It was almost ‘ladies only’ at Waterstone’s in Deansgate last night. We’d come for the sex. A little bit of love, too, but mostly sex. I noticed on the poster that it was titled Adult Author Talk, which would explain the ban on under-13s. Melvin Burgess is no longer the only one. William Nicholson has joined him in the very small club of writers who have tackled sex for YA readers, without confusing the issue with vampires and things.
William and Melvin warmed up in the adjoining Costa, and when they arrived in the events room they sat down in the wrong chairs, but dealt with it by swapping their books round to where they sat. Alistair Spalding from Egmont introduced them, and didn’t seem to get them too mixed up.
The very well spoken and polite sounding William started, on the grounds that it was he who has a new book out, Rich and Mad. (It’s confession time again, because I’ve not had time to read it. Yet. I’d seen the news that William’s doing the Groucho Club tonight, with his book, and been a little disappointed that I couldn’t make it. So a last minute piece of intelligence that he’d be coming here pre-Groucho was more than welcome. I lead such a boring life that I was free. Naturally.)
He may be 62, but inside he’s still 16, and he told us about his early love life, such as it was and about what passed for p*rn in those days. He feels there’s a need for more books like the one he’s just written, and he and Melvin did that thing where people admire each other’s work. Whereas William’s teen years were quite chaste in his boys’ school with the purposely ugly ‘hags’ employed so as to avoid stirring any sexual feelings, Melvin reckons that a film from his teens would need to be an 18. Yes, well.
Melvin claims to have been scared of girls in his teens, while William was taken to a brothel at 18. He fantasised about American cheerleaders, and Melvin really didn’t like school at all. And as Anne Fine found, he did want to shock when he wrote Doing It. William has been all set for a ‘storm of outrage’ and it hasn’t materialised. Could it be that we are seven years on from Doing It?
We all agreed that the hardest thing with books like these is to get them past the parents of prospective readers. The cover of Rich and Mad might make it hard for it to be unobtrusive, and I heard there was one school that has cancelled an event due to fears of upsetting people. The head teacher read the book between booking William and the event.
Not surprisingly, Melvin wants readers to be ‘empowered rather than protected’ and feels that schools are just the right places to do this, if they could just escape their fear of complaints to the press. He told us about Morris Gleitzman turning up at an event wearing his dressing gown which didn’t go down well with the school. On a brighter note, William had a good school event on Wednesday morning, and was heartened by the students’ discussion on love and sex.
Anyone who wants to discuss anything with William is welcome to email him on his website. He describes it as ‘Paypal’ style, where your email address isn’t made available to him, so you’re quite safe. He’s used to silly questions, but would most likely prefer good ones. He’s had mainly good feedback for Rich and Mad, and he read us a short excerpt from the book.
For the signing afterwards it looked like many in the audience had brought all their favourite books along. Not great for sales, perhaps, but it’s good to see how keen people are. I believe my local blogging colleague from Wondrous Reads was present. I meant to say hello properly, but gaga-hood struck (me) again, and then she was gone. When Waterstone’s staff started removing the chairs I took the hint and stood up. It takes more than some missing chairs to make a bookwitch leave. I hung on to the bitter end, but not so late that it was dark for my walk through Manchester.
I would have loved to have gone to this. Have just ordered William Nicholson’s book after reading some fabulous reviews… I am still searching for the female version of Doing It, and I still wonder if a girls-talking-frankly-about-sex book would ever get past the lips pursed brigade…
Simmone – you are just the woman to write it. What are you waiting for?
I wish I’d known this was on, Bookwitch. We could have walked through the Manchester streets together!
I’ve written about sex in lots of my books for young adults but am not in the same class as these guys for frankness etc. Must read the Nicholson…it may well show up on the Lancashire Book of the Year next year.
I heard William Nicholson speak about the book at the FCBG conference and it was very interesting, including the extracts he read to us! He mentioned “Doing It” a lot, mainly as an opposite to “Rich & Mad” so it must have been really interesting to the see the two authors in conversation!
I am yet to read the book but will do very shortly.
Love your version of our event – the photo of me laughing most of all. I read the post asking for a female angle on teen sex and love and I’d love that. In the meantime here I am pretending as hard as I can to be a girl and a boy.
Oh, Adèle, I’m sorry. I only heard about it the evening before, but from now on I’ll ask you if you’re going, whenever there is something on. Which isn’t often enough. But you could do more sex. In books, I mean.
William – thank you for dropping by. Both last night and here on the blog. Based on Simmone’s book Everything Beautiful (http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/everything-beautiful/) I think she’d be an obvious candidate for the female angle. But for a boy of 16 you have my admiration for being both girl and boy in your book. And I too thought the laughing photo was, well, happy.
I was at the FCBG talk but, by lucky chance, I was also able to be at the Wednesday morning school session mentioned above. Though the content was similar (no mention of a brothel in either – maybe the content is warming up?) William’s talk to the kids was pitched absolutely right and they listened to his every word. He balanced the talk perfectly, but I must also say that the librarian had done a terrific job preparing the pupils who came to the talk. Some had read advance copies of the book and all knew exactly what the talk was about and had been warned that some of the words might be rude. All the students were taken by his serious but friendly manner, and by his touches of humour – even the sailor joke. In fact the session was one of the most moral and realistic talks they had probably ever had on the subject of sex: in answer to his questions, one of the students told him “We only get taught about contraception and diseases.” He did talk about Rich & Mad a little, but the talk was far, far more than a “buy this book” talk. It’s a book and a subject that clearly matters to him, and so frank and good that I almost felt every school should have to hear the talk as part of the curriculum – if only that didn’t bring fears of what it would be changed into by that! Having been at the session, I felt regret that there were schools who had been offered the chance of him speaking to their students and out of timidity or some other concern had turned the opportunity down. And the students had enjoyed the book too!
That’s so interesting to hear, Penny! And I don’t think William seems the type ever to say ‘buy this book’.
There were extenuating circumstances re the cancelling school, but I agree that he’d be great to go round talking to young people.
Thanks, Bookwitch. Another angle on the cover was that some students hadn’t liked carrying around a book with a cover image that might invite a variety of unwanted reactions from peers or adults. As I heard it, they did not mind the content within the cover but felt something a bit “plainer” might have been better.
I very much enjoyed Rich and Mad, despite feeling very guilty for bumping it to the top of my huge reading pile — not to give too much away, but the sex scene at the end is wonderful.