LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL Previews {BOOKS}
JULIA DONALDSON What other authors think of the new Children’s Laureate
‘Julia Donaldson is unique in the nicest way,’ says former Book Festival children’s writer in residence Vivian French. ‘She’s passionate about stories, whether in the form of books, songs or plays, and her enthusiasm is infectious.’ French is ‘delighted’ about Donaldson’s recent appointment as Children’s Laureate, and believes the creator of magical tales like The Gruffalo is the ideal candidate. ‘She can persuade even the starchiest of teachers to be a snail or a whale, and they end up enjoying every minute. If anyone can give children and adults a genuine love of books, Julia will.’ French – author of popular children’s series such as The Tiara Club – will lead EIBF youth drama workshop Curtain Up! alongside Donaldson and award-winning picture book writer Simon Puttock. He too is heartened by Donaldson’s literary assignment. ‘Every now and then I meet someone who is more than happy to admit complete ignorance of that fact that picture books can actually have writers,’ he says. ‘I’m therefore delighted that a writer of predominantly picture books is our new laureate. If we neglect to instil a love of books and of story in each new generation right from the start, we are pretty well sunk.’
In her role as a guest selector this year, Donaldson has
devised a programme that celebrates literature as a dynamic art form, featuring interaction, drama, illustration and song. It’s an approach that’s set to resonate throughout her laureateship. ‘It’s great that Julia is focusing on performance during her tenure,’ says acclaimed children’s author and playwright Guy Bass. ‘I got into writing through drama – it’s a wonderful, often overlooked way in to reading and storytelling. She’s done so much to inspire confidence in children already. And she can sing! What more could you ask for in a children’s laureate?’ (Nicola Meighan) ■ See edbookfest.co.uk for full details of events featuring Julia Donaldson, Simon Puttock, Vivian French and Guy Bass.
JENNY ERPENBECK Revisiting Germany’s troubled past KEVIN MACNEIL Revamping a classic RLS tale
STEPHEN KELMAN An overnight literary success
‘An extraordinarily strong book by a major German author, ingeniously translated, produced with love by an idealistic publisher . . .’ The words of Michel Faber writing in The Guardian last year. High praise indeed for Jenny Erpenbeck and her third novel, Visitation, but not out of turn. Erpenbeck’s history of a house and the
surrounding land by a lake in Brandenburg outside Berlin is incantatory, uncanny and really quite wonderful. The history of the house unfolds through a succession of occupants who oust and are ousted by one another during the course of events in Germany’s tumultuous 20th century. Erpenbeck’s style is gloriously idiosyncratic, from
her eschewing of neat characterisations to her patchwork narrative structure to highly poetic prose. None of which is to say her writing is difficult. In point of fact, it’s so on the mark that in just 150 pages she has the reader hooked on the (largely tragic) lives of the house’s various inhabitants. It even succeeds in elucidating the ‘life’ of the property itself, via the recurring appearance of the mysterious and unknowable gardener, who maintains the dwelling through changing times. (Miles Fielder) ■ 18 Aug (with Michel Faber), 8.30pm, £7 (£5).
A sense of place is very important to Kevin MacNeil. You can see it in his 2005 novel, The Stornoway Way, and it’s there with the evocative Edinburgh setting he’s conjured up for A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde. ‘I like the place where a novel is set to be a character in itself,’ MacNeil says. ‘And while Stevenson’s original is actually set in London, when I read the original or watch one of the film versions, I’m thinking of Edinburgh not London.’ Aspiring thespian Robert Lewis (can you see what
he’s done there?) is on his way to rehearsals for a new stage play of the iconic RLS tale when he has a serious bike accident. He survives but his personality is transformed, the previously meek and mild Lewis taking no nonsense from anyone, particularly among the play’s cast and crew. This leads to some surreal set-pieces and a curious second half, when he appears to meet a bed-ridden MacNeil. ‘It’s about this idea of duality and multiplicity: do you only get one chance in life? Is your identity fixed or is it more fluid? And in the book I’m suggesting that life is defined by change and that there is more than one chance.’ (Brian Donaldson) ■ 13 Aug (with Richard T Kelly), 10.15am, £10 (£8).
F E S T I V A L
Probably most humdrum offices in Britain hide an aspiring creative type who dreams of ditching the day job and succeeding at what they love. For Stephen Kelman, the dream came dramatically true. Penned while he worked as a council administrator, his debut novel Pigeon English was subject to a 12- way publisher auction in 2010. ‘I never expected that it would attract the interest it did,’ he says. ‘When a dozen publishers entered the bidding it was surreal.’ Kelman signed with Bloomsbury, but only after meeting the competition. ‘I think that’s known as a beauty parade in the industry,’ he laughs.
The funny and poignant tale of an 11-year-old Ghanaian boy, Harrison Opoku, and his charmingly naïve efforts to solve a murder on his London sink estate, Pigeon English earned glowing reviews and has just been longlisted for this year’s Booker. Its engagement with resonant issues, chiefly knife crime, is one of the book’s undoubted strengths.
But Kelman hopes Harrison is what really makes it special. ‘He has a spark and spirit that I’d like to think readers have responded to.’ If there’s a lesson in his own story, Kelman says, ‘. . . it’s to just keep plugging away.’ (Malcolm Jack) ■ 17 Aug (with Faïza Guène), 3.30pm, £7 (£5).
11–18 Aug 2011 THE LIST 31