Bookwitch

No, that’s not an author, it’s a book title. Meg Rosoff has a new picture book out, and this is not it. Trouble is, not even Meg has a copy of the new one yet, so I’ll go for the old one.

When I bought Meet Wild Boars a couple of years ago, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, until Daughter read it to me. Then it made sense. Well, you know, not sense, but it was as it should be. It’s easy to forget when the children get so old that they don’t have books read to them, that sometimes that is exactly the point of some books. And picture books more than others.

So thanks to Daughter I learnt that Wild Boars has to be read out. But not necessarily to a young child. Boris, Morris, Horace and Doris are pretty awful. They’re boars, and I’m guessing invented by or for Meg’s daughter. They have their uses, those girls.

The illustrations by Sophie Blackall are not pretty, but intentionally so. The information on the book jacket about Meg and Sophie, is at least as good as the book. And I found one review saying the book was so awful they threw it away. Don’t believe it.

Last night Daughter, feeling a bit depressed, started reading Wild Boars to me again. She had forgotten that Meg had signed the book to her, so coming across that very friendly greeting, cheered her up considerably. So to jump to the purpose of having books signed; that could be one. Making the signee happy.

in the Guardian today. So if you’re feeling you could be Shakespeare, go in and comment. For the modest, a comment as yourself will do nicely, too.

Here, briefly, is the shortlist for the Carnegie, announced today. It looks very respectable, but I’ll have to start reading quickly. One of them has been lying around in the piles for ages, so this will have to be the spur.

KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND: GATTY’S TALE Orion (Age range: 10+)

LINZI GLASS: RUBY RED Penguin (Age range: 12+)

ELIZABETH LAIRD: CRUSADE Macmillan (Age range: 10+)

TANYA LANDMAN: APACHE Walker (Age range: 12+)

PHILIP REEVE: HERE LIES ARTHUR Scholastic (Age range: 12+)

MEG ROSOFF: WHAT I WAS Penguin (Age range: 12+)

JENNY VALENTINE: FINDING VIOLET PARK HarperCollins (Age range: 12+)

What do people think?

Not only is Meg Rosoff hard at work improving her website (it didn’t look that bad before, Meg), but she seems to have written a book, and it needs a title. So if anyone has one spare, she would like to know. Although, as Meg doesn’t have what I have, i.e. a comments facility, she appears to want people to come and see her in Hay in May. (Hey, that rhymed. Great.)

This could well be a recurring problem, as Meg needed assistance with the last book as well.

I’m no good at titles, as you can see, but I’m fairly sure it wouldn’t be too hard to provide some blogging software, if only to prevent jam in Hay. In May.

No, not the people who live in Finland. Those others, who keep popping up in fiction. What’s with the name Finn? It tends to be a certain type of fictional character who’s called Finn, or Finnigan. I wonder why?

My most recent example is Finnigan in Sonya Hartnett’s Surrender. He’s a real wild one.

Linda Newbery has a mysterious, if older, Finnigan in her new book Nevermore.

And the free boy in What I Was by Meg Rosoff is called Finn.

I’m fairly sure Celia Rees has a Finn in one of her horror books, set in South West Wales. Again, a sort of free spirit.

I love the name, but find it strange how it gets used. I wonder about the thought processes that determine what name an author gives their characters. Is it along the lines of “I’ve got this outsider type, romantic character, so let’s go in the Celtic/Irish direction and name him Finn”?

Even Kian in Cathy Cassidy’s Scarlett has the same ring to it. What other romantic names of this kind are there?

The witch rarely makes it to such exalted neighbourhoods as Mayfair, but there are exceptions, and Wednesday night was one. I was about to say that it was that nice man David Fickling who invited me, but it was more the lovely Nina Douglas. Anyway, it’s rare to be invited to anything, and that’s quite understandable, really. This time we got together to mark the publication of Siobhan Dowd’s third novel, Bog Child, and also to be reminded of Siobhan’s trust to help children read. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating; send some money to Polly Nolan at the trust. Please!

David Fickling, Polly Nolan, Geoff Morgan, Rachel Billington and Tony Bradman

The venue was very elegant, and the drinks and nibbles were wonderful. As you know, or have long suspected, the witch is next to useless at mingling and stuff, but it went surprisingly well. I talked to people I know and was also introduced to new and interesting book people. Also at last got to talk to Siobhan’s husband Geoff in person.

I arrived too early, which is unacceptable even to a Swede, and a hasty manouvre to the ladies room brought me face to face with Fiona Dunbar, and I have insulted her in some pink way, but we will work on this. I hasten to add that Fiona was as friendly as always. Lee Weatherly was there, too. Not in the ladies, though. Anthony McGowan even recognised me, and Meg Rosoff made a late appearance after traipsing round Mayfair for a bit.

To prevent this looking like a shopping list, I will refrain from mentioning everyone else. Some of the conversations will no doubt be useful here later on. My head is buzzing with ideas and gossip, but with a memory like a grapefruit (or should that be goldfish?) you can never be certain it won’t get forgotten.

You can always hope.

Puffin have a new website. It’s not bad at all. Lots of information, as you’d expect, and it even has a playground. And they have a blog. It’s so brand new that it only had three entries when I looked. Ah well, we all have to begin somewhere. Worth checking out.

I’ve had it suggested to me that I shouldn’t mention Meg Rosoff quite so often. By Meg. I’ve tried to be good, but right now she is supposed to be in North America on tour, and so she really won’t have a clue, will she?

Recently received a copy of Just in Case in brand new Swedish translation. It’s good, just like the translation of How I Live Now. I came to the conclusion that Meg’s style is close to the Swedish way of speaking, which could explain why it works so well.

I had one gripe with HILN. I feel a translator should know the difference between a place where you drink tea, and the place where you buy it. (I do recall the young witch being offered cream tea, somewhere in Kent I think, and saying that no, she’d like it with milk… But I wasn’t translating any books then.)

In Justin’s case I looked up my favourite piece about the man who tried to rescue a goat. Unfortunately the translated man rescued a coat, which is very true, but nowhere near as funny. I’d like to think it was a carefully considered leaving out of the goat, rather than a reading error.

And no play with words as regards the title, but that would have been a lot harder to do.

It’s perfectly natural to read children’s books. They are not less sophisticated, but rather the opposite. Once an author has removed the adult material there might not be all that much left. So to fill a children’s book satisfactorily without the grown-up stuff must make for a better book.

It’s been good to follow Peter from Detectives Beyond Borders in discovering Artemis Fowl. Peter may well have been one of those adults who wouldn’t expect to find adult pleasure in a children’s book. Now that he’s got going with Artemis, his enthusiasm knows no bounds, almost to the extent that there’s a feeling Eoin Colfer is wasted on the young.

I believe Eoin himself was wrong when he assumed that Artemis fans would move on by the age of 14. Similarly, the Guardian reviewer of Airman felt this book was for older readers. The difference might be more one of personality, than age.

Peter reckons Half Moon Investigations is so mature that there’s a risk things will go over the heads of young readers. But I think it’s good with layers, where all readers get something, but not necessarily the same thing. I recently read the short story Taking On PJ which Eoin wrote for an adult anthology called Dublin Noir. Very different and very good, and still Eoin Colfer.

Books are obviously not wasted on young readers, but it can be a shame that the adults don’t discover them. For instance, What I Was got shortlisted for the children’s Costa prize, whereas in the US it wasn’t published as a children’s book at all. Whatever that may prove, it shows the boundaries aren’t all that set.

Just as I expect Francesca Simon’s guests on Thursday evening could manage to be both happy for her success and envious that their own sales aren’t quite as good, it’s interesting to observe authors and see and hear what they say, or don’t say.

Some only talk about their own work, and don’t even seem to be too modest to say how good they believe they are. Thankfully not many are like this. And there’s Henning Mankell, who as I pointed out the other day, doesn’t even recognise his own work when he sees it.

Many authors go out of their way to suggest other writers and books that they think I’d like. Sometimes they are wrong, but often they are quite right and I’m grateful for ideas. Linda Newbery has been known to send emails with suggestions.

Tim Bowler spent ages during a school talk some years ago “selling” Melvin Burgess’ book Doing It. I think Tim almost forgot his own books while explaining quite how hilariously funny and worthwhile this controversial book of Melvin’s is.

Adele Geras is also very helpful and recommends books she likes in her website newsletter. Meg Rosoff is forever pointing me in the direction of her friends’ books. Do you people think I have unlimited time for reading?

Then we have Son’s “party trick” of asking every author he meets what they think of Philip Pullman. He even has me do it for him if he’s not there. Whether the authors he asks are always honest I don’t know, but they tend to have good manners, so will usually say something positive. And I’d say that most of the time it sounds as if they mean it.

When Lionel Shriver got the Pullman question, her answer was of the more unusual variety. She said “Who?”