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Jubilee Books: The Demon Headmaster has returned
after a bit of a break in a new book Facing The Demon
Headmaster. What can you tell us about this new book?
 Gillian
Cross: Well in this new book Dinah and her friends
in SPLAT go to a fantastic new club called Purple, which
is an under 18 night, and the DJ is a mysterious figure
who wears a hologram mask so his face changes all the time.
He also seems to be able to be present all over the country
at the same time. He challenges fans to find out who he
is and what he really looks like. Dinah starts to investigate
this, mostly on the Internet, where she stumbles across
a photograph of someone who looks exactly like her father.
She's always understood that he died when she was a baby.
The plot thickens after that.
The DJ you mention is called DJ Pardoman. Firstly I
wondered where his name came from. Secondly I know there's
two French DJ's called Daft Punk who wear masks and no one
knows what they look like, did you know about them?
No I didn't, that's uncanny. What's happened to me a number
of times is that I've made something up and find out later
that it's actually true. I'm delighted that it makes it
more authentic, but I didn't base the character on a particular
DJ. As for the name. I once knew someone whose name was
Pardoman and it seemed to fit in.
Will we see any more books in the Demon Headmaster series?
Well I don't know because every time I write one I think
'that's it' and then something surfaces and I write another
one. If something does surface there'll be another one,
but if not, I don't plan to write one every so often.
The Demon Headmaster was serialized for television.
What was it like seeing your work on screen?
It was a very good experience, they took immense care and
I very much liked what they did. They serialized two books
I had written some time ago and I wrote two more books that
I discussed with them as I was making them up, so I had
a lot opportunity to think about the difference between
telling a story in a book and on TV. It's really interesting
that the narrative is a lot different between books and
television and I enjoyed that experience. I enjoyed the
whole experience, it was great!
Your last book Calling a Dead Man begins with
the discovery of a Dead Body in Siberia. Why did you choose
Siberia as the setting for this book?
That's where the book came from really. I wanted to write
a book in a very cold and remote place and about people
being lost, so Siberia seemed like the obvious choice. The
more I read about Siberia the more excited I got about it.
It's the most extraordinary place full of all kinds of treasures
and riches that are all frozen away. The idea of Siberia
is really the core of the book.
How did you go about research for that book?
I read a lot. I read a lot of general books about facts
and figures and geographical stuff. But I also looked for
books by people who had travelled there and visited particular
places because I think that's what you need if you're going
to visualize particular places. I did it mostly from reading
and some research on the Internet but I didn't actually
go there. I've only seen it once and that was from the air
on the way back from Japan.
Is there another place you would like to visit to research
for a book?
I find the centre of Australia very fascinating although
there it would be very tricky to write about. There's also
lots of places in Africa I'd be really interested to write
about. I'm actually going to the former Yugoslavia in January,
not necessarily connected with writing, but I'm interested
to see if anything comes from that.
When did you realize you wanted to become a writer?
I always, always wanted to become a writer. I never thought
that I wanted my career to be as a writer but I always wanted
to write books. After University I started doing it. As
I had young children I didn't need to think about what I
was doing because I was looking after my children. By the
time they had grown up and I did need to think about what
I was going to do I was lucky enough to have had books accepted
for publication. I never think of it as a job though, it's
such a great thing to do.
When I was a child I read very widely. I liked Frances Hodgson
Burnett, especially The Secret Garden, and I read
a lot of Shakespeare when I was a teenager. I liked Little
Women a lot, quite traditional children's books. I read
a lot of poetry and some plays. Now I read lots of stuff.
I like Peter Dickenson's books, Anne Fine and David Almond,
I could go on.
Do you have any hobbies or interests other than writing?
I go orienteering. Everybody in our family goes orienteering.
We've done it for about 20 years now. I'm not very good
at it but I really enjoy it. It's in the nature of the sport
that you go to somewhere different every time. It's organized
on a club basis and the club maps an area and puts on particular
events. We've been to all sorts of places all over the country,
we go to Scotland quite often and we've also been to France.
Some people go all over the world but we haven't travelled
that widely, although our older children have. I also play
the piano, although not very well.
What other jobs ahve you had?
I've had all kinds of jobs although they've always been
part time. Early on I worked for the bakers in the village
helping him to make bread. I also worked for a while for
a Member of Parliament in his constituency in Kent, talking
to people who would phone up to make appointments to see
him. I heard lots of interesting and rather sad stories
about problems that people had and it was my job to put
them in contact with the right people who could help them
sort out there problems. I've also been a child minder.
I did teach at a University and I also worked as an untrained
teacher.
What are you working on at the moment?
I'm writing a long and quite complicated book which I can't
tell you about. I've nearly finished it and if all goes
according to plan it'll be out towards the end of next year.
Interview conducted with Joseph Pike August
2002
Material © Jubilee Books.
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