|
1.
How long have you been writing
and how many books have you had published?
We started making books in 1984 when our children were babies.
Since then we have made more than 70, (books that is, not
babies!) Our titles are published in about 20 languages
around the world including Cantonese, Hebrew and Welsh!
Laurence does the writing and Catherine has illustrated
about half our books, but Laurence writes for lots of other
artists too, including Arthur Robins (Seriously Silly Stories)
and Tony Ross (One and Only Series) It's complicated isn't
it? But to make things even more confusing, Laurence also
illustrates his own books, mainly his series about famous
artists.
2.
Did you write for fun when you were at school?
Laurence says, "Unfortunately, when I was at school, I was
not very clever at all; my Maths was sort of 2+1=6ish and
my spelling woz evun wurs, BUT I always loved reading and
was keen on drawing; I also had lots of weird and wonderful
ideas. (My teachers didn't know what to do with me except
beat me quite a lot.)
Later,
I was lucky enough to go on to Art School - Catherine and
I met on the Fine Art Degree Course at Falmouth School of
Art in Cornwall. We moved to London together and I took
my Master's Degree in painting from the Royal Academy of
Art while Catherine studied Printmaking at the Royal College
of Art. It was at Art School that I started to experiment
with visual ideas and to write a few poems."
3.
Have you always earned your living as a writer? If not,
what else have you done?
Before we started making books, Catherine trained as a nurse
and Laurence did many peculiar jobs, including hotel-night-receptionist,
tropical-fish salesman, factory worker, carpenter and even
school teaching!
4.
What was your first book called?
Our very first books were about a little pig called 'Truffles',
(now sadly porked!). The funny thing is that we hadn't attempted
to create animal characters since then; but currently, we
are hard at work on our biggest project to date - a series
of books for very young children featuring two twin monkeys
called 'Chimp and Zee'. Chimp and Zee are based very closely
on our own twins, and that's where all the ideas come from.
We're really excited about it because it is certainly the
biggest, brightest thing we have done. The first book will
be published in September 2001.
5.
Was it difficult to get your first book published?
I think we were a little bit naïve about how difficult it
was to get something accepted, so as soon as we had made
a few drawings and written a couple of stories, we got on
the 'phone and asked to meet a very senior editor; I think
she was so surprised that she agreed to see us. We marched
in and showed her ideas and, to our amazement, agreed to
publish on the spot. Having said that, we didn't start to
earn a proper living from our work for many years after
that, and we also had numerous projects rejected; so we
wouldn't want to pretend that it is an easy business.
6.
Which is your favourite of your own books and why?
That's a very difficult question to answer. The truth is
that by the time a book is published, most authors are busy
on the next project. What tends to happen - certainly for
us- is that you only see the faults in your old books. You
often think, "I wish I could write that bit again", or "How
did I manage to draw that face so badly". The answer to
the question then, is that our favourite book is always
the one we are currently working on. Having said that, there
are one or two books which we do have affection for - 'Camille
And The Sunflowers', Laurence's story about Vincent van
Gogh is one, and 'Aren't
You Lucky!' is another because it's about
our daughter, Claire waiting for her new brother or sister
to be born. The Seriously Silly Stories (illustrated by
Arthur Robins) were also great fun to write.
7.
Which is your favourite children's book written by someone
else?
We both have many favourites - anything by the Ahlbergs
or John Burningham. Edward Ardizzone's illustrations are
still wonderful. There are also many fantastic books for
older children - 'The Owl Service' by Alan Garner was superb.
Laurence is a judge on this year's Smarties prize so he
has had to read over 300 new children's books and there
were certainly some fantastic books in there, for example,
'The
Other Side Of Truth' by Beverly Naidoo or 'Heaven
Eyes' by David Almond.
8.
How long does it take you to write a book?
At any time, we are working on as many as five new books
- some will be illustrated by other artists so they won't
take more than five or six months. Laurence's Art books
take about two years each because of the amount of research
involved. We started talking about our latest book, 'Chimp
and Zee' nearly five years ago, so that's something of a
record.
9.
Do you use a computer or write first drafts long hand?
Laurence does almost all the writing on a computer and we
use e-mail every day to edit books with our publishers.
We also have our own website at www.anholt.co.uk and we
get a lot of messages from all over the world. However we
NEVER do our illustrations on the computer because we love
the directness of paint on paper and we have never found
any software which can improve on that. We want our pictures
to look like they have been made by a human being rather
than by a machine - we like our books to have a slightly
'home made' quality, because they ARE made at home and are
based on our real day to day experiences.
10.
Do you have a writing routine or do you just write when
you feel like it?
We are pretty disciplined and we put in very long hours.
However, every day is different. We live right in the wilds
of the countryside, above the sea at Lyme Regis, so once
the kids have gone off to school, we generally take a walk
in the woods or along the beach and talk a little about
what we are working on. Then, at about 9.00, we both go
off to our separate studios. We often call in to ask each
other about this or that, and there are many occasions when
we sit together all day and 'brainstorm' ideas. Laurence
also spends a lot of time 'on the road', at book events
or at schools in the UK or abroad. We also spend a lot of
time with our kids in the evening, but we often work again
for an hour or two later in the day. It's not too hard because
we both love our work
11.
Rewriting - do you love it or hate it?
Rewriting is quite simply the entire process. I think of
writing as similar to working with clay - you add pieces
and remove huge chunks. It's a flexible process and you
have to be quite ruthless about removing excess text. In
almost every aspect of children's books LESS IS MORE! Most
children's writers spend more time whittling away words,
than adding to text- a bit like writing a Japanese Haiku.
12.
Have you ever belonged to a writers' group? If so, did it
help?
No, never. Writing is a very internal process and phrases
can float up from somewhere deep inside - I'm not sure that
a writer's group could help that. We are extremely fortunate
though, because we can bounce ideas off each other on a
daily basis and give each other encouragement - I think
it would be very hard to be completely isolated as a writer
or artist. For me, language is everything - I try to write
in an easy-going, natural style. I let the ideas come from
a deep level and try to find the poetry in words; I enjoy
their sounds. I play with rhythms, alliterations, rhyme
and sometimes invent words too. I like to dig out extraordinary,
funny or unexpected words. Quentin Blake says that he needed
to draw 100 miles of line before he became confident as
an artist; similarly, an author needs to write very regularly
in order to build up a momentum. It can also be helpful
to have several different ideas 'on the go' in order to
avoid becoming too precious.
13.
Do you have an agent?
For 15 years, we have worked without an agent and have become
reasonably competent at negotiating with publishers and
understanding legal terms in contracts. We are also members
of the Society of Authors (a sort of Trade Union for writers)
and often ask them for advice. More recently, however, we
have called on an agent to help us with some very complex
issues, like film and animation contracts and we have found
her extremely useful.
14.
Why do you like writing for children?
We could spend all day answering this one - there are so
many lovely things about the business. Some people think
that working for children must be restrictive in some ways,
but that simply isn't true - there are almost no limitations.
Children have the same breadth of emotion as adults and
certainly a greater imaginative range. It is true that their
vocabulary might be slightly limited but they are perfectly
capable of understanding very subtle allegories and, because
they are less cerebral, they are far more capable of 'diving'
into a book or a picture - if you watch a child painting
a picture, that piece of paper is not a barrier to them,
it is a 'trapdoor' into their imagination. The same is true
with children's books - a book is a door to a magical world.
Another factor is that we are dealing with people at the
most formative stage of their lives, so stories can plant
seeds in the fertile soil of their developing mind, which
will continue to grow throughout their life - in this way,
children's literature can dramatically shape our society.
Besides that, children are GOOD FUN, they have a sparky
sense of humour and are natural Surrealists - when we make
books for children, it allows us to play - and we get paid
for it!
15.
How do you get your ideas?
Ideas come from all around, at any time - it's a way of
looking at things; for example, if you had just crash-landed
on this planet from outer space, you would think that 'ordinary'
things such as dogs or cars were ABSOLUTELY EXTRAORDINARY…and
as for PEOPLE!! So, it is possible to learn to look at things
from a slightly sideways direction…a crumpled tissue can
be as beautiful as the Swiss Alps covered in snow if you
get rid of your preconceptions. I can honestly say that
we have never been short of ideas for books - the hard part
is to pick out one or two really good, simple ideas and
squash them into a story shape.
16.
Do you draw the pictures for your books?
If so, which comes first - the words or the pictures. In
general Laurence writes all the stories (with a huge amount
of input from Catherine) and Catherine spends most of her
time illustrating - but Laurence illustrates one book a
year too and writes for various other artists - it's quite
a complicated arrangement, but it works very well. With
almost all our books we think about words and pictures simultaneously.
That's another reason that we enjoy working for children
so much, because it's one of the few areas in which words
and pictures have equal importance. In a successful picture
book, the words and pictures run side by side (like a road
beside a river), they never overlap but they meander about
in the most unexpected ways.
17.
What advice would you offer anyone who wants to write for
children?
A children's author should be totally passionate and dedicated
- "My children/grandchildren love it when I make up stories"
is not enough, (it is YOU they love and they would be thrilled
to hear you read the label on a bottle of Domestos!). The
challenge is to write something which will remain exciting
when another person reads it aloud, or a child reads it
alone. Can you entice a child to step inside your magical
world?
Another thing to think about is that Publishing is a Business
and the financial rewards are arbitrary (very great or very
small), so you have to be prepared to push and hustle without
getting too emotional. BUT you also need to keep that essential
softness which is your creative self. A famous children's
author once gave this little pearl of wisdom - learn to
wear two hats for the two sides of the business and never
get them confused...in other words, accept that there are
two distinct sides to being an author, the Intuitive and
the Commercial. It is necessary to foster the creative side
of your personality but you also need to be prepared to
'box' a bit and be aware of the market for your ideas.
Think
about your characters very carefully - look at traditional
fairy tales, or pantomime characters, or at Roald Dahl or
Charles Dickens - the characters are always three dimensional;
never flat - often REALLY bad or REALLY creepy or REALLY
silly. Don't be afraid to 'Ham It Up' a bit when writing
for children. If your characters are going to be children,
make them 'come alive' by observing real children - young
kids are like little whirlwinds - they race about and charge
through a whole cascade of emotions within a day. They cry,
laugh, get scared. They are funny, slightly crazy, unpredictable.
They have huge ambitions and aspirations. They lead lives
which are charged with emotion as friendships twist and
turn - modern families are bubbling stews of emotion as
parents try to resolve all their complicated issues of gender
roles, divorce, step families etc and children soak all
that up.
You
should aim to come up with something which is original,
contemporary, international/universal, politically-correct,
passionate, personal, poetic, inventive, theatrical, exciting,
emotional, optimistic, inspiring...it's as easy as that!
18.
Are you working on anything exciting at the moment?
Laurence is currently working on an animated version
of his 'Seriously Silly Stories'. If all goes well, this
will result in a 23 part television series. He is also involved
in the adaptation of 'Camille And The Sunflowers' and the
other art books in this series as three half hour animations
for international TV and video release - the work is being
carried out by the team who made 'The Snowman', but it is
a very slow process and will be several years before completion.
An option is also being discussed for a Broadway Musical
version of 'Degas And The Little Dancer'.
Catherine
and Laurence have also been very involved in the UK 'BookStart'
initiative, which aims to bring books free of charge to
every new baby and parent in the country. The Anholt's have
produced much of the text and illustrations for the enterprise,
including the 'Babies Love books' leaflet.
|
|
