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 Melvin
Burgess's new book 'Doing It', which graphically details
the sexual experiences of three teenage boys, was published
recently by Anderson Press.
Shortly before publication a media furore was created after
the book was reviewed by the children's laureate Anne Fine
for the Guardian Newspaper. In the review Fine labelled
the book 'grubby' and called for Burgess' publishers to
'pulp their copies now'.
We caught up with Melvin to ask his thoughts on the book
and the reaction to it.
Jubilee Books: ‘Doing It’ really first entered
the public domain with the now infamous review of the book
by Anne Fine that appeared in the Guardian Newspaper. Were
you surprised by her comments and did you think it was fair
of her as the Children’s Laureate to attack a fellow
author in this way?
Melvin Burgess: I was surprised, I would have expected
her to get in touch if she felt like that although there
was some warning beforehand. I didn’t think it was
very fair really, I don’t think she’d have been
able to do that if she hadn’t been the Children’s
Laureate. I didn’t think it was a very fair review,
picking out the rude bits and taking them out of context
isn’t a very good way of reviewing a book and in that
way the laureate thing is neither here nor there really.
Most feedback I’ve seen since then has been fairly
positive though, would you agree?
Yeah, I’d say so. I’ve been very pleased with
it, there’s been some criticism but useful criticism
of it as a book and I haven’t had that same sort of
response from a moral point of view, or any misreading of
it.
Her comments also raised the issue of censorship and
what is suitable subject matter for a children’s books.
You’re usually on the receiving end of such commentary
but I was wondering what your own views are on this subject.
Do you think there are things that shouldn’t be touched
upon in books for readers of this age?
I don’t really think so. I think teenage books are
a bit different from children’s books and the thing
is that there’s a practical issue and there’s
not much point in writing stuff for people if they haven’t
got a handle on it. As long as it’s comprehensible
and so long as it’s assimilatable, particularly when
you’re living in an age in which it’s actually
difficult to introduce anything new. It always reminds me
of adult books looking back on their childhood, and how
you get this picture of really isolated kids. I think in
the past children have been kept very separate from the
adult world and a lot of secrets were kept from them. That
isn’t the case nowadays which is a good thing, but
it does mean that we have to engage with kids on many things
that we may feel uncomfortable with.
I can’t think of any other book that is as sexually
descriptive aimed at readers of that age. Do you think other
authors have shied away from teenage sexuality or at least
failed to recognize the complexities of teenage sexuality?
I think people are very wary of kids and teenagers sexuality
in general, there’s a great fear of it. There is also
the peculiarity that if you write for teenagers then there
is a movement to try to connect with them on all kinds of
levels. If you’re trying to connect with them on a
personal level, so to speak, rather than providing a cracking
good read then you have to do it from your own perspective.
You have to remember yourself as an adolescent and people
do sometimes feel uncomfortable about doing that, apart
from the fact that they’re likely to be criticized.
One of the things I got criticized for is that there’s
a kind of queasiness that someone my age can write something
that’s going to turn someone on when they’re 14.
My answer to that is that really you’re writing about
adolescence, which is about kids of that age but it’s
also for people of any age as long as you’ve been an
adolescent you’ll get something out of it even if it
is aimed mainly at younger readers.
How did you go about researching for the book?
What I did was go around to everyone I knew and ask them
for their knobby stories. Everyone has been an adolescent
and it’s not aimed at any particular period and there’s
no cultural references for any period. It’s rather
about being that age and that’s the reason I didn’t
put any football or music and all that kind of stuff in
it. So I went around asking all my male and female friends
what their stories were and so there’s a range of input
in there from people aged between 23 and 60. What you get
is a continuity of confusions and some sort of changes,
I think attitudes towards oral sex have changed a lot, but
basically the jokey language and the crude language is not
something everyone does but if you do do it you’d have
done it 100 years ago or today.
You’ve said that the book was quite difficult to
write. What was it about the book that was particularly
difficult?
Getting it spot on. It was obviously going to get criticism
because some people find sex disturbing for some obscure
reason, so I wanted to get it just right. Particularly if
you’re talking about humorous smut and writing about
sex they’re both very difficult things. There’s
nothing worse than writing about sex badly and there’s
nothing worse than smutty talk that doesn’t quite hit
the nail on the head. I also found it difficult because
I wanted to make it very authentic in terms of what the
lads were like. When dealing with the characters of the
boys there wasn’t a lot out there, I mean you tend
to take a lot of character work from other books and from
films and TV and so forth and boys in particular just aren’t
portrayed like that I think. They’re not always badly
portrayed but they’re not necessarily accurately portrayed
and I don’t think people very much bother drawing from
life with boys of that age.
Do you think that’s a consequence of people being
repulsed by boys of that age and often finding them a bit
objectionable?
I’m sure it’s partly that, boys of that age are
not terribly politically correct and it’s supposed
to be a terrible age and they’re all supposed to be
horrible. A lot of the attacks I got on this book I felt
were very offensive about my boys because I think they’re
nice lads. A lot of people who’ve liked the book have
said they felt very affectionate towards the boys and protective
of them and I think that they’re quite charming in
their own way.
Would you agree that there’s a distinct lack of
books written for boys of that age?
There’s a great lack of books for them. I was talking
about those books where people write about their childhood
and there are those one’s scattered about but they’re
quite difficult to get your hands on. A lot writers get
round to writing autobiographical stuff that happened a
long time ago, I read one recently by the guy who directed
‘Withnail And I’ and it was absolutely brilliant
but you wouldn’t know it was there if you were a lad
of that age and you wanted to get your paws on it.
I think that it’s also a difficult age to write
for because kids that are 13 or 14 and who are readers will
already be reading adult books anyway.
Yeah, they’ll already be reading adult books and it’s
a criticism of bookshops that the section for teenagers
will only have books written specifically for teenagers,
there should be a wider range than that. Despite what people
say it isn’t an area you go into to become hugely rich
because you don’t sell so many books. I do believe
there is a market though and kids from 13 up do read adult
books and quite rightly so, but it is still the case that
there is an absence of books aimed directly at that age.
For every other age there’s books, whether it be about
sitting on your potty, or working, being a student, marriage,
divorce and so on but there isn’t really an area of
work for that particular age. People skirt round adolescence
still as if it’s some horrible sordid little mess.
You and several other high profile authors spoke out
about the sponsorship of the Booktrust Teenage Book Prize
by Nestlé. You obviously feel very strongly about
the issue.
I felt it was inappropriate really. Nestlé have changed
but not that much and Baby Milk Action is a very respectable
organization and they are very clear that Nestlé
are breaking a lot of codes and covering up. There’s
also a suspicion that they seem to have been advised to
fight against the bad publicity by sponsorship; they have
acquired the Smarties Prize, they’ve acquired the Perrier
Prize by buying out other companies. I do sympathize with
the Booktrust who actually do an awful lot of good and had
begun with the Rowntree Smarties Prize and then Nestlé
took it over and it was just the Smarties Prize and then
the Nestlé name eventually crept in. A lot of people
were feeling quite uncomfortable about it but it was all
very well established and no one wanted to make a fuss about
it, but when the Teenage Prize came out being called just
the Nestlé Prize I thought it was a step too far
really. I think people need to reconsider that kind of sponsorship
but I was very pleased, and we were all very pleased, with
the outcome. There does need to be a teenage book prize
and the Booktrust are a very good organization to do it.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on Bloodtide 2 at the moment. It’s
a bit difficult to say when it’ll be out, I’m
about half way through it now and I would say I’ll
finish it in four or five months so it could even be coming
out in spring next year.
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