A Winterson's tale
The author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit talks to Allan Radcliffe about her sophisticated new children’s fable.
canettc Winterson takes everything seriously. ‘It's tlte only way to have fun] as she puts it. The novelist's cultural interests range from opera to fitness; she is passionate about cars and motorbikes and has a food shop on the ground floor of the London house she restored from derelict. (‘ontacting her for a telephone interview. I provide temporary relief frotn her long internet trawl fora new (i4 Mac I’owerbook. She loves
Macs. she tells me. but hates the business of
ping-ponging between sites. comparing prices. Later in our discussion. the sound of a plane flying over her ()xfordshire home from nearby RAI" Bri/e Norton brielly distracts her. "There it goes: off to bomb Lebanon.‘ she mutters.
Winterson’s insatiable curiosity is apparent across her body of work. from her groundbreaking debut ()rurigi's .‘II'(' No! the ()rily I’i'iiii. which drew on her experiences as the adopted daughter of working class evangelical Christians. ejected from the fold at In alter falling in love with another young woman. Saving the ('Iii'rrv was inspired by the l7th (‘entury travels of John 'I‘radescant: (iii! .S'_vn1n1i'iri'es deals with quantum physics. while The l’oii'i'r/mok was the first love story to be set in cyberspace.
At first sight. Winterson's new children‘s novel 'Iiirig/i’ii'i‘i'i‘k seems the Dickensian tale of an orphan. Silver River (the name borrowed from Winterson's own novel Light/ii)iisi'ki'i'pingl dragged up by her cruel. selfish aunt. Mrs Rockabye. and regularly tormented by the vindictive rabbit. Bigamist. But Silver and her tormentors live in a world where time itself has become erratic. leading them on a quest for the Timekeeper ('for whoever controls the Timekeeper controls time‘) in competition with the sinister Abel Darkwater and wily scientist Regalia Mason. In a typical Winterson-esque weaving of fiction with real life. there are even guest appearances from scientists Stephen Hawkng and Susan Greenwood among others.
The novel shares elements in common with works such as ()I'UH‘QUS. Saving the Cherry and [.fglllllt"(NU/(C(77ngI a /ippy pace. larger than life. archetypal characters and an obvious /est for language. Indeed. Winterson rejects the notion that you have to wear different heads when writing fiction for different age groups.
‘I approached ’I'iing/i'ii'ri'i'k in the way I approach all my books.‘ she says. ‘I wanted to write about what I find interesting. I love science. I always have: I buy New .Si'it’ntisl every week. But I also knew there was a strong
enough story that if the science became a bit of
a struggle for the readers they could always skim over that and find out what .\Irs Rockabye was doing. or laugh at the other comic villains.‘
For the first time in her fiction career. Winterson had collaborators in the form of her godchildren Eleanor and Cara.
‘They brought me their ideas. Of course Silver had to be an orphan. because all kids long to dump their parents. And there had to be
a good cat and an evil rabbit. Those were their stipulations.‘
More generally. the author declares herself
happy with the balance between the solitary business of writing novels. cocooncd in the ()xfordshire countryside. and collaborating on theatre. film and television projects. including a forthcoming BBC adaptation of IIil/Ifi/(‘Il'l't’t'ln
'I can quite happily be on my own. but I like to collaborate too. It‘s all about throwing something against the wall and seeing if it smashes. .-\nd it‘s important to put aside your own ego and vanity in those cases.'
Not all of \Vinterson‘s forays into screen drama have been unfettered triumphs. While her screen adaptation of ()riirigi's won sweeping critical claim and a booty of awards. and her re-imagining of The l’oii‘i'r/mo/t for The National Theatre was equally well received. Winterson refers disdainfully to her Hollywood experience. \Vhat started otlt as a promising project 7- a screen adaptation of her second novel. III/IF l’usxvimi. produced by Miramax and starring (iwyneth I’altrow bloated into a worst case scenario of endless
rewrites coupled to the inevitable law of
diminishing returns. It‘s an experience she won't be repeating in a hurry. ‘Ilollywood come along and offer you a bin
‘IT'S ABOUT THROWING SOMETHING AGAINST THE WALL AND SEEING IF IT SMASHES'
bag full of cash. and then take your work and
turn it into rubbish. It‘s pitiless'. That version of
T/M’ Passion will never happen now because the rights have reverted to me. and I would rather see it in the cesspool than leave it at Miramax.’
Happily. she has no such qualms about returning to the beeb.
‘I had such a nice time with this that I didn't want it messed about with. And I was offered a very good slot over two evenings at (‘hristmas 2007. The BBC can‘t offer you a bin bag full of cash but they can offer you a good slot. Anyway. they like me because I won so many awards for them with (Dir/revs.~
She sees her adaptation as returning children‘s films to traditional values.
‘I like JK Rowling. I think she‘s done great
things in this world. But I couldn‘t get out of
the last Harry Potter lilm quickly enough. It was just weighed down with special effects. I don‘t want to see one more event movie. I want to watch something with fantastic characters. good dialogue and a good story.‘
In \Vinterson‘s hands this simple formula seems a recipe for success.
Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, Thu 17 Aug, 5pm, £3.50; Fri 18 Aug, 1 1.30am, £7 (£5).
JOURNEY MAN
David Sedaris shares his industrious working methods and love of reading in public with Ashley Davies.
How many times have you been to a hook festival and ended tip feeling let down and grey when an author you admire reads material you've already heard and seems like he or she can‘t wait to get back into their natural habitat — a solitary working environment With no pesky. obsessrve fans getting in the way?
Well. you're absolutely not geing to get that with humourist DaVld Sedans. The man's working style is so public. he might as well be sitting with his laptop on the Royal Mile wearing his pyjamas. Twice a year he goes on a lecture tour of the US — for his last excursion he Visited 36 Cities in 37 days. He doesn't like having to read the same stuff repeatedly so he uses the events to gauge audience response. get the words just right and keep himself entertained while he's at it.
‘I really appreciate the opportunity to read something out loud and go back to my room and rewrite it and read it the next night and re— write it,‘ he says. ‘So i find myself cutting more and adding. Also. reading out loud you can imitate someone's voice.“
And anyone who's heard his incredibly funny audiobooks (a rare example of a write work being just as good as. if not better than. the paper version) will know how good he is wrth his voice. whether that's doing rather cruelly accurate imitations of his redneck-sounding brother or his own childhood self.
While it's not something he'd really planned to do. the backbone of his work is made up of observations of family. past and present, and stuff that happens in his own day-to-day life (he's from America but lives between London and Paris with his boyfriend. Hugh, daft arguments with whom he has written about honestly and hilariously).
Most of his books. such as Me Talk Pretty One Day and the most recent and best-selling Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. are what he calls ‘truish‘ but he has had a hankering to write more fiction, so he's been experimenting with some odd-sounding animal fables as a way of getting back into fiction. ‘They're kind of like fables but for a table you need a really clear moral,‘ he says. Given that this understatement comes from a man who admits to being overwhelmed by property lust when visiting the Anne Frank house. don't say you haven't been warned.
I 22 Aug, 8.30pm, £8 (£6).
‘ '—2-1 A x; 2'2"}. THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 1 1