Your first novel is set in a world of books, was this important to you?
Books are so much a part of me and my life that I don’t think the first time I wrote fiction it could have been any other way to be honest. It wasn’t so much a conscious decision, as a natural and instinctive thing to write about what I love. I also really enjoy reading books about books and writers and libraries and I think it’s important to write something you would love to read. On a more specific level and once I had the basic idea sorted, it was really exciting for me to hopefully be able to introduce some young readers to some older books such as Anne of Green Gables and A Little Princess which I think have absolutely stood the test of time.
Why did you choose to write a children’s book as opposed to a book for adults?
Again this wasn’t really a conscious choice and I think often the idea you have dictates your audience. I actually wrote about a page of a book that was very loosely the start of Pages & Co but it didn’t work at all. I love children’s books; I think that usually the books that have the most formative effects on us as those we we read at around the age of 10 and so it’s a huge privilege to write for that age group – if Pages & Co means what my favourite books meant to me to even just one reader then I feel I’ve done my job. On a more technical perspective, I also felt the story would benefit from the sense of whismy and adventure and lack of cynicism that MG allows for.
What were your favourite books as a child and are they still favourites now?
I read voraciously as a child and it’s hard to pick out favourites but among them were many that are still my favourites; Anne of Green Gables, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Momo by Michael Ende, Eva Ibbotson and Diana Wynne Jones. I still reread these books.
Any advice to anyone dreaming of becoming an author?
It’s the most common advice but I think that’s probably because it’s the best; read. There’s a level of storytelling you have to have inside you to write fiction that I think you just soak up and learn from reading for pleasure. I would also write what you love to read, try not to think about what you think other people want to read.
Where do you get your writing inspiration from?
Primarily it’s books; obviously not stealing ideas or anything, but I’m inspired by reading things that I love, that change me, that challenge me, that test and play with what fiction can do. I often read before I start writing – nothing similar but something that reminds me of the power of writing and how it can make you feel. It makes me want to get as close to that as I can in my work. There’s also just the beautiful serendipity of ideas and how a phrase or a picture or anything at all can be the seed of a new idea.
What are you working on next?
I’m currently at the latter stages of editing Pages & Co 2, which is called Tilly and the Lost Fairytales and comes out in September this year. It’s a direct sequel to the first book, and sees Oskar and Tilly visit Paris, and do some bookwandering in fairy tales, where things aren’t quite what they’re expecting. There’s a sneak peek of the first chapter in the paperback edition of Tilly and the Bookwanderers which comes out in June.
I am generally not too sentimental about books as physical objects but there are a few that are incredible precious to me; books that my grandparents gave me, a signed first edition of my favourite book, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, a signed copy of Wolf Hall, my dad’s childhood copy of Momo by Michael Ende. So I’d try and grab as many of those as possible!
What five people, living or dead, would you choose to invite to a dinner party?
Ever since reading Royal Bodies, Hilary Mantel’s extraordinary essay for the London Review of Books (https://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies) I would say I would invite Anne Boleyn, Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle, and Hilary Mantel to discuss said essay and its ideas, and I would invite Virginia Woolf as my fifth because I think she’d have a really interesting take on it too!
Thank you Anna for taking the time out to chat with me about your books. The first book in the Pages & Co. series, Tilly and the Bookwanderers is out now!
Happy Reading
Miss Chapters x
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