SMALL CHILDREN ON THE 5 NOVEMBER

Last night was bonfire night and we watched the fireworks reflected in the river Cam at the bottom of my garden. Despite austerity times, Cambridge didn't skimp on its firework display or its bonfire; the explosions of colour were as bright as ever, the bangs were as big as ever and the smallest children were as scared as ever  - just as they would be reading this poem:  Please to Remember. Small children on 5 November

THE SEA IS BIG AND ANGRY

'The sea is big and angry. It's taking away my things.'  From Zoë’s Boat.

For weeks I've been painting that sea. I thought it would get easier and I'd get the hang of it. But I never got the hang of it - right up until the final spread it kept changing. And now it's all done. The illustrations for Zoë’s Boat are complete leaving that washed-up feeling one always has at the end of a project.

WATERSTONES SIGNINGS

I’ve been doing quite a few Saturday signings in Waterstones stores recently and I'm still learning the ropes. Unless you’re an author with celebrity status, these sessions amount to hand selling over a period of 4- 6 hours. Independent bookshops seem less keen on this active type of signing session – maybe because their floor space is smaller than that of most Waterstones shops and the author is rubbing shoulders with the bookseller, or maybe because they don’t want loyal customers upset by over zealous or inept selling. You tread a fine line between being intrusive and a nuisance and being unobtrusive and going unnoticed. With the gentlest of nudges and some eye catching artwork you have to be able to point a customer towards a book they weren’t originally looking for and convince them that it was just what they were looking for.

    Six hours sounds an awfully long time but I find it passes quickly and there’s plenty to observe and learn about a bookshop when not actually signing. There’s an ebb and flow rhythm to the day; a flurry of customers entering the shop with all the book sellers at the tills, then a lull when books are replaced on shelves, stickers taken off past offers and time for a chat.

   You have to bring something to eat discreetly in one of these lulls or you won't survive the day and as for the toilet - it's usually somewhere very inaccessible in the back area of the shop, up winding staircases, past  store rooms and boxes that send a chill down an author’s spine: returns, on-going returns, confirmed returns.

   I usually sell 30 copies in a day but occasionally events beyond my control upset this. On the Saturday of the great October heat wave I sold only half that number of books. Children just didn’t come into the shop and I spent most of the day shivering under a very efficient air conditioning vent, looking out at the wonderful heat wave and all the three and four year olds tripping past on their way, no doubt, to the paddling pool in the park.

TEXT FRAMES

Zoë’s Boat has been designed as a read aloud picture book for very young children in graphic novel style. Now, the coloured artwork is nearly complete, I have handed over to typographic designer, Lisa Kirkham, to ponder the style of the text frames – should there be a frame with an outline, just a faded rectangle or  simply text on image? I think I prefer the faded rectangle used here as it integrates enough with the picture frames and stylized trees and water yet isn’t over emphatic.  

GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS

The Boss by Patrice Aggs and John Aggs

I went to the CWIG meeting on graphic novels and comics last Tuesday evening when a panel of illustrators plus Lizzie Spratt from Walker Books showed images of their work and talked about issues relating to this genre.   My latest book Zoë’s Boat, to be published in March 2012, is a picture book in graphic novel form for very young children. This is what brought me to the meeting.  It's aimed at children who cannot read so the story needs a satisfying read-aloud text. Children as young as 4 years old are very adept at reading a sequence of images even when they are unable to read text but most of what was discussed by the panel was aimed at 8years and older – children who would be reading speech bubbles and text silently themselves. The emphasis of the evening was very much more on the graphics than the style of writing.
     Philip Pullman who has a great interest in the graphic novel said in his Pearce Memorial Lecture that they should be written in the present tense as pictures always sit in the present. I can see this with the older graphic novels and comics where there’s an immediacy created by all the speech bubbles, but with younger children it begs the question – shouldn’t this rule apply to all picture book texts? I’m still mulling it over – trying to decide whether a shift to the present tense would add impact to my story in graphic novel form.

   I was interested to see that the illustrators working in this field were very young;  a graphic novel is much more work than a picture book as I've discovered working on Zoë’s Boat - all those image frames – it needs a young pair of eyes!

   The next generation was very much in evidence on panel last Tuesday – Will Fickling  - resurrecting, in the  form of the aptly named Phoenix The Phoenix. The Weekly Story Comic his father David Fickling’s DFC comic which folded in 2009 after 53 issues. And there was Patrice Aggs’ son John Aggs doing an exciting new graphic novel for Hachette as well as working on books with his mother. I once did an author visit to John's prep school, Dorset House, where my sister was his teacher. He looks very different now from the little boy in grey flannel shorts and blazor!

    It was a good evening and I went home inspired to do more books for younger children in this format despite tired eyes.

BOTH PERHAPS PRESENT

Last Thursday was the fifth Pearce Memorial Lecture held in Cambridge. Philip Pullman gave an great talk, entitled Both Perhaps Present (TS Eliot’s Four Quartets – Burnt Norton). He explored the classical tone of narration in Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden, the character of the narrator and the different points of view as well as talking about the present tense narration popular in contemporary novels and the oral tone of voice in fairy tales. You can watch the video: Both Perhaps Present

He’s pictured here with Philippa’s daughter Sally and grandson Nat.

The photographer was Jill Paton Walsh.

After the lecture there was a wine reception. This lecture series is excellent value as it's free. Next year Malorie Blackman will be the speaker and the year after, Kevin Crossley-Holland. Pearce Lecture

SWIMMING IN RIVERS

The slow summer days are nearly over - lying in the sun and swimming in rivers.

This year we found the old Victorian bathing pool in the river Stour near Sudbury.

other years we swam in the Cam.  The Weir on the Cam