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Posted By Jacob Hope,
07 June 2022
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During day two of our blog takeover to
celebrate the publication of The Mab we are delighted to welcome author and the inaugural postholder for the Children's Laureate Wales, Eloise Williams to introduce us to some of the women of The Mab.
In stories from the olden days, women are often there
to look pretty, be a foil to the stories of men, and not say much. They wave
fond farewells as the men ride off on horseback to have great adventures.
Sometimes it’s possible to think that these women didn’t have any voices at
all.
Not so in The Mab! The women of The Mab
have a lot to say. They are fierce and bold, clever and witty, smart and
resilient. They make decisions and they make mistakes. They are very important
people in their stories, and we are proud to give them voices.
In Rhiannon, Pwyll and the Hideous Claw women
are central to the story. Rhiannon, a powerful, enchanting woman from the
Otherworld joins this world only to face terrible trickery and punishment for a
crime she didn’t commit. She is accused of murdering her own child when it has
actually been stolen by a hideous, monstrous claw. Who has tricked her? Her
maids, and to protect their own skin because they slept as the baby was taken. As
punishment, Rhiannon is forced to carry people on her back as if she is a horse.
Yes, you’re right, these stories are weird.
Blodeuwedd, in Meadowsweet and Magic is a woman
conjured entirely from flowers because a man called Lleu wants a wife, and his
mother has cursed him that he may never be married to a human. Unhappy with the
arrangement, Blodeuwedd plots to kill Lleu. Unfortunately, for her he has
protection charms placed around him which mean that he can only be killed in very
specific circumstances. Luckily, Blodeuwedd is extremely inventive and spends a
whole year thinking up ways to murder Lleu. I don’t want to give too much away
but her plan involves a goat and a bath!
In Branwen and the Cauldron of Rebirth we meet
the main character Branwen as she listens to the wisdom of birds while men wage
war. Branwen’s mother has taught her to
open her heart in times of trouble. The starlings talk to Branwen and she
agrees that love will conquer all. Where there is bloodshed and heartache and
grief, she chooses an unusual way to continue spreading her message of love, changing
herself and her son into birds.
Women often save the day in the stories of The Mab. Cigfa
in Happily Ever After has fire in her belly, rides her horse like a
warrior, and uses her intuition to expose the truth of an enchantment. Her
story tells us of how real life is much more interesting than your typical
happy ever after. In Luned and the Magic Ring, the title character uses a
bluestone and a ring which render the wearer invisible to help someone escape
certain death, but she also employs logical thinking and her powers of
intellect to save the day.
We can’t wait for you to meet these women. They aren’t
wholly good or bad. They aren’t just there to wave weeping farewells from
castle windows. They are strong and wild, magical and powerful, fallible and
free. They have thoughts and ideas and solve problems with their quick wit and
intelligence. Perhaps they will remind you of the women in your own life?
A big thank you to Eloise Williams for writing this
fantastic blog feature for us. You can
find out more about The Mab every day this week during our blog takeover
and might like to think about attending the YLG Wales Zoom training day Empathy
in Your Librarywhich includes a conversation with Eloise Williams and Matt
Brown who will be discussing The Mab with librarian extraordinaire
Alison King. Special thanks too, to Max Low, illustrator of the The Mab for use of its brilliant cover and the image of Blodeuwedd.
Attached Thumbnails:
Tags:
Myth
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
Short Stories
Wales
Welsh
Women
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
06 June 2022
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We are
delighted to celebrate publication week of The Mabwith a week-long blog
takeover. Here Matt Brown introduces us
to The Mab, its themes and authors.
The Mab is a
collection of eleven retellings of the epic Welsh stories from the Mabinogi.
These stories are really, really, really old. Really. In fact, there are some
clever people who think that they might be the oldest, ever, written-down stories
in the history of Britain (you know, the sort of people who wear brown jumpers
and stroke their chins and say things like “I think you’ll find that…”, or “I
simply don’t agree…”, or “HELP! HELP! I’ve lost my trousers”).
The stories were first collected together in
the 14th century in two books, Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch (the
White Book of Rhydderch), and Llyfr Coch Hergest (the Red Book of
Hergest). But really, the stories of the Mabinogi are even older than
that because individual stories may have been written down before the Norman
invasion in 1066. And the stories almost certainly would have been performed
and shared, orally, between people for many hundreds of years before that.
But
as well as being really, really, really old, the stories in The Mab are
thrilling and funny and full of MAGIC. They are stories of monsters, and
magicians, of knights, and a giant who has a cauldron
that can bring the dead back to life, a
storyteller who catches bandits, and a team of avenging heroes who ride an
enormous fish. I mean, what’s not to love, right?
The stories in The
Mab take place in both the real world and the Otherworld. The Otherworld is
the Celtic land of magic and enchantment, a world that exists alongside the
‘real’ world but that is separate. Well, it is for most of the time. The
stories in The Mab reveal that there are gateways between the real world
and the Otherworld and that sometimes it was possible to step between the two.
The stories begin when a prince called Pwyll stands on a hill and falls in love
with Rhiannon, a queen from the Otherworld. Now, in many fairytales the story
ends when two people fall in love, or get married. Not so in The Mab.
Time and time again, marriage or love signals the beginning of people’s
problems. Once Pwyll and Rhiannon get together, something awful happens to them.
And so it goes for Lleu who has a woman conjured from flowers to be his bride.
And Culhwch, who falls in love with Olwen. And Geraint, one of King Arthur’s
trusted knights, who falls in love with Enid. And, well, you get the idea.
It seemed
strange and sad to us that there wasn’t a retelling of all eleven Mabinogi
stories for kids. That’s why we created The Mab. We wanted to make sure
that a whole new generation could fall in love with these incredible and
extraordinary stories. The stories have been retold by some of the best kids’
authors, writers and poets and we’re very excited to have such an amazing
roster of talent. Authors like Sophie Anderson (The House With Chicken Legs),
PG Bell (The Train To Impossible Places), Nicola Davies (The Song
That Sings Us), Alex Wharton (Daydreams and Jellybeans), Claire
Fayers (Stormhound) and many others. The book has beautiful, full-colour
illustrations by Max Low and each story has been translated into Welsh by
Bethan Gwanas. The result is, we think, unlike any version of the Mabinogi that
has come before. It is crisp, fresh, exciting, funny and packed full of mystery
and suspense. We can’t wait for people to read it and we hope you love it too.
A big thank you to Matt Brown for this introductory blog. Keep your eyes peeled for further blogs on The Mab each day this week! Special thanks too, to Max Low, illustrator of the The Mab for use of its brilliant cover.
Tags:
Humour
Myths
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
Wales
Welsh
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
18 May 2022
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We are delighted to welcome Francesca Gibbons to the blog to discuss writing Clock of Stars: Beyond the Mountains, the brilliant second book in the series, now available in paperback and how the impact of the pandemic influenced world-building for the series.
Imogen and
Marie are sisters. Like many siblings, they don’t always get along. In the
first Clock of Stars book, they find themselves trapped in a magical
world, where they must work together if they want to get home.
I wrote that
book in quite a few different places – visiting family in the Czech Republic,
on holiday, in cafes and on trains. Some of the adventures I had made their way
into the story.
For the second book in the series, I
wanted to take Imogen and Marie somewhere new.
They return
to the magical kingdom. But when Marie is kidnapped, Imogen gives chase. The
pursuit takes her beyond the mountains (which is the title of the second book).
I hoped to
stuff this story full journeys, danger and fun. I planned to do some travelling
of my own...
And then the
pandemic happened.
Suddenly, I
wasn’t having any adventures. Like everyone else, I was hardly leaving the
house. How could I offer other people escapism? Where would I find new ideas?
It’s a privilege
to be able to work from home, but I’m not going to lie… I often got in a big
flap about this book. And when that happened, I did the only thing I could – I
went for a walk.
I’m lucky
enough to have some good footpaths near my house. A neighbour told me about a circular
route, one I hadn’t explored before. So I packed some snacks and headed off.
Sometimes,
my characters would come with me. I’d imagine Imogen, walking at my side. She’d
look at my local river and wonder what lived beneath the surface.
“A river
sprite,” I’d tell her, imagining webbed fingers clutching muddy banks. Then
Imogen would get curious and stand too close and the webbed fingers would reach
for her ankle.
“Stay back,”
I’d hiss, but she wouldn’t listen. Imogen is naughty like that.
I walked at
night, at day, in rain and in sun – exploring the area around my home. Some of
the paths began to join up in my head, and I realised how much I didn’t know.
I kept
walking…
Slowly, the landscape around where I
live began to filter into my book. The lands beyond the mountains started to
look a little like images 2 and 3.
Sometimes,
after a very long walk, Imogen would come home with me. She’d look at my ginger
cat, who was very friendly, and I knew she’d have questions.
“He’s a
sněehoolark,” I’d tell her. “A giant and very rare cat.”
One time, Imogen
and I got back from our walk early and my husband was in the kitchen. We caught
him red handed – drinking tea straight from the tea pot. Imogen thought that
was hilarious. So we put it into the book.
Except it
wasn’t my husband who drank from the tea pot in the story, it was Zuby
(pictured below).
Some of the things in Beyond the
Mountains can be found in the “real” world: slow-moving rivers, coppiced
willows and rulers who don’t care for their people.
I don’t think
I realised it at the time, but I was writing during a lockdown about the
separation of two sisters. How would Imogen cope without Marie? How far would
she go to be reunited? The answers to these questions felt close at hand.
Other things
were harder to find: river sprites, witches and giant cats. But they are there
if you look hard enough.
A Clock
of Stars, Beyond the Mountains is about being separated from the people you love. It’s
about worry… and many other things…
But most of
all, I hope it provides ESCAPISM and FUN. I think those things are very
important – especially during a pandemic.
A huge thank you to Francesca Gibbons for the excellent blog and to HarperCollins for the opportunity.
Attached Thumbnails:
Tags:
Fantasy
Pandemic
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
22 March 2022
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We are delighted to
welcome Rowena Seabrook, Human Rights Education Manager at Amnesty
International UK to the blog to talk about ways of using children’s books as a
means for discussing and exploring Human Rights. Rowena is an Associate Lecturer on the Open
University’s Children’s Literature module. Her PhD research is in human rights
education and children’s literature with the University of Glasgow
“It is through
literature, not simply literacy, that we learn to understand and empathise…
Through literature, we can find our place in the world, feel we belong and
discover our sense of responsibility. Amnesty understands this very well.”
Michael Morpurgo
Children’s books
have the power to bring to life human rights that may otherwise seem abstract.
Exploring stories, poetry and non-fiction can encourage learning about, and
celebrating, human rights. More than that, it can enable young readers and
writers to enjoy their rights and practise being agents of change through
critical thinking, expressing their voices and experience, trying on other
perspectives, and taking action in their schools and communities.
Get started with
these 10 ideas for exploring human rights through children’s books…
1. Story Explorer
Download or
order Amnesty’s Story Explorer for
free. This piece of classroom origami will help young people explore human
rights themes in fiction with questions designed to promote discussion and
critical thinking.
2. Draw human
rights values
As Debi Gliori
says, words are weaselly! This is especially true of big words like freedom or
safety which mean different things to different people. Email hre@amnesty.org.uk to
order free values bookmarks. Invite students to choose one of the values – like
‘truth’ or ‘safety’ - and draw what it means to them.
3. ‘Tell me…’
Borrow from
writer Aidan Chambers and encourage students to
practise freedom of expression, thought and opinion. Start with the invitation
‘tell me…’ and then see where the conversation takes you.
4. Show and tell
Ask students to
find and share objects that connect to human rights themes in the story they’re
reading. This might be something they would take on a journey, connects them to
their family, or celebrates their identity.
5. Rewrites
Invite students to
take action for human rights in or on the fictional world. Ask them to rewrite
or insert dialogue so that people are respected and celebrated. Suggest that
they role play conversations in which people express themselves and feel heard.
Invite them to choose a story that you have read or watched, select a
supporting character and rewrite the story with them as the hero.
6. Share the impact
Consider the first
book that changed your life. Where did you meet it? How did it impact on you?
Why was it so important? Share this experience with your students and explore
how it shaped your attitudes and behaviour.
8. Create a Poem
Encourage students
to collect words from the book and turn them into a poem. You could also use
activities from Words that Burn,
Amnesty’s poetry and human rights project, to further explore relevant human
rights themes and support the students to express themselves through poetry.
9. Dialogue rather
than debate
Invite students to
write down questions about a book or extract. Ask them to read their questions
out loud and listen to each other without responding. Only start to discuss
once everyone has shared their perspective.
10. Show solidarity
Ask students to
write or draw a message of solidarity connected to the themes of the book. This
could be for someone in their family or community, or an individual defending human rights.
Visit Amnesty
International’s website to find more resources, creative ideas, and
details of our work on children’s books.
A big thank you to Rowena Seabrook and Amnesty International for the blog.
Tags:
Amnesty International
Human Rights
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
31 October 2021
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Happy Halloween! To mark the date, we are delighted to welcome
Sam Pope to the blog to give her run-down on her top five spooky books for children,
the second of two blogs. Sam is the brilliant author of The Haunting of Lindy Pennyworth, a brooding
psychological horror published by UCLan publishing.
Sam's Top 5
Spooky books YA /children’s version
I love a good, scary
read. It’s hard to pick just five of my favourites, but here are some (in no
particular order) that really get my pulse racing!
1. Anya’s
Ghost, by Vera Brosgol
For me, graphic novels
work so well in the Gothic genre. In Vera Brosgol’s debut, Anya could be any
teenager – she feels unconfident, unhappy in her body, embarrassed by her
family and lacks a friendship group at school. She thinks she’s solved the
final problem on this list when she discovers a new best friend … at the bottom
of a well who’s over a hundred years old. This is a really sensitive portrayal
of the trials of the teenage years, but it packs a scary punch that keeps you
on the edge of your seat.
2. The
Lockwood & Co series, by Jonathan Stroud
This is an amazing
series which I recommend to both children and adults. It’s really tricky to
write a scary and funny ghost story but Stroud does this brilliantly in
the five books of this series. The premise is this: the UK has been overrun
with ghastly ghosts that threaten the lives of the living once the sun sets.
Only children can see, and therefore hunt down, the ghosts so Lucy, our feisty
narrator, moves to London to find a ghost-hunting agency she can work with. She
encounters the charismatic Lockwood – who reminds me somewhat of Sherlock
Holmes in his brilliance – and his partner George. There is plenty of
tea-drinking, rapier-wielding and genuine scares in these stories.
3. Uncle
Montague’s Tales of Terror, by Chris Priestly
To be honest, most books
I’ve read by Chris Priestly scare the pants off me. He has a talent for
inducing real fear and this book is a perfect example. In this book, Uncle
Montague entertains (or should I say terrifies?) his nephew with a series of
spooky tales by the fireside. Each one is terrifying in itself … but it gets
even worse. For these stories aren’t make-believe; they are Uncle Montague’s
dreadful memories of what has happened in his past. There are some very scary
moments in this book – be warned!
4. Breathe,
by Cliff McNish
In this story, our hero,
Jack, is always in danger of his next asthma attack. You might think this is
his biggest fear but, when he moves into his new house, he finds a bigger
threat to him and his mother: the spirits of the dead. The trouble is, only he
can hear their screaming and see their presence. I think this is one of the
scariest books I’ve ever read, and that includes books written to frighten
adults, so you will need to be careful if you pick this up – it’s not for the
fainthearted.
5. Thornhill,
by Pam Smy
Graphic novels are the
perfect medium to relate spooky tales and author and illustrator Pam Smy does
this brilliantly in Thornhill. Using monochromatic illustrations, she
tells the story of Ella, a lonely child who has just moved into a new home
overlooking what appears to be a derelict house… or is it? Smy combines
illustrations and words so cleverly – in effect she is telling two stories and
both are equally chilling.
Tags:
HAlloween
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
Spooky Tales
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
30 October 2021
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In the run-up to Halloween, we are delighted to welcome Sam Pope to the blog to give her run-down on her top five spooky books for adults. We will be joined by Sam again tomorrow for the lowdown on her top choices for young people. Sam is the brilliant author of The Haunting of Lindy Pennyworth, a brooding psychological horror.
Sam's Top 5 Spooky books
I love a good, scary read. It’s hard to pick just five of my favourites, but here are some that really get my pulse racing!
1. Dark Matter, by Michelle Paver
Twenty-eight-year-old Jack joins a scientific expedition to Gruhuken, in the Arctic but, after initial high spirits (pardon the pun) things soon start going very wrong. Not only will they soon be plunged into continuous polar night for several months, but Jack’s companions start dropping like flies, leaving our hero entirely on his own. Or is he? I’ve read this multiple times and listened to it as an audiobook and it still utterly chills me to the bone.
2. The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill
A well-known story, this one, having been adapted into a play and a movie, and studied as a secondary-school text – this story frightened me so much that I had to sleep with the light on after I’d finished reading the book. Junior solicitor Arthur Kipps is sent to sort out the papers of recluse Alice Drablow but soon discovers a horrifying world of haunting where bad things happen every time the woman in black is seen.
3. The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson has a reputation for creating stories that disturb you into a sense of unease and dread. For me, this is her best book because it absolutely nails the haunted house genre perfectly. The story focuses on Eleanor, who has been invited to spend a summer in a reputedly haunted house as part of a social experiment, along with two other guests, all of whom have also been hand-picked by Dr Montague. While the others become scared of the obvious hauntings occurring around them, Eleanor becomes entranced – perhaps to the point of no return.
4. The Complete Ghost Stories of MR James
No one does ghost stories like MR James does. No one. He is the master, my muse. It is said that he redefined ghost stories by moving away from Gothic cliches and setting his tales of fear in real and modern places, not dark castles. This atmosphere of familiarity is, perhaps, what makes his stories more frightening – you don’t need to be in a crumbly castle for something bad to happen. Often the scariest events are just around the corner.
5. The Silent Companions, by Laura Purcell
Laura Purcell has garnered herself a reputation for being a master (or mistress?) of historical spookiness. Her debut novel, The Silent Companions, remains, for me, one of her scariest stories. Elsie is our heroine, recently widowed and pregnant with her first child. She leaves London to live in her late husband’s country estate but is met with hostility by the servants and the local villagers. Lonely and mainly alone, she finds a locked room that contains a diary and a painted wooden figure – a Silent Companion – that looks like Elsie herself and whose discovery brings with it terror and doubt.
Tags:
Halloween
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
Spooky
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
04 October 2021
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Ruth Estevez is the author of Jiddy
Vardy and Erosion. Her latest
novel is The Monster Belt which published in September with UCLan
publishing. Ruth is the project
co-ordinator for The Portico
Sadie Massey Awards and has previously written for Youth Libraries
Review about young people’s
reviewing. We are delighted to welcome
Ruth to the blog at the start of Libraries Week to talk about the supernatural
as a means for exploring grounded themes (such as loss, hope and dreams) in her
new novel The Monster Belt.
One
of the main characters in The Monster Belt, seventeen year old Dee, has
encounters with both mythical and real creatures and her interactions with them
reflect who she is, how she’s feeling emotionally and how she develops. The
fact that she is more afraid of the real creatures than the stranger,
supernatural ones, adds to the theme of questioning what the term monster means.
Throughout the book there are dictionary definitions and Dee is on a quest to
find her own, with hopefully, the reader aiming to do the same.
Eventually,
Dee realises that some questions do not require answers, as shown by her
actions near the end of the book.
Using
the supernatural in the story not only provides wonderful visuals to stoke our
imaginations, but it also offers the expected exciting and sometimes
frightening moments. Various reactions to any of the creatures in the book aims
to ask the reader how they react when they encounter something alien to them. I
use tender moments in the supernatural encounters, to show how the unknown does
not need to be frightening, but can be something to embrace. The use of the
supernatural in this way, shows that our labels for creatures we don’t
understand may be mistaken and we need to rethink them. Dee is labelled a
Monster Magnet because she sees these creatures, in this aspect, she is
immediately set apart and the theme of identity and belonging are raised.
An
exterior and ‘other’ entity, such as a squonk, or Loch Ness type creature, mirrors
Dee’s emotions and helps us see her inner world visually as well as creating
another thread to the story. The fact that the other main character, Harris,
feels he has merely glimpsed a shadowy outline of a sea monster and is
desperate to see it clearly and meet it, is a way of showing that he is
blocking his emotions and only when he acknowledges his grief that his best
friend has died will he have any chance of seeing the creature he is on a
mission to find. He focuses his grief on
tracking down a physical being and by his quest to find this ‘monster’ that
killed his friend, he masks his grief in anger and in ‘doing.’ Only when he
stops searching and let’s go, is he able to move on.
The
book is a coming of age story and at this time in our lives, we are often
searching for answers, exploring our emotions, our identity and trying to make
sense of what is happening around us. This is a time to look for possibilities,
new experiences and to follow dreams. By placing the characters in a world
where anything is possible, that there is a real chance that a mythical type
creature resides in the village lake, or that a sea monster killed Harris’s
best friend, we have permission to question everything. And by making them both outsiders, they find
they have the freedom to follow their own paths rather than unquestioningly
joining the majority.
The
end of the book brings resolutions, but also shows that one choice doesn’t have
to be the final one and that when one ending comes, another journey begins.
Tags:
Empathy
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
Supernatural
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
09 September 2021
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We are delighted to provide an update about Happy Here an anthology from 20 of our best Black British writers and illustrators. Happy Here will form the focus of an exciting panel that closes the YLG Virtual Conference this year (details here) we are thrilled to have the chance to welcome Jasmine Richards, Yome Ṣode and Clare Weze in conversation with publisher Amée Felone. Read below for an exciting update!
This week, every primary school in England will
receive a free copy of Happy Here, a new anthology from 20 of our
best Black British writers and illustrators. Published by inclusive
publisher Knights Of, Happy Here includes stories and poems
which explore themes of joy, home and family through a wide range of genres and
styles. The initiative is part of a wider long-term programme of research and
activity led by the children’s reading charity BookTrust and The Centre for
Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) to empower changes in teaching practice
and improve representation in children's literature and publishing.
Alongside this, BookTrust and CLPE are supporting
schools with a range of resources and events designed to help teachers share a
love of reading and writing with children and give them a rich and diverse
learning experience by bringing inclusive and representative stories into the
classroom:
· All schools are
invited to attend a free online event with celebrated children's author Joseph
Coelho, hosted by BookTrust on 13th October as part of Black History
Month.
· CLPE are providing
a free teaching sequence for Key Stage 2, to support schools in the study and
enjoyment of Happy Here as part of their Literacy Curriculum.
· CLPE will deliver
online sessions for teachers to learn more about the importance of
representation in the classroom.
· BookTrust has
provided an additional 50 free copies of Happy Here to 100
schools with a minimum of 25% of pupils receiving free school meals.
The Happy Here initiative follows
the publication in 2020 of BookTrust Represents’ Interim Research and CLPE’s
annual Reflecting Realities Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK
Children’s Literature, which highlighted the under-representation of children’s
authors and illustrators of colour, and of minority ethnic characters within
children’s books, respectively.
Having the opportunity to engage with an author
through a school visit inspires children by bringing their favourite stories
and characters to life and also gives access to diverse role models. Schools
are invited to sign up for a FREE virtual school session with Joseph Coelho on
13th October visit https://www.booktrust.org.uk/happy-here
To sign up for CLPE’s FREE teaching sequence and to
find out more about their online CPD to support the study and enjoyment
of Happy Here visit https://clpe.org.uk/news/free-copy-happy-here-all-primary-schools-and-free-teaching-resources-and-cpd-partnership
Tags:
Black History Month
Conference
Diversity
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
Representation
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
20 August 2021
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We are thrilled to welcome author, speaker, and teenage brain specialist
Nicola Morgan to the blog to discuss with Alison King two books, The Awesome
Power of Sleep and Be Resilient. Also known as the Teenage Brain
Woman, Nicola is the author of over 100
books including the best-selling Blame My Brain which was shortlisted
for the Aventis Prize. In 2018, Nicola was awarded the School Library
Association’s prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Information Books and her
recent titles demonstrate her continued passion and enthusiasm for the
wellbeing of young people.
What prompted you to write The
Awesome Power of Sleep?
I'd written about it before in several other books
but there's so much to say - and so much new science - that I knew it deserved
a whole book. Also, it's such a major part of wellbeing - and the part people
often ignore or think they can't affect. Plus, teenagers actually ask for
advice on sleep - it's the commonest topic for questions when I do a talk in
schools, presumably because at any given moment on a school-day, so many
teenagers are feeling dreadful because of sleep deprivation. My book can solve
that!
What’s your favourite piece of
advice for young people who struggle to get a good night’s sleep?
Stop worrying about it - worry is the enemy of
sleep. So, when worry is threatening to prevent sleep, train your mind to go
down a different path. I have various ideas in the book but in a nutshell your
mental topics should be any combination of exciting, wonderful, beautiful,
relaxing or boring but never worrying, frightening or self-critical. I
sometimes make lists in my head when I'm trying to sleep - just make sure it's
not a list of worries...
When you were researching the Awesome
Power of Sleep, what was the most surprising piece of information you
uncovered?
This is a complicated fact so pay attention! First,
understand that each night-time sleep has a complex pattern which involves more
deep sleep near the start and more dream sleep near the end. You would think,
then, that if you have a really late night, perhaps going to
bed at 2am, your sleep pattern would be the same but starting later. No: your
brain detects that this is not the beginning of the night, even though it's the
beginning of your sleep, and it goes straight into the usual pattern for the
second half of the night. So, you lose relatively more deep sleep and deep
sleep is critical for restoration and how you feel physically next day.
Which key piece of information
would you like readers to take away from this book?
Your evening routine is key to how easily you will
fall asleep. It directs your brain towards earlier sleep and earlier sleep is
what most of us need, bearing in mind that we can't usually affect our getting
up time. And this is really good news because you can have a lot of control
over your evening routine. Further details can be found in The Awesome Power
of Sleep.
Be Resilient
was written at the beginning of the first lockdown in 2020. What effect did
lockdown have on your productivity as a writer?
At first, good, because all my events disappeared,
and I had masses of time for writing (and lots to write - and having lots to
write makes me write more.) Then my daughter, son-in-law and six-month-old
grandson came to live with us for six months, so I turned into a multi-tasking
superwoman trying to be all things to all people and my writing suffered (but
I'm not complaining because it was amazing!)
You introduce the concept of
Heartsong in Be Resilient. Can you tell us firstly what it is and
secondly, what it means to you?
Heartsong is a moment or state when your heart
feels light, and you are getting real pleasure from what you're doing or from a
thing that has happened. I guess it's "happiness" but it's a bit
purer and more golden than that. It can come from big things or small things.
Sometimes it comes from things you can't affect - such as when someone says
something unexpectedly nice to you. But the important thing about heartsong is
that you need to know ways you can make it happen and notice it when it
does, because sometimes you have to take steps to get it. I had
heartsong yesterday when I picked the first corn on the cob from my garden and
grilled and ate it with olive oil and pepper. I get it when I am fully engaged
on a piece of work and I forget the time but the words have flown. I get it
when I laugh with a friend or I'm peaceful on my own, when the sun comes out
and there's warmth on my shoulders, when I drink a first sip of rosé wine on a
Friday evening, when I eat my favourite creamy chocolate or inhale sweet pea
scent in my garden.
If you don't have any heartsong in your life,
that's a very bad position to be in. Your mental health is very low at that
point because you are unable to feel pleasure in anything around you. You might
need someone to help you find heartsong and acknowledge it. Even if very bad
things are going on, you still deserve and need those moments of joy, but it
can be very hard to admit to feeling joy when the bad thing is happening. Not
long ago, I lost my sister after a five-month illness. I found it very
difficult to allow myself to enjoy any moments during that time, but I knew it
was important because you can't actually live without heartsong. So, go and
find it and enjoy it - you owe it to yourself. Literally.
You mention journaling as a
useful activity, and I know many people agree. Do you have any advice for
people who struggle to know where to start and what to write?
I don't actually do it myself - perhaps because I'm
writing all the time anyway so it's not a tool I need? But I think the blank
page is a scary thing so buying a journal with prompts could be the answer for
many people. I have seen and like the HappySelf journals - they are very good
quality (nice paper helps journaling!) and therefore not cheap. On the Be
Resilient page of my website there's also a free activity involving a
12-sided dice that you write prompts on, and there's a list of suggested
prompts. Or you could just decide to write three things that went well each
day.
When building resilience, what
is the single most important thing for the reader to remember?
That no human is completely resilient - everyone bleeds,
everyone hurts - but that we can all learn to become more resilient. We all
learn from everything that happens to us but sometimes what we learn is
negative and makes us weaker - Be Resilient shows you how to learn and
grow stronger from everything.
Can you tell us about any
upcoming projects?
I'm writing Ten
Ways to Build a Brilliant Brain for publication in 2022.
What are you currently
reading?
I'm reading I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
(and various other things by her, including the beautiful picture book, Where
Snow Angels Go) because I'm interviewing her at the Edinburgh International
Book festival. I know!
A big thank you to Nicola Morgan for the interview, to Alison King for conducting this and to Nina Douglas for the opportunity.
Attached Thumbnails:
Tags:
interview
Mental Health
non-fiction
reading
Wellbeing
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Posted By Jacob Hope,
29 July 2021
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We are delighted to welcome Susan Brownrigg to the blog. Susan is the author of The Gracie Fairshaw Mystery and her latest novel Kintana and the Captain’s Curse is part mystery, part adventure set on the high seas and is a perfect summer read!
Pirates feature heavily in the story, can you tell us about some of the research you did as part of the book?
I love researching, and I always do my best to combine learning from books and other source material with finding ways to inhabit the world I’m creating. I’ve read lots and lots of books on pirates and watched documentaries and films. I found visits to the Merseyside Maritime Museum, in Liverpool, and the Vasa Museum, in Stockholm, and stepping aboard tall ships at various festivals enabled me to get a more immersive sense of what life was like on board ship. I know I would make a hopeless pirate – I’m not good with enclosed spaces or heights and I get seasick! I have also been to fabulous pirate festivals in Hull, Whitehaven and Liverpool, and that is also useful for seeing Living History and getting a feel for the objects pirates used – when I worked at Norton Priory Museum, I also got to spend many a summer performing as a pirate at our family friendly storywalks.
Kintana is obviously a girl, how possible would her involvement have been?
There were female pirates, so it is definitely possible! Anne Bonny and Mary Read. They both had been dressed as boys in their youth and became friends when they joined Calico Jack’s pirate crew.
Before them there was Gráinne Ní Mháille/ Grace O’Malley – the Irish Pirate Queen, who became a seafarer at age 11! There is a legend that Grace was told by her father that she couldn’t go to sea because her long hair would get caught in the ship’s ropes. To embarrass him she cut it all off, earning her the nickname Bald Grace.
Why do you feel pirates have such a popular place in children’s books?
Gosh, the desire to find treasure is definitely part of it! I think children love the idea of being rich. The fact that pirates are bad, yet we root for them, makes them very interesting as characters. The colourful clothing, action-packed battles, and exotic lands add to the appeal.
Since Peter Pan and Treasure Island, children have been enthralled by pirate adventures and it’s fabulous to see a flotilla of new pirate stories being published year after year – each with their own unique story to tell.
You’ve created a really vivid and memorable setting; it opens with that most wonderful thing in books – a map! Did you create a map to help create the setting?
I didn’t, though I did do some sketches of some of the characters early on. I did however use real maps, both paper ones and Google earth. I adore the map in my book, (it was created by cover illustrator Jenny Czerwonka) it made my imaginary world suddenly very tangible. I was quite giddy when I first saw it.
How much research was involved with Malagasy Culture and what were some of the things you discovered?
Malagasy culture is fascinating and complex. There are over 18 different ethnic groups living on the island, each with different beliefs, styles of dress and dialect.
I read a lot of books, travelogues and travel guide books, as well as National Geographic articles.
I was fascinated by the fact that pirates once had their own island settlement at Nosy Boraha (there really is a pirate cemetery) and that Captain Kidd’s treasure is thought to have been buried somewhere off Madagascar – his ship was scuppered at Nosy Boraha.
I also enjoyed learning about the famadihana ceremony, also known as the turning of the bones, a funerary tradition where families rebury their ancestors.
After I had finished writing and editing my book, I reached out to the Anglo-Malagasy Society and the Ambassador to the Republic of Madagascar as I was anxious to make sure my book was accurate. I asked if they could suggest anyone who might read my book and offer any comments. I was incredibly grateful when the ambassador, Dr Phil Boyle, offered to read Kintana himself, and Daniel Austin of the AMS introduced me to two Malagasy women who kindly also offered their insightful comments and answered specific questions. Their generous feedback was so useful, particularly around fady, beliefs, clothing and language, and was especially specific to Nosy Boraha which was harder to find information about, as well as Madagascar’s varied wildlife.
I gained a deeper appreciation in particular for the impact finding an aye-aye hand would have on Kintana which prompted some rewriting and a better story.
Part of the setting focuses on the extraordinary flora and fauna of the islands, I understand some of this has been informed by your time at Blackpool Zoo, can you tell us a little more about that please?
Yes, I was very fortunate to spend a summer season working at an education assistant at Blackpool Zoo in 2012. One of my many duties was to do animal talks, and that meant telling visitors about lots of different animals – one of my favourites was Darwin, a giant Aldabra tortoise, which definitely had an influence on my book. Darwin is over 100 years old! I also especially enjoyed talking about the lemurs – they were rather cheeky, trying to steal the food I had for them before it was time! One of the keepers kindly also let me see the nocturnal mouse lemurs up close after months of trying to spot them! They are unbearably cute!
Back in 2009 I also spent a day as a zookeeper at Lakeland Oasis where I was able to hold a chameleon and feed the lemurs. They also had a fossa – but you certainly don’t want to get to close to one of those!
I have seen lots of Madagascar wildlife in zoos across Europe including tenrecs, fanaloka, bokiboky, geckos, tomato frogs, all kinds of lemurs including aye-ayes and sifaka as well as giant jumping rats!
Did you have a favourite animal that you wrote about, if so why?
I love Polly, the vasa parrot. I’ve seen them in zoos and they are so active and full of character! Parrots are often thought of as colourful, and vasas are dark grey, though the female loses her head feathers to reveal her yellowish skin underneath when she is ready to mate. In my book the vasas talk, but they don’t in real life! Polly always has a lot to say!
Although set in the 1700s, there are some very shrewd and timely comments around nature and conservation on p52 ‘Sadly finding [him] a mate has proved impossible. It seems there are no other surviving Madagascar giant tortoises.’ Is this ecosystem under threat?
Very much so. Madagascar has its own unique eco system since it split from Africa 160 million years ago. A very high percentage of its mammals, reptiles and plants are endemic – meaning they are not found anywhere else of earth. Madagascar has over 800 endangered species including frogs, tortoises, lemurs and plants.
There are a lot of riddles woven through the story, were these fun to create?
Yes, I really enjoyed adding in these puzzles for Kintana to solve – I like using play on words and having clues in my stories for my characters to work out.
You have worked both as a living history presenter and as a journalist, do you feel these have fed into your approach to writing and storytelling?
I hope I have developed a good sense of what children enjoy from delivering school sessions at the museum, zoo and various heritage attractions. Working as a living history presenter helps you see that people in the past often had the same basic needs and emotions. My journalism skills have hopefully helped me to tell a story well! In both careers I had to take information and repackage it so it could be easily understood. I like to keep the plot moving and enjoy sharing what I’ve learned from research.
I understand the book was actually your first children’s book and it has been around twenty years in the writing, can you tell us a bit about this?
Kintana was a very long time in coming to life! I first started writing about pirates and Madagascar back in 2000, when I found out my sister was expecting a baby. Up to then I tried writing for adults. My nephew is now 20!
The original book was quite different – it was called Dr Midas and the pirates. It was a time travel adventure with a time machine powered by smelly socks with an adult main character and a robot dog sidekick! The original story was longlisted in a Writers & Artists Handbook competition and I got very excited! I sent it to lots of agents, and someone at Puffin read it, but it never made it off the slushpile.
I reworked it a few times, because I still thought there was a good idea there. In 2020 I submitted it to Uclan Publishing, and I was thrilled when they said they would like to publish it. I have often joked to my writing friends that my rejected books are my catalogue – and one day after some editing perhaps they will find their time has come too.
You were named as one of the Undiscovered Voices by SCBWI, what kind of support have you had from the organisation?
I really don’t think I would be a published author without SCBWI. I have made so many friends, and the critique meet ups (currently done via Zoom) spur me on to write a new chapter each month. The feedback I receive from the tween group always helps me to see ways to improve my drafts and has encouraged me to keep going. Featuring in the UV anthology was a real boost to my confidence, and I have learned so much from the many workshops etc that SCBWI offer.
You’ve taken us to Blackpool and Madagascar, where do you think you will take us next?
Well, I’ll be taking readers back to Blackpool first! Gracie Fairshaw and Trouble at the Tower is being published in October. I’m not sure, after that. I have an idea for a story set in Russia (so I’m hoping to make a trip there once travel opens up.) I also have a book set in Peru during the Inca Empire that I’m hoping to revisit. It’s another historical adventure with some interesting animals!
Image Bank:
One - Aye Aye with Leaves
Two - Susan cleaning out lemurs at Blackpool Zoo
Three - Kintana's hat and accessories
Four -Jenny Czerwonka's map
Five - Susan and a lemur at Blackpool Zoo
Six - Susan with a telescope
Seven - Susan at vasamuseet in Sweden
Eight - Vasa parrot
A big thank you to Susan Brownrigg for the interview
Attached Thumbnails:
Tags:
Adventure
Island
Maps
Mystery
Reading
Reading for Pleasure
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