Levi draw next?
And so, when the time came for illustrating, an editor will normally give an illustrator a brief – we’d like pictures of this scene, that scene and this character, and so on (spaced out evenly through the story, one per chapter, or whatever). But with Levi (and with Emily Gravett, in the books I’ve done with them), because these are intended to be highly illustrated and because the illustrator is of such quality (and know what they’re doing and won’t be daft and draw thirty pictures for the first ten pages and nothing for the next 200!), I think we’re much more inclined to just let them go and do what they want.
Of course, the process involves roughs and we might make suggestions at that stage, nudging things this way or that, and we get a feel for the shape of it and ask for scenes that have been missed and so on. And then you get the great joy of seeing final art come in, and then I’m able to do little edits in the text to match the things Levi’s drawn better (Hex in jeans, rather than shorts, for example), and I couldn’t be happier seeing what my little words inspired from his magnificent fingers! Gosh but he’s a master.
Interior illustration by Levi Pinfold
Do you have different routines when writing a novel vs poetry, or humour vs atmosphere? Do you favour one over the other?
When I’m working on a (first draft of a) novel, I do try to do something every day. I discovered for this one that getting up very early and writing before going for my daily walk, before looking at e-mails or the internet, was the way to go. I’d come down to my shed, through the silent sunlit morning (it was April/May 2019, and beautiful), put on Morton Feldman’s Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello and spend some time with Hex and Tommo and the others, and then I can get on with my day. And if I’ve done that, made that early start, I can usually return to the manuscript during the day and do some more.
If, on the other hand, I have let the world step in front first (opened an e-mail, written an invoice…) then I’ll never be able to settle to writing that day. (Editing and rewriting, that’s easy to dip in and out of, but writing new stuff… that’s hard and fickle.) Poems, on the other hand, because of their snackability, they’re much easier to sit down and have a go at at any time. Part of the joy is, of course, that if it doesn’t work you can throw it away and you’ve only lost half an hour, and if it did work… brilliant, you’ve got a new thing in your hand and in your head, that didn’t exist before! There’s a lot less pressure on any individual poem to be good, and so it’s much easier to simply give it a go.
What kind of events do you most enjoy doing?
I like performing poems and being funny. Comedy for kids without the safety net.
What are you reading at the moment and who would you recommend it to?
I’ve just read Gareth P Jones’ No True Echo (2015) (which I read about in a review of TWWLB), a great mind-bending alternative world time travel looping story, for (I guess) maybe 11+ with a good grip on what’s real. Then I read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (1977), which I’d seen the movie of, but had never read, and it was as moving and heart-sinking as I expected, and typically and nostalgically American – it’s not my culture, not my world, but it’s so familiar from TV and films – which I’d recommend for anyone with a heart who yearns for freedom. And I’ve just finished Wolfstongue by Sam Thompson and illustrated by Anna Tromop (2021), which is your perfectly normal boy-meets-talking-wolf-and-rescues-it-from-the-talking-foxes-and-finds-his-life’s-turned-upside-down-and-he’s-involved-in-a-mythic-battle-underground sort of story, for any kid who likes that sort of thrilling adventure.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’ve written a sort of creepy ghost story story, which I’m waiting to hear if my publisher likes enough to publish. Fingers crossed.
A.F. Harrold
Levi Pinfold
Thank you to Nina Douglas for organising a review copy and the opportunity for a Q&A with A.F. Harrold. THE WORLDS WE LEAVE BEHIND was published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books on 4 August (9781526623881/ £12.99 hardback).
The Hideaway tells the story of a boy, Billy McKenna, who runs away from a difficult situation at home and takes refuge in an overgrown graveyard. While hiding there he meets an elderly man who is tending the graves in preparation for a day in November when something magical is set to happen.
The book is written in two alternating narratives, both different aspects of the same story. One thread tells of Billy’s experience of hiding away in the graveyard, his mixed-up feelings and emotions, and the supernatural events he eventually witnesses. The other tells of his mother’s situation at home and the police search for Billy. Covering themes of family, childhood, separation and reunion, domestic violence and doing the right thing, this is an important and beautiful book for middle grade readers right up to adults.
Billy’s story is illustrated throughout with tonal and textured black and white drawings, until the event on All Souls’ Eve, when the text gives way to a series of double page images of the supernatural happening.
The Hideaway is a compelling, exciting and emotional story that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.
Pam Smy is such an interesting illustrator, Thornhill is a wonderfully unique book (shortlisted for the Carnegie Award), so I was very excited to be sent a review copy of her 2nd novel The Hideaway…which is haunting and sad and uplifting and will really stay with you…and then even more excited to ask her a few questions! And of course, the most appropriate book to highlight for Halloween!
Which aspect of The Hideaway came to you first?
The scene-setting of The Hideaway came to me first. The graveyard where it is set is a real place here in Cambridge, and it has the chapel in the middle, the row of yew trees, the poem carved into the back wall, and most importantly, the World War 2 pillbox. The combination of the meaning of the poem All Souls’ Night by Frances Cornford and the idea that someone could use the pillbox to hide away sparked the idea for the book.
Thornhill was alternate chapters, a wholly illustrated contemporary voice and a historical diary, while The Hideaway is an illustrated story. Did you draw and write at the same time or had you mainly got the words down before choosing which sections to illustrate?
With Thornhill I wrote the text and made the rough drawings for the story in turn, so both elements of the story evolved at the same time. With The Hideaway I wrote the manuscript first, and then illustrated it – but I knew that I wanted there to be a wordless sequence in it from the outset and I knew what I wanted the feeling of the graveyard to look like in the illustrations.
Do you lay out the pages alone or with a designer?
For The Hideaway I worked directly into an InDesign document so that I could move the text around the illustrations I was making, and the very patient designer, Ness Wood, tidied it all up at the end.
They’re both a bit spooky with extremely atmospheric illustrations, very suitable for Halloween season, is the supernatural your favourite genre to read?
I read a variety of books. I love books about people and relationships, and stories that are set in the past or in rural environments. I also love crime novels. I read a lot of picture books and illustrated books of all kinds for all ages. I wouldn’t say that I especially read supernatural books, although they are certainly on my bookshelf.
I think I am drawn to write and illustrate spooky books because I love making atmospheric artwork, and building a world that is based on the everyday, but is different from what we may typically see – but without tipping into fantasy or sci-fi.
You’ve also published a picture book, Merrylegs! Three very different books, which was most enjoyable to work on?
I enjoyed making the artwork to The Hideaway the best. I was trying to work without using much linework – so it was a new challenge for me.
The Mermaid in the Millpond, written by Lucy Strange and illustrated by you, is being published in January by Barrington Stoke. Do you find it easier or harder when the words aren’t your own?
Both easier and harder. If I am illustrating my own ideas the vision of those illustrations is already in my head, and the excitement and the challenge is to get that across on paper. When I am illustrating someone else’s writing it is a joy to be able to bring to life the words, and to add atmosphere or understanding to what is being described. I love illustrating other people’s texts, especially if the art direction and design layout isn’t too prescriptive and I have a little bit of a free reign.
What are you reading at the moment and who would you recommend it to?
I am reading and re-reading Captain Rosalie by Timothee de Fombelle, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. I am recommending it to everyone I know, and buying copies of it to send to my friends. I think everyone who is 6 and over should read it. It is a beautiful piece of writing and Arsenault’s illustrations are absolutely stunning. Also by my bedside is While You’re Sleeping by Mick Jackson and John Broadley, and All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison.
What might we see from you next?
I am working on developing a few collaborations at the moment which I am VERY excited about, but can’t say anything about yet.
The Hideaway by Pam Smy is published by Pavilion Books, out now, 14.99 hardback.
Tatenda says thank you every day, wherever he can. Thank you to Mom and Dad for making breakfast, thank you to the post lady for delivering his favorite comic, thank you to his teacher for marking his work and thank you to the shop worker stacking shelves. But lately, it seems no one can hear his thank yous: their heads are too foggy with worry. So Tatenda decides to say his biggest “Thank you” ever. He stands on tiptoe, brings his arms down like a huge rainbow . . . and this time, his thank you helps the whole community feel better!
Thank You, with words by Joseph Coelho and pictures by Sam Usher
THANK YOU is a beautiful book. Joseph was inspired by the Clap for Carers during lockdown and royalties from the book are being donated to Groundwork UK, a federation of charities nationwide “mobilising practical community action on poverty and the environment”. Sam Usher’s illustrations are full of movement and so joyful, really bringing the words to life.
I’ve long loved Joseph Coelho, as a performer and writer, and when Frances Lincoln offered the chance to interview him about THANK YOU I jumped at the chance, while cheekily asking him about other recent titles with other publishers as well – he really is unstoppable at the moment!
The last few years have seen you publish poetry collections, novels, and picture books (as well as plays) for all ages of children and young people! When you have an idea, do you immediately know what you want to do with it or does the form come as you start writing? What a super question. I don’t know immediately it’s a bit of trial and error, I have found however that if a story is deep enough it can often work for several mediums. Such as my poem If All The World Were Paper which was first published in Werewolf Club Rules but became a starting point for my picture book with Allison Colpoys If All The World Were...
THANK YOU is full of movement. Did you have an idea of how it should be illustrated or did you hand the text to Sam Usher to run with? All picture books are really a collaboration between writer, illustrator, designer and editor so it’s hugely important that there is space for everyone to express themselves through the book. I am now in the habit of not thinking too much about the visuals, I focus on making sure the text works by itself, that the story is clear with or without illustrations so that the illustrator has scope to really put their mark on the book.
THE GIRL WHO BECAME A TREE, Otter Barry Books, is strikingly illustrated by Kate Milner
What is it about Daphne’s story that inspired you to write THE GIRL WHO BECAME A TREE? I’ve always been interested in physical transformations as metaphor for internal change. It’s poetry made manifest. So when I came across the greek myth of Daphne it felt like the ideal subject for a story I’d been working on about a girl dealing with the death of her father. As with all the myths there are so many layers and ways to interpret that it felt like a gift to explore through poetry.
ZOMBIERELLA is deliciously different, first of a 3 part series, but are there other fairy tales you would like to retell? There are! Book 2 is based on Rumplestiltskin and is called Frankenstiltskin. I have many ideas in development for many of the other tales some of which get a mention by the Librarian at the start of Zombierella who has discovered a section of the library full of fairytales that have gone bad, so I have a library to fill!
ZOMBIERELLA, Walker Books, is brilliantly illustrated by Freya Hartas
What is your favourite kind of event to do with/for children? How have you found digital events? I love doing festival events with large audiences, you get a real sense of togetherness and occasion. I thrive off of getting large audiences to interact with each other. I love the joy that can be generated as students hear their peers from different schools coming up with poetic lines or add to a group poem with people they’ve only just met. Making everything digital has been interesting, it’s definitely far more time consuming than expected with even a five minute video taking the best part of a day but it is wonderful that we have this technology available to get us through these difficult periods.
Librarians across the country are so grateful for your enormous support, what drives that passion? Libraries have always featured heavily in my life, from living on estates where I had a library next door, to my first Saturday job, to working at the British library whilst studying at UCL, to touring theatre shows designed to be performed in libraries. I’m immensely grateful to libraries and the services they provide for turning me into a reader and by association a writer. I also sincerely believe that library provision it key to helping communities thrive so it really is an honour to be in a position where I can celebrate these wonderful spaces.
One of my favourite pages from THANK YOU
What are you reading at the moment and who would you recommend it to? I’m a serial dipper and always have several books on the go at present I’m reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, a book that everyone should read. I’m also reading an anthology of short stories on the theme of the sea published by the British Library called From The Depths and Other Strange Tales Of The Sea Edited by Mike Ashley – Recommended for anyone who likes a shot of creepy adventure. I’m also a big book listener and am currently listening to Children Of Time By Adrian Tchaikovsky for all sci-fi fans who aren’t scared of spiders!
What can we expect from you next? I have a busy year ahead with book 2 of Fairytales Gone Bad and some more picture books coming out. I’m also working on a brand new middle grade adventure series which is yet to be read by anyone! Eeeek! But I love this period because at the moment it’s just me telling a story to myself or rather hearing characters tell me their story.
Joe Coelho Portraits Hay Festival 2018
Joseph Coelho is an award winning poet and performer from London, although he now lives by the sea. In 2019 he won the Independent Bookshop Week Picture Book Award for If All the World Were. He has been long-listed for The Carnegie Children’s Award with his poetry collection ‘Overheard In A Tower Block’, which was also shortlisted for the CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award and Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards. He won the 2015 CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award with his debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules. His debut Picture Book, Luna Loves Library Day was voted one of the nations favourite picture books by a survey led by World Book Day. His other poetry books include How To Write Poems and A Year Of Nature Poems
I have been a fan of Nobrow and their picture book imprint Flying Eye Books for a good few years now. I have reviewed a number of their titles (you can find the reviews here and here). I have written about them for the Federation of Children’s Book Groups here. I have interviewed their authors and illustrators and championed their books for years as they produce works of quality and beauty that catch the eye of readers of all ages. I have used them to turn reluctant readers on to the joys of reading many times over the years.
Over the past few days on twitter I found severalthreads accusing them of exploiting new and upcoming authors & illustrators and acting in a less than ethical manner against other small press publishers. Several years ago at a publisher event in London I was chatting to a publicist and mentioned that I was a fan of their work and the publicist (off the record) asked if I had heard the rumours about their low payment of creators and claiming rights to works created by authors and illustrators they published. I said that I had not and thereafter dug around but was never able to find anything about this so I marked it as unproven and moved on.
Below is a screenshot of an email allegedly sent by Alexander Latsis in 2013
Illustrator Lucy Haslam has been creating an epic twitter thread about ELCAF (the East London Comic Art Festival) and Nobrow. It is definitely worth a read for detailed background information about what has been happening for a number of years.
Illustrator Eleni Kalorkoti tweeted this about an offer from Nobrow in 2018:
For what it’s worth, here‘s an offer I received from Flying Eye/Nobrow in Nov 2018. It was not hard to turn down as they were offering a total of £3000 for a somehow mysteriously unquantifiable number of illustrations. pic.twitter.com/Hl8basB5ub
This discussion was not a total pile-on, several creators spoke up positively about their interactions with Nobrow, including CILIP Kate Greenaway winning illustrator William Grill:
I can only speak from my point of view, I’ve had a positive experience working with them and feel this thread has gotten a little carried away along with some misinformation. Good that you’re concerned for artists rights but I don’t think this is all completely fair or balanced
Is publishing easy to get into and make a living? No. It isn't. I wish it was but it takes a long time, a mountain of hard work and a huge amount of patience.
I drew my first book with a friend in 2009 for @NobrowPress. It was a screen printed edition of 100.
The quoted tweet is in response to an ongoing Twitter thing of criticising publisher Nobrow. My own experience of Nobrow was positive. I have become more understanding of the challenges of publishing having lived long enough to see several of my publishers go bust. pic.twitter.com/TVXtOPNoHB
It should definitely be read in full. In the statement they challenge the claims that their contracts are unfair and have promised to do research into comparative advances and royalties. They also go on to deny that they do not prevent their creators from working with other publishers and state that the screenshot of the e-mail was released without permission and out of context although it is hard to imagine what the context was without further information about that discussion as the e-mail alone appears to be pretty damning.
The full statement rather than allaying the fears and allegations seems to have inflamed opinion in more areas, with Paul Duffield‘s take being worth a read:
Lovely to see Nobrow respond to accusations of aggressive gaslighty behaviour with *checks post* aggressive gaslighty behaviour.
— P.Duffield🔥KickstarterOn🔥 (@paul_duffield) April 28, 2020
When this type of situation erupts it is not always easy to identify who is in the right, I support small publishers and creator rights but I think in this instance the number of dissenting voices that have been raised about unfair treatment as well as those raised in defense show that this situation is not clear cut to outside observers. I think that Valerie Pezeron‘s views as laid out in the thread below most closely match up with mine – they are definitely worth a read.
Regarding Nobrow controversy – there really is a wider problem with the creative industries at large. I’ve worked in fashion, publishing, film…the trend of businesses building their reputation off the back of graduates who work for free or bare minimum wage is an not new 1/
The vocalization of the long-term unhappiness of many of the authors and illustrators is an indication that people are no longer going to be quiet if they perceive themselves to be treated unfairly, this is good as it can act as a warning to others that may find themselves in a similar situation and can strengthen collective bargaining if enough creators band together. We may be witnessing the birth of unionisation in the author/illustrator world beyond what the Society of Authors and other groups that already exist.
I remain a fan of many of the authors and illustrators published by Nobrow, but this fandom is now tinged with a concern over what they may have experienced during the creation of their works for their publisher. Is it a fair and rational feeling? I don’t know, but it is human to have concern for the welfare of others and I am also concerned for those currently furloughed by the publisher and for everyone else impacted by the Covid-19 shutdowns across the world.
Sandie has been battling it since her childhood; the hulking, snarling black dog of her nightmares. Although her precious pet dog Rabbie may have fought back against this monster for years, when he is no longer there to protect her the black dog will return and Sandie’s nightmare will come back to haunt her…
Barrington Stoke are this month posthumously publishing their second Mal Peet novella, Good Boy. Both have been illustrated by Emma Shoard, and The Family Tree has been longlisted for the 2019 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Good Boy on the 2020 list, I was sent a copy and read it holding my breath, that final page left me stunned for a few minutes. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to ask Emma some questions…
Hi Emma, welcome to TeenLibrarian and thank you for giving up your time to undergo the third degree!
Can you tell us how you came to illustrate this book?
The commission from Barrington Stoke to illustrate Good Boy came at the same time as The Family Tree; two Mal Peet novellas as a pair. It was a very exciting moment for me as I’d heard suggestions that I was being considered for the job about a year before but had to wait to find out for sure. I’m not exactly sure how I was selected but I think it had something to do with Mal’s wife Elspeth Graham. That gave me confidence knowing that she believed that I would do justice to his work.
This is the second Mal Peet story you’ve illustrated for Barrington Stoke, as well as Siobhan Dowd’s ‘Pavee and the Buffer Girl’, both very well respected names, both sadly deceased. Did you feel daunted at all when you started the projects? Has it got easier?
Yes, it is daunting working with someone else’s creation particularly when you know it was one of their final pieces of work, or one of very few pieces they made in the case of Siobhan Dowd. So I’ve always been aware that the stories are very precious to those close to the author and their fans. Fortunately this has never negatively effected the experience of working on them. While illustrating Mal Peet’s stories I had a lot of contact with Elspeth Graham and with the publishers, creating more of a feeling of collaboration. With Good Boy particularly, there was a really good conversation throughout, discussing the story’s possible meanings and the interpretation of the black dog.
I’m always nervous sending off any first sketches or ideas to somebody new because I don’t know exactly what expectations they have of me and whether or not I’ll meet them. I’m not sure that part ever gets any easier, but for me it’s good to feel a bit of fear and have that pressure.
I love the way you draw people, just the posture you have someone standing in speaks volumes, does that mainly come from people watching and practicing or is it a technique you were taught?
Thanks! I find people and living things really interesting to draw, especially when they’re moving, dancing, making something. It all comes from observing and drawing people from life, but in a way it is a combination of both of those things you mentioned. I was taught by a really good life drawing teacher at university; very critical. I would be forced to draw figures more and more as they were, not straightened, softened or altered by a pre-conceived idea of what parts of a body should look like. I do also use films, youtube videos and photographs as reference, with a preference for moving images because you can pause them and draw all of the difference stages of an action or gesture to understand it better.
How different is your process when you do live drawing events as opposed to illustrating a text?
I’m not sure it is that different. I like to use the same materials when I’m drawing live as I would in my studio: ink, brushes, charcoal. Also I find that I work well under time pressure so when I’m in my studio I make a lot of quick drawings, and sometimes a drawing which took only a few minutes will become a finished illustration in a book. Though, when illustrating a whole book there is always a lot more time spent planning, research, designing characters and playing with different materials.
When visiting schools, do you prefer doing storytelling or creative workshops? What age group do you prefer to work with?
When teaching a creative workshop I like to work with small groups, again it’s nice to have that feeling of collaboration which you can have when you’re able to talk to people one-to-one about their work. I think I’ll always prefer these more casual interactions than to stand up and teach a big class, but I’m getting over my fears. I’ve put on workshops and live drawing performances for children as young as 8/9 up to adults, and I haven’t decided on a preferred group yet. Though my books are all aimed at a YA audience and they are the ones I love creating illustrations for.
What advice would you give to a child that told you they’d like to illustrate books one day?
There are a few different routes you can take and studying at university isn’t necessary for everyone. But I did find that studying illustration at that level, with all of my strict and critical tutors, really helpful. I’d say that the most important thing when it comes to studying at any level is to be really interested in your subjects, don’t choose them based on what other people say you should be doing. If you want to be an illustrator start working towards it straight away, don’t think that you can squeeze it in at the weekend after you’ve done all of your other homework. Draw for fun. Don’t throw away all the ‘bad’ drawings, they tell the story of how you got to where you are.
What are you currently reading and who would you recommend it to?
I’m re-reading the first book in Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan series, My Brilliant Friend which I loved. But at the same time Evening Descends Upon the Hills by another Neopolitan writer, Anna Maria Ortese, who I think was a big influence on Ferrante. Ortese’s stories are part-fiction, partly reportage and describe terrible poverty, violence and despair in the city during the 1950s. I love Naples and I want to learn more about it. I’d recommend Elena Ferrante’s books to almost anyone, there is romance, drama, politics and it’s a really vivid portrait of a friendship between two girls and of the neighborhood they live in. Evening Descends Upon the Hills is also brilliant but bleak.
Anything in the pipeline you can tell us about?
I’m preparing for the release of Good Boy at the moment and preparing for school visits, festival events and a prison workshop, all happening throughout Spring and Summer. Being in between books, I’m working on some personal projects which is really nice to be able to do. In particular, I’m finishing a proposal for a non-fiction wildlife book to take to Bologna in April.
Thank you so much to Emma for taking time to answer the questions! Good Boy is published on 15th March 2019
