Ancient and Modern
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01/03/2007 |
Fiona Razvi catches up with Wimbledon author Michelle Paver
.JPG) I first met Michelle following the publication of her hugely successful children’s book Wolf Brother in 2004. A naturally private person, she was just getting used to the publicity circuit that is required of an author. Two years on, she has acclimatised, having spent much of last year on publicity trips, including the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. ‘I love the buzz of festivals, and meeting readers is one of the best things about being a writer’, she says.
When we now meet in Wimbledon Village’s Common Room, she is demonstratively enthusiastic about her involvement in Wimbledon’s forthcoming book festival. Michelle was brought up and lives in Wimbledon and the attraction of a local festival is clear. ‘I’m delighted to be a patron of Wimbledon Bookfest. The great advantage of a local festival is that is can remain friendly and unintimidating.’
The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series are set in the Stone Age, and a large part of Michelle’s time is spent researching the books. Her most recently published, Soul Eater, took her to the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, Finland and Greenland and to Northern Canada where she spent time learning the traditional skills of the Inuit people. She uses these trips at her author events. ‘I bring lots of things to touch and see, including a reindeer skin. I tell them about how I’ve met bears - it can be really fun.’
Her books grip the imagination of children from eight to fifteen but get a wider audience too. She tells me about a signing in Edinburgh that went on for two and a half hours. ‘It was wonderful. I met one reader who had read the book eight times and a fourteen-year-old girl who came with mother and grandmother; who had all read and enjoyed the books.’
.jpg) One of the highlights for Michelle is going to the recordings of the audio books, read by Sir Ian McKellen. ‘There’s an element of Gandalf from Lord of the Rings reading my books’. And it was at the recording of the first book, Wolf Brother, that the realisation of her book’s achievement set in. ‘I can remember the exact paragraph. Listening to Ian’s voice and watching him. He got really physical and I just started to cry. And I didn’t stop until he finished.’
Although Michelle has got used to the publicity machine that goes with being an author today, she is someone who relishes the solitude of being alone to write. ‘You don’t need much to write’, she tells me. ‘I use an ancient laptop on a desk overlooking the garden.’ She asks people to phone her after 4pm and doesn’t have internet access, seeing it as a distraction. ‘I set myself targets, normally 8 hours a day. I think it’s a hangover of being a lawyer.’ Her fans who do write to her are promised a reply. ‘I let the letters pile up and then on a Sunday afternoon I’ll answer them. My motivation comes from these letters, and that the readers care.’ I asked Michelle whether she ever misses her former life as a city lawyer. ‘Not for a nano-second! I have an anxiety dream that I’m back in my office as a lawyer and I’ve got a case that I don’t know anything about.’
The fourth book in the series, Outcast, is due out in September 2007, in time for Wimbledon’s first book festival in October. Michelle, an active patron of the festival, tells me: ‘We want to include all kinds of readers: those who devour books by the boxful, and those who simply read a few on holiday.’.jpg)
The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series is published by Orion. www.michellepaver.com
Wimbledon Bookfest 2007 takes place 8-14 October www.wimbledonbookfest.org
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