With her forthcoming title, Me and Aaron Ramsey, Carnegie Award winning author Manon Steffan Ros conjures a beautifully nuanced slice of Welsh life that celebrates football, family and finding your feet. Alison King caught up with Manon prior to publication to talk about her powerful new story.

As someone who has never engaged with football, I am fascinated by the culture and the community that it encapsulates. You capture both of those things so well in Me and Aaron Ramsey - I was utterly swept up in that world, despite having no real reference points. Where does your own passion for football come from?

I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in football until 2016. The idea of it bored me; I didn't understand why people got such a sense of identity from the bunch of people they happened to support kicking a ball around a field!

Wales qualified for the Euros in 2016, which sparked an interest in football in my eldest son, who then got me interested. I was firmly on the bandwagon, and I'm still on it now! There's such grace and skill and beauty in football, and I can't unsee it. I've been surprised by the sense of belonging one gets from supporting a football team, and the joy of being tribal. I think I'd always thought of the tribalism aspect as a bad thing, but now I can see that it's not about hating the other team and wanting them to lose- It's about loving your own team.

I've been in the Kop in Anfield, underneath the huge banners that the fans pass around, singing You'll Never Walk Alone. There is absolutely nothing like it. It's the opposite to loneliness.

Following the success of Nebo, I imagine it must have been quite difficult to find the story you wanted to tell next. I'm curious as to how you landed on Me and Aaron Ramsey - it's very different, perhaps that was part of the appeal?

Nebo came out in 2018 in Welsh, and so those questions of what to do next were answered some time ago! The first thing I wrote after Nebo was a crime novel- very different, and that was no mistake. I didn’t want to write the same thing again, because I want to respect each novel within its own space and theme. This novel is translated and will be published in the autumn.

Me and Aaron Ramsey made sense to me as the next step, but also just as a novel in its own right. The whole mood and feel and meat of it is so different, but there are similarities thematically. I think they’re both novels about the relationship between a parent and a child, and that tricky bit between childhood and adulthood.

In Me and Aaron Ramsey, the reader spends time with a family that is coming apart at the seams, and although there are some very tense moments peppered throughout the story, the atmosphere created is one of hope, and trust and love. Did you set out to depict it this way or did it happen naturally as the story evolved?

I write a lot about parents separating, and also parents who stay together but are unhappy. When I was younger, there were a lot of middle grade books which tackled this- Paula Danziger, in particular, tackled it masterfully. But I think there’s a danger now that because it’s a more common occurrence in children's lives, we think it maybe isn’t such a big deal, and so we don’t write about it so much. Or we tend to write parents who are together and happy, or are separated - not much in between.

I always try to write with empathy, and am aware that I don’t really want to write goodies and baddies. It’s just not my style, and I don’t really believe that people are like that.

I want to ask you about Sam's brushes with anxiety, which colour his experiences throughout the book. What did you want to achieve by exploring this, and how did you approach shaping Sam's emotional journey?

To me, Sam’s anxiety was a natural progression from having to hear parents arguing often at home. I think that we all experience some level of anxiety- it’s a natural and often useful reaction to worrying situations. I wanted to explore how to deal with the feeling when it does surface, the different coping mechanisms people have. This is admittedly close to home for me- I remember being quite an anxious child, worrying about war and nukes and whether my friends really liked me until very late at night. I came up with ways to stem the worry, and Sam does the same.

in a house

Let’s talk about Mattie - there's a real sense of freedom in her and I found her to be a lot of fun and also unexpected, in terms of the way little sisters are depicted in children's fiction. Where did she spring from and did you enjoy writing her?

I love Mattie! I think that there’s a lot of sibling rivalry and tension in books, and although that is often a reflection of real life, it isn’t always the case. When there is tension between adults hold, siblings can be allies. Siblings can also be friends! I really wanted a cool and happy little girl in this novel, whose brother really loved her and who was more than the stereotypical annoying younger sibling.

I don’t know how much you can say but I’m sure everyone reading would love to know what's on the horizon for you, in terms of writing projects.

What’s on the horizon? Lots I hope! I absolutely love my job and I get antsy when a few days pass where I haven’t written anything. I have a few books coming soon- Feather, is another middle grade novel, and there’s the  crime I mentioned earlier, which is set in my home town of Bethesda. But I’m itching to write something new now, a YA book, but I’m not going to jinx it by telling you about it novel before it’s taken root…

A big thank you to Manon Steffan Ros for the interview, to Alison King for conducting this and to Firefly Press for the opportunity.

We are delighted to welcome author and illustrator Padmacandra to the blog to talk about her new work and new picture book Don’t Be Silly!  A perfect book for reading aloud.  Downloadable resources are available here


Were you always interested in art?

I grew up in Scotland.  In those days it was a little bit strict, it was just an ordinary primary school.  I don’t remember school making a big deal out of art.  It was the same at secondary school but at home my imagination was always important.  I always had a sense of other worlds that you could enter.  I loved how often you get that in books.  I used to go with my younger brother on t explorations to try to find these different worlds.  I remember once thinking if I stand on my bed and turn round three times knocking on the wall, maybe a door will open.  There was a sense of a benign force which was the imagination behind things.  It wasn’t just imagination as made up.  There was some sort of reality to it.  I’ve always enjoyed doodling and making art and wanted to enter different worlds through drawing.

Did any books or illustrators that made an impact on you?

I was very lucky to have quite a lot of books.  There were four of us in the family. My mum was quite interested in children’s books.  She used to read to us which was lovely.  We had a fantastic library up in Broughty Ferry next to Dundee where I grew up. 

I remember going to visit my grandmother, she had all these old books and we were all fascinated with this one called Josie, Click and Bun by Enid Blyton.  Every year we went for two weeks in the summer holidays to the Cotswolds where my grandparents lived.  My granny was Hungarian and there was something of a mystery about her.  We would all rush and look at this book.  It was covered in children’s scribbles because our cousins had also been to visit. 

I also remember other books like the Ladybird Books and was always drawn to the more fictional rather than factual ones. I remember the Sleeping Beauty one which my friend and I used to enact.  Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone did amazing fairy tale pictures with these with wavy hair and shoes that curl around. I remember poring over the pictures and really absorbing them. 

I was very interested in George Macdonald who wrote The Princess and Curdie and At the Back of the North Wind.  There was definitely an influence from Victorian illustrators and writers.  It ties in with this sense of different worlds.  Narnia was really important too.  We were members of the Puffin Club for a while and that was wonderful.  I remember winning a poetry prize which was so encouraging and made a mark on me.  Ursula Le Guin and Brian Wildsmith and Raymond Briggs I enjoyed.  We had this book of nursery rhymes called Fee Fi Fo Fum.  There was a plum pudding in it which was just so pudding.  Me and my brother were fascinated by it  As a child you are just absorbing these things and somehow they have an influence.  Certain books come at certain times in your life.

Please can you tell us about your route to becoming an illustrator?

It’s strange because sometimes it feels like a sidestep and yet it is a complete continuity with the driving force of imagination as a more real reality.  Whenever I would be making notes for a talk, I noticed I was always doodling.  I didn’t take an art degree, I nearly did, but as I was a fairly introverted young person and wanted something that would bring me out of myself so I went into social work. It felt like I could respond to some of the suffering in the world.

I became a Buddhist when I was in my twenties.  I was always making doodles and in meditation I was taken by a benign sense of something that lay behind things.  I reached a stage where I had enough confidence through my meditation that I thought I could try this and go with it.  I went on a Summer School with Cambridge School of Art.  It was really affirming.  They said bring 500 words and then we’ll play with that.  Very quickly I wrote the text that became the story Don’t be Silly. 

I met Ness Wood who is a designer, I ended up in her little group and she said she thought children would really love this.  I felt very encouraged and went on to do the MA.  The MA focused on observational skills.  People have this idea of imagination being ungrounded, but it comes from the body and the senses.  In the same way we were observing and drawing from life and from noticing.  It’s a gateway to imagination, a grounded embodied space is what allows real imagination to come through.  We spent a whole module going round with our sketchbook.  At the end of the course, Rose Robbins who is an illustrator mentioned my work to Sarah Pakenham of Scallywag Press.  Sarah contacted me and we had a chat.  At the end of the MA I signed a two book deal with Scallywag Press, the first was The Tale of the Whale and the second is Don’t be Silly.

You were shortlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize with The Tale of the Whale, what did that mean to you?

There are so many books published that it’s difficult when people are choosing books to know what is out there.  It’s difficult too for illustrators to feel encouraged.  Coming to illustration at a later stage in life it meant a lot to get the recognition.  It helps you to feel you can carry on.  Making picture books doesn’t make a lot of money for illustrators, they have to have lots of side-hustles to make it work.  Virtually all of the people I know who are fellow Alumni of the MA, have a secret imposter syndrome.  I find when I’ve come out with a book I’m a bit doubtful about it.  You have to say how much you love it and on one level that’s true, but you also have doubts and feel a bit unsure.  Being shortlisted really helped me recognise that it is a good book for children.

With Don’t Be Silly you both wrote and illustrated the story, what were the differences and did you have a preference?

Don’t be Silly is unusual because I’d written the text before I illustrated it.  It’s often an advantage to be able to write and illustrate together, but I don’t feel I’ve had that yet.  The Tale of the Whale was more straightforward because the words were there so it was a case of doing the thumbnails and having those approved and then doing the roughs and having those approved.  Ness Wood was the designer and she decided which spreads to put the words on which helped.  Karen Swann was talking with Janice Thomson the wonderful editor.  Don’t be Silly had been worked on for such a long time that I struggled to get objectivity, it had been through various iterations.  Martin Salisbury was very positive about it which I think is why Sarah was keen to sign it. 

I still feel that I’m working out how I want to be an illustrator and how I want to create images.  With both books I felt as though I was wrestling with things.  It never felt like a smooth process.  I don’t know whether it will ever get to that stage.  I really enjoyed working with the team, it’s a small team, but there’s a lot of experience there.  It’s lovely to think you can just get things done in a meeting without going through lots of departments. 

There are lots of details to explore in your illustrations were you conscious of creating something exploratory?

I did want it to be very rich.  Initially I wanted a baroque feel because of the castle.  I don’t know how much that was achieved.  I was influenced a bit by Ronald Searle with the castles, and characters with big noses.  We used to get annuals when I was young and you’d really pore over the pictures.  I wanted that feel.  The secondary characters like the cat and the mice, fulfil an important function by indicating an extra layer of what the book is saying.  There’s one of the pictures where the children are running into the characters, but the cat is looking worried because it can see the football and what might be about to happen.  The mice that are doing all the antics are communicating the playfulness of the children and an anarchic atmosphere.  In a way they just come out as a natural thing.  We did add the hens, it was partly the editor’s ideas as she is very keen on hens! 

Were there any characters you particularly enjoyed illustrating and writing about?

I drew Bo and Smudge so often, I really got a feeling for them.  I enjoyed the cat too!  I really enjoyed doing all the portraits and looking at portraits in galleries and on the internet.  There’s often a pompousness in how and what they are trying to communicate about themselves.  A lot of the art is quite pressured in some ways, but this was just fun.  There is a secret hidden in one of the paintings which echoes something that happens later on in the book!

Bo and Smudge try on some of the adult outfits, it feels a bit of a metaphor for how we try on it different guises throughout life…?

I remember being on a retreat and watching lambs jump and I wondered why the sheep weren’t and what had happened.  You rarely see an adult running o skipping along the street.  Sometimes I’ve gone jogging and feel I have to put a uniform on to show I’m not just running about, but am jogging.  The whole thing is about the importance of the spontaneity of playfulness.  The things that we put on in life, the children are putting them on in a playful way.  It’s like being able to see things through different perspectives.  It’s important to do that creatively as well.  One creative writing idea from Natalie Goldberg who writes about creative writing is to put a funny hat on or adopt a different posture to place yourself in a different point.  If we over identify with what we wear – like the judge who wears his outfit – we get stuck.  There’s something essential about me which is not about the clothes that I wear, the age that I am, what I’m saying to you at the moment.  There’s a freedom about this and a playfulness in this.

Does Buddhism influence your work?

In my best moments yet, but it also gives me perspective in my less good moments.  Most creators experience an emotion when they are starting to create.  You start by making a lot more mess and there’s a voice that comes in that says this isn’t going very well, you can’t do what you did before.  It’s not even words like that, it’s just a mood.  It’s really got nothing to do with the creative process, we have to try to let go of these ideas and let the pen and the paper get on and happen in the moment.  Being able to be creative consistently is about recognising the stories and doing it anyway.  Playfulness is such an important part of this.  Being on the MA gave a space and an opportunity to experiment.  It’s a bit like improvisation.  If we can live our lives in that way, it’s a much more resourceful way of being in the world.  We’re now living in a world that feels particularly precarious.  You might say we need to be very serious in the moment, but I think there’s a much better outcome if we can adopt a playfulness and a lightness to give perspective.  I don’t mean laughing at serious things, but being more spontaneous so as to open up possibilities.

Do we take funny books seriously enough?

I have noticed that there’s a lot of stories which have a message and for bloggers and that sort of thing it’s much easier for them to talk about that, not necessarily in a bad way, and for that to be a good thing.  It’s more difficult to talk about Don’t be Silly because there’s more of an experience through the rhyming rhythm and images.  Playfulness is important and we mustn’t lose that and be doom-scrolling and serious the whole time so that becomes the only influence on ourselves, on children and on all of us.  There’s a bigger perspective that can come through playfulness and joy!

What is next for you?

I don’t know what’s coming next.  I would love to do something about poetry and particularly about the approach you need to write a poem.  When I was at school, I was very invisible and shy and disappeared into myself.  There were moments though when things woke me up a little bit.  We had a visiting person in RE and they did a whole lesson on haiku, and something awoke within me.  I love the Chinese and Japanese poets.  They have certain words for certain aesthetics.  I’d like to bring a sense of atmosphere and magic to books, which I suppose brings us back to the idea of other worlds!

Thank you to Padmacandra for the interview and to Scallywag Press for the brilliant opportunity.

Kenneth Oppel is the author of numerous award-winning children’s book.  His first book, Colin’s Fantastic Video Adventure was published in 1985.  He has won the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Airborn which was also a Printz Honour Award.  Kenneth’s latest novel is Ghostlight which is published in the UK by Guppy Books. 

Past Chair of the Youth Libraries Group, Alison Brumwell interviewed Kenneth and discussed his fiction and latest novel Ghostlight.  The fascinating session was recorded and is available to watch below.

Thank you to Guppy Books and to Liz Scott for the opportunity.

Maisie Chan is the winner of the 2022 Branford Boase award with her brilliantly funny and thoughtful Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths.  We were delighted to talk with Maisie about her writing and about the award.

What was your journey to becoming an author?

It’s been a long journey!

I guess I had an epiphany when my mum passed away in 2003. I remember telling someone I wanted to ‘write books!’ but I had no idea where to begin. Three years later, I began with short stories and flash fiction for adults. I felt that was a good place to begin as the form is short and I could then move onto novels. I have to say that I was immensely scared of writing a novel and didn’t try to write one for years. I felt it was too big a hurdle and that I was not ready for the task. I also wanted to write a memoir, however, I remember someone telling me that I was ‘too young’ to write a memoir. At the time, I didn’t agree, I felt I had a lot to say about my life. Yet, they were right in terms of my writing ability. I was still very much learning to become a writer. I had support from Writing West Midlands.

I had some short stories published and lead creative writing workshops for adults and children, but I still didn’t write a novel until I became a mentee on the inaugural Megaphone scheme with mentor Leila Rasheed back in 2016. I’d had some time away to have children and had hardly written a thing for five years but felt that this was a great opportunity for me to get back to what mattered to me, which was writing. I had wanted to try writing for children after a librarian had told me my ‘voice’ suited children’s and Y.A. I thought I would give it a go. The year I spent as a Megaphone mentee was brilliant. We had masterclasses from Patrice Lawrence (just before Orange Boy was published!), Catherine Johnson, Candy Gourlay, Alex Wheatle and more. We got to speak to editors and agents, and we had a showcase at the London Book Fair. I wrote a novel for teens called Looking For Lily Wong and landed my first agent soon after I finished writing it.

During the time I was editing my teen novel, I felt something just wasn’t working and put it aside. My agent asked me if I had any middle grade ideas and I pitched her Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths (which was then called Lychees and Bingo Balls). She liked the idea, and I wrote it. A year later we went on submission, and it was picked up by Piccadilly Press in a two-book deal and it was bought by Amulet in the States a few weeks later. I thought Danny Chung might do better in the States than in the U.K. because there hadn’t been many (or any) titles published here for that age group by or for British Chinese people. I wasn’t sure there was going to be a readership. But I’m glad to say I was wrong!

Can you introduce us to Danny Chung please?

Danny is eleven-years-old and is a young artist. He loves drawing comics and getting his friend Ravi to help with the speech bubbles. It’s an activity that makes them laugh and one where they can be truly themselves. He also uses drawing to vent his frustrations and to work out things going on in his life.

Danny lives above a Chinese takeaway with his parents. They want him to do well at school, and in their eyes that means being good at maths and other subjects. His mum’s best friend, Auntie Yee is always comparing him to Amelia Yee who is good at everything. This makes Danny feel bad.

Danny also wants to be part of a ‘cool’ group of boys who play physical games (scooting and shooting their foam pellet guns around the park) rather than the more imaginative activities that he and Ravi partake in. And to make things worse, he’s got a math presentation and his gran from China moves in. No-one has told him this is going to happen, so it’s the worse surprise he can think of getting. Danny has a lot of personal challenges to overcome in the book.

He's a regular boy on one hand. But he’s also a British Chinese boy too and so there are things about his family’s situation and lifestyle which are uniquely British Chinese. My main concern when writing him was making him relatable. He’s got wants and desires like any eleven-year-old boy whose parents hope they’ll to be a certain way, but he has his own path to follow.

The relationship between Danny and his grandmother, Nai Nai, is beautifully realised and is often very funny, was it challenging creating the dynamic between the pair when language is a barrier for them?

Well, yes and no. My concern for Nai Nai was that I wanted her to inhabit the space in the book without speaking much and so she is very physical in how she moves, and her actions speak volumes. I wanted readers to ‘see’ her in their minds clearly when they read the book and she is by far the most beloved character. I have a lot of experience in real life of staying with people or communicating with others who don’t speak the same language as me. I lived in Taipei for a while and I was the one who was the outsider, who couldn’t speak the language and would smile and point at things. You find that you can use your body, your expressions and your hands for communication when language is a barrier, so I put all of that into the novel. There may be the occasional blip too and you can see that in the scene were Danny takes Nai Nai to the bowling green and there is an incident with a large fruit. It made me laugh to write those kinds of scenes and I think people have enjoyed the humour of the book, but it was hard not to make Nai Nai into a caricature. She is based on a few older women that I know, grandmothers and mothers who do spit out lychee seeds into buckets, or who bash watermelons with their palms. Women who want to show their love by feeding you and feeding you some more.

The book is written in first person, so we see things form Danny’s point of view and I think he was meaner to her in the earlier drafts.  My editor helped me to bring out Danny’s feelings about his grandmother more, but to have him less stroppy. She said he also needed to be likeable! I think the tricky part was making him dislike her for taking up space in his life, rather than disliking her for being ‘foreign’ – I didn’t want readers to see her to ‘other’ even though she is newly-arrived, so that was a challenge and I hope it worked. In the scene with the chicken feet this came to the forefront – I didn’t want Danny to be embarrassed by the food, he loves the food she brought to school. He wanted to eat it. He’s embarrassed that she’s shown up to school. Little things like that were important for me. I’ve seen books where Chinese food is posited as ‘disgusting’. It’s about showing the relationship between them as a bridge between generations and cultures. I had a lot of worries about representation when writing it. I wanted to centre a British Chinese character, he’s from the diaspora and so it’s almost a third space. Non-Chinese people might see him as an outsider even though he’s British, Chinese from Asia don’t see him as fully Chinese because he can’t speak the language. It’s a precarious place to be.

Danny finds self-expression through his art, did you have any means for release when you were growing up?

I used to like drawing when I was a child. I won a couple of art competitions when I was in reception class. My painting of Little Red Riding Hood was put up in my local library (the now closed Selly Oak Library in South Birmingham) and I used to like music. I was a fan of Shakin’ Stevens and Adam and the Ants and put masking tape on my face to replicate the Adam Ant stripes that he used to have on his face. I liked to read and to go to the library. I had a few of those Ladybird fairytale books at home but we weren’t a family who read. My parents would read the local newspaper and my dad would buy the Angling Times, as she was a fisherman, but that was it. I liked to make up games and play out on the streets and in the local park, which was called Graffiti Park by the kids, you can guess why!

There's a lot of thoughtful comment around the fusion of different cultures and traditions but there is also a lot of humour, were you conscious of creating a balance between the two and is humour a useful means for exploring complex ideas?

I think the humour comes from my family background. I think humour can be used to break down barriers between people. It can also create divides if you are using it to bully or make fun of someone. How can I centre this person’s experience and add nuance to their character? I think was one question I looked at when writing the characters. For example, Auntie Yee is a tiger mom. She is like a lot of parents I’ve met (Chinese and also non-Chinese) who are pushy, they’re competitive and think about their child as the sum of their academic achievements. I presented that stereotype (because there are people like that I know), but I also added a layer of empathy where we can see that Auntie Yee, also strives to belong in a culture that does not accept her fully so then she thinks that by having certain things or having a daughter who is the best is the way to make friends of be accepted.

The Branford Boase recognises both a debut author and also their editor, can you tell us a little about the relationship you had with your editor Georgia Murray at Piccadilly Press?

Georgia loved my writing from the beginning. When we met for the first time, I was sure this was the right editor for my book. I could tell she loved the characters and she said it was in ‘good shape’ which made me feel like I wasn’t a total novice.

Georgia sends me notes about the big things like structure, characters, plot and then there are notes on the actual manuscript. I must say that each time I’ve had editor notes from Georgia, they have been kind (which is very important for first time writers), the tone is not condescending, or demanding either. She offers gentle suggestions and so far, there hasn’t been a note which I’ve disagreed on or had to dispute. I think there is a now an inherent trust between us. She knows how I work, which can be disorganised, as I have a rough plan when I start writing but I like to see what will appear as I’m writing. I have to delete a lot of words sometimes as I try things and they may not always work but I accept that as part of the process of writing.

It was interesting for me to have Georgia there from the idea stage with my second novel - Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu and I would say her input into the shaping of Lizzie Chu was a lot more than with Danny Chung as I had her support all the way through. She was particularly helpful when I was stuck. I think sometimes I want someone else to come up with the answers for me, but Georgia is good at encouraging me to stick with the process. Parts of the novel appear in the writing of it and some of it feels unconscious and magical almost, I don’t know where some of it comes from.

I value Georgia’s measured nature and if I have any concerns (I am a worrier!) then I feel I can always go to her and tell her what’s on my mind. I trust Georgia (and her team) to know about the market and so when they came up with Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths as the title of the book, I wasn’t sure, but then I told myself, I have to trust her and the team to know what is best for the book.

Your latest book is 'Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu,' can you tell us anything about it please?

Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu is about a young carer whose grandad, Wai Gong is acting a little strange. They’re huge Strictly Come Dancing fans and Lizzie gets tickets to the Blackpool Tower (the home of Ballroom and Latin dancing) and she wants to take him there for a special day out but she’s twelve-years-old and needs help. It’s got a road trip, cosplay and of course, dancing. But there are also intermissions of Chinese myths and legends about the goddess Guan Yin who features in the book. She is the goddess of compassion and mercy. The book is influenced and was written during the pandemic. It was hard going! It’s really a homage to popular culture which was our escape during a tough time, and also, it’s a book about joy and kindness. It’s quite different from Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths, the themes are a little bit older, as is the voice. The writing was also different as the story isn’t as layered as Danny Chung either and there isn’t an antagonist as such, the obstacles are linear. But it is emotive, so I’ve been told and there is humour in there too and a lively cast of characters. I hope readers like it!

The winner of the Branford Boase traditionally goes on to judge the award, is there anything you will be particularly keen to see next year?

Ohhhh, what an interesting question! I don’t know! I loved seeing a highly illustrated book on this year’s shortlist. I think graphic novels are highly sophisticated and so perhaps I’d like to see one of those do well – a YA graphic novel maybe? They’re becoming increasingly popular for all age ranges. Also, funny books are hard to write but often don’t get the kudos that they should in children’s literature. If you can make a children smile, laugh or giggle that is no mean feat and I think children need joy now as they’ve been through so much. So maybe a funny book where you learn something new too? Who knows what we are going to get next year!

A big thank you to Maisie for the interview and to Andrea Reece for the opportunity.

We are hugely excited to welcome the incredibly talented authors and illustrators James Mayhew and Jackie Morris to the blog to talk about their new collaboration Mrs Noah’s Song, illustration, influences, music and nature in a far-reaching and wide-ranging interview.

Please could you introduce us to Mrs Noah?

Jackie:

Mrs Noah is a woman of few words, but great action. She is kind and gentle and thinks for herself. She’s also a wise woman. She is a mother first and her family mean the world to her, but/and her family includes all that is living, from stone to tree to bird to bee to mythical creatures whose blood are stories. 

James:

I love the connection Mrs Noah has to nature, and her strength and resourcefulness. What I love about her in this story is her vulnerability, which we haven’t seen much of before. This story explores sadness, memory, and what you leave behind when you migrate. At the same time, Mrs Noah is a positive force, and through song she connects her family deeply in their new land.

What was involved in building out the character of Mrs Noah?

Jackie:

There are parallels between the story of Noah and Mrs Noah and the story in the Bible, but they are most certainly not the same thing. Mrs Noah is a story of migration, whilst the Bible story is one of apocalyptic vengeance, involving the death of all life, except for the one chosen family. As a child I could never understand why this story of extreme horror was told to children as a cute ‘look at all the animals, two by two’. I saw all that was left out, all who were drowned, punished and wiped from the face of the earth. Horror. Mrs Noah may have an ark, a husband and lots of animals. The roots may have sprouted from the Bible, but they all come from a place of love, not vengeance.

James:

I’m always amused when people complain that this doesn’t follow the bible story! In fact, Jackie was initially prompted to write the story after seeing my designs for Benjamin Britten’s children’s opera Noye’s Fludde. This has a rather irreverent Mrs Noah, who gets drunk, gossips and in one scene slaps Mr Noah - and the text is from the Chester Miracle Plays, written down in the 13th century! So the idea that Mrs Noah can only be one thing is absurd and has been for centuries. Jackie version is the best of the lot, of course!

In this book Mrs Noah is teaching the children to sing.  How important do you think it is for children to sing and what benefits do you think this brings?

Jackie:

Singing it a beautiful thing, and the rights of the child to sing, to be heard, to learn how music fits together and to find their own voice is of fundamental importance to me. Through music children can learn so much about listening and sharing.

James:

Children are naturally musical. This fundamental means of communication seems incredibly important to me, and I really don’t understand while music (and all the arts) are sidelined in education. The benefits are huge: language, memory, collaboration, confidence, storytelling, history, cultural differences, celebration, mourning, joy and sorrow - and humour! It’s all there in song.

You’ve both been involved with projects that bring music, stories and art together, can you tell us about this and the impact of music on children?

James:

I’ve been painting with musicians and orchestras for 15 years. It’s grown to become a huge part of my professional practice and inspired my book Once Upon A Tune. I work mostly in the classical world, restoring original tales to music inspired by myths and legends, and illustrating live to underpin the meaning of the music. It’s had a hugely response with family audiences who come back year after year. But also, as an art/music workshop in the classroom, I’ve been moved to see how many of the quiet, under confident children start to shine. Autistic children, elective mutes, Down’s Syndrome children too, they see to respond deeply to the music, and create and join in. It’s been exceptionally rewarding.

I was fortunate enough to see Jackie painting to music at the World premiere of Spell Songs at Snape in Suffolk. This concert of folk music is inspired by her collaboration with Robert McFarlane, The Lost Words (for which Jackie won the Kate Greenaway medal). It was very special to be in the audience and witness how art, words and music can intertwine so powerfully, so gracefully. Jackie has gone on to tour all over the country, painting in beautiful inks and casting her own spell. It’s funny we’ve both ended up enchanted and bewitched by music, and song.

Are there any particular pieces of music which especially resonate with you and do you listen to music when writing and illustrating?

James:

When I’m writing I need silence. When I’m illustrating I listen to all sorts of music. I love any music that tells a story. I tend to listen to mostly classical music, but I also have a big long of traditional folk songs from other countries.  I especially love Spanish folk music - I have many records by a Spanish/Catalan soprano Victoria de Los Angeles. Although she was best known as an opera singer, she was also the first to record many traditional songs of Spain. What fascinates me is the Arabic, Indian or Jewish influences on the songs, many written during the time the Moors ruled Spain. The Arabesques in the music remind us that these are songs that travelled from other cultures. Like Mrs Noah and her family, songs migrate too!

In the classical world, my biggest loves are Sibelius and Rimsky-Korsakov - they were both “musical illustrators” creating wonderful images and stories in sound.

Jackie, how does it feel to write stories that are illustrated by somebody else?

I love writing for other illustrators, and it is always a delight to see my words come to life in the paintings and collages. I would love to do more. I would so love to write for Petr Horacek and Angela Barrett, but then would have loved to have written for Brian Wildsmith and Pauline Baynes.

James, please can you tell us about the process and media you used for illustrating Mrs Noah’s song?

This is a technique I developed especially for the first Mrs Noah book. Essentially it is collage, but it involves lots of printmaking too. I love printing and lino-cutting, so I create often abstract linocuts and print them to create interesting textures. These linos can be printed on all sorts of paper, including music scores. other papers are painted, scribbled on, rubbed with crayons etc. I them cut these up the create the images. Often an unexpected decision is made - sometimes a paper will suggest something different to what I’d intended. There is a huge amount of experiment and play, which I love. Ultimately, my eye, my *vision* guides it all, but I constantly surprise myself. Some small details are fiddly and difficult (and I may resort to drawing for those), and it’s a time-consuming (all- consuming!) practice. It is hard work. But I love that until every bit is glued, it can continually change.

The depiction of nature and of light is beautiful and there’s a real sense of joy and wonder in how children connect with nature and the environment around them.  Was nature important to you growing up and has it continued to be?

Jackie:

This seems like so strange a question. Without Nature we do not exist, so, yes, it was important to my basic life support. It’s not a theme park, it is life support. We are all connected, and humans are so small a part of the natural, wild world. We just happen to be a very badly behaved part, who need to take a good look at our place in the universe and re-establish our focus on what is important. EVERY LIVING THING.

James:

One Spring, when I was about ten years old, I woke up in the night, and decided to creep downstairs. I tiptoed through the kitchen and unlocked the door. The sky was almost green, and the grass in the garden was wet with dew. In our garden was a very old apple tree, big enough for a hammock. There is a special magic about being somewhere you shouldn’t, especially when the rest of the world is asleep. I lay in the hammock and watched the sky change. One by one the birds awoke, singing their little hearts out, louder and louder! A thrilling sound, bursting with life and music; an exultation. It was transcendent and never forgotten: my first drawn chorus.

When I first chatted to Jackie Morris about her ideas for Mrs Noah’s Song, I described this memory. She very generously wove it into the story. When she first read it, I cried. It touched on something very deep inside - obviously my memory, but also something more - the beauty of the natural world, so often smothered in mankind’s noise, or threatened with environmental damage. But it also spoke of the power of music, of the arts, and of communication, and sharing.

I grew up in the country, in a tiny village in Suffolk. There was nothing else there *except* Nature. Perhaps I take that immersion in the natural world for granted? I don’t know. It was a very simple, very ordinary childhood in many ways. It wasn’t an idyll. But I learned huge respect for nature, for weather. In Suffolk, the skies and sunsets were astonishing. As an adult, going out into the world, it’s been quite demoralising to see what the human race has done to the planet - the roads, the cities, the trashing of Nature. Five years ago, I moved back to Suffolk. It called me home, and I couldn’t be happier. I need to be near woodland, river and birdsong.

A big thank you to James Mayhew and Jackie Morris for the interview and to Tatti de Jersey and Otter-Barry Books for the opportunity.  The Youth Libraries Group annual conference this year focuses around nature and the environment, Reading the Planet.  To find out more visit here.

Photos: James Mayhew by respira fotografia; Jackie Morris by Elly Lucas