BIO

Geraldine McCaughrean is an award-winning author who has written more than 130 books and plays for children and adults. She recently won the Whitbread Children's Book Award for the third time with NOT THE END OF THE WORLD, and her other awards include the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Fiction Award, and the Smarties Bronze Award. She lives in Berkshire, England.

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AUTHOR TALK

October 2006

Author Geraldine McCaughrean has written over 130 books and plays for children and adults. Her latest work, PETER PAN IN SCARLET, continues the adventures of J. M. Barrie's legendary, eternally youthful hero through this first-ever authorized sequel to PETER PAN. In this interview, McCaughrean explains how she was selected to carry on Barrie's legacy and discusses the challenges of staying truthful to his style and sense of humor. She also describes her early roots as a writer, reveals the important role her daughter plays in her writing process, and shares what she hopes both children and adults will take away from her book.

Question: How were you selected to write the first-ever authorized sequel to PETER PAN?

Geraldine McCaughrean: Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital announced a worldwide competition to find the lucky author. Entrants had to be published authors, put forward by a literary agent or a publisher, and had to submit both a synopsis and a trial chapter. I only went into it for fun, never dreaming I would actually get the job.

Q: What was your inspiration for the story of PETER PAN IN SCARLET?

GM: I badly wanted to be true to Barrie's original book. Not to the cartoon version or the pantomime or the last movie, but to the 1911 book. So I read and reread PETER PAN AND WENDY, and tried to soak up something of Barrie's style and sense of humor and quirky style. I also wanted to create something distinctly my own. So what I went for was a literary counterpart --- the matching bookend --- same world, but somewhat altered. You see, I don't really share Barrie's gloomy take on life: That we are born happy and dwindle down to unhappiness as we get older, and that life is perfect at three, but sadder with each passing year. Nor do I think grown-ups are an altogether bad thing.

Q: Did you face any challenges while writing the sequel to Barrie's story?

GM: I faced certain snags when I started work. The Darling children and the Lost Boys came back to London at the end of PETER PAN AND WENDY. Only Peter stayed in Neverland. So they went on growing up, whereas Peter did not. Twenty years have passed. So they have to find a way of recovering their childhood before they can go back to Neverland, because, of course, only children can go there. Worse still, the arch villain Hook was last seen disappearing into the gullet of a crocodile, and I don't do ghosts. I've never done ghosts. I don't approve of ghosts. And how long do fairies live? I don't know, do you? I have always thought of them as ephemera, like mayflies. But once I got over those first stumbling blocks, I was as happy as a pig in mud.

Q: How did you begin your career as a children's book author?

GM: Writing was always my hobby. My brother Neil got published when he was only fourteen, but then he was very clever and I wasn't. I just wrote for the fun --- the only proper reason in my opinion --- and I read out my stories to friends at school and very occasionally submitted a manuscript and waited for it to come thumping back in the mail. My school teacher, who remained a friend after I left school, introduced me to a publisher of children's books --- as a babysitter. I used to show him my work and try to learn from what he said about it. At last he let me "audition" for a book he was planning --- a retelling of THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. My two trial chapters won me the job, and at last I was a published author. Nothing could stop me after that!

Q: Who are some of your favorite children's book authors today?

GM: Bruce Coville, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Jan Mark, David Almond, Louis Sachar...oh, there are so many. Authors do so many different things with their books --- offer such different things to their readers --- that I could never possibly choose just one.

Q: Were you a fan of PETER PAN growing up?

GM: There are no horses in it, and horses were my one big passion as a child. So no, it wasn't my absolutely favorite book. But I can't remember a time when I did not know the story, and I vividly recall how the book looked on the bedroom bookshelf and all the color plates inside. It was the first play that I ever went to see, as well, and I got so swallowed up by the action that I was very very angry when Peter asked the audience to clap and save Tinker Bell. It meant I had to stop being IN the story, break off and become me again, sitting in a theatre seat.

Q: Is it true that your daughter helps with your writing process and will be a part of your international book tour for PETER PAN IN SCARLET?

GM: Ailsa, who is now sixteen, is a brilliant writer herself --- much more naturally talented than I was at her age (I sort of learned how to get better as I went along). She is very helpful in all kinds of ways. She can tell me if I have used a word too often, or too many adjectives, or spent too long in one place. But she can also look at the whole book and tell me if it is good and how it makes her feel and how I could improve it. I couldn't do without her. I couldn't do without her company on the book tours, either. She makes me laugh, and I think I might need a few laughs to keep me rolling along.

Q: Do you hope children AND adults will read PETER PAN IN SCARLET?

GM: I certainly do. I firmly believe that J. M. Barrie expected his book to be read to children by their parents and that is why he included so many 'asides' --- adult jokes and observations that no child would appreciate. Because I wanted to create a book like his, I too have included jokes and observations that will float unnoticed over a young reader's head but maybe bring a smile to the face of the parent reading to them.

Q: You did some research on J. M. Barrie; what type of a person was he?

GM: I did enough to know that there was a lot of unhappiness in his life. But I don't know quite how useful it is to know that. Authors have lots of reasons for doing what they do. Quite often they want to get away from the here-and-now --- to escape to somewhere they like better in their imagination. I know I do. Barrie had LOTS of reasons for wanting to escape reality and fly off to the imaginary world he had created in Neverland. Maybe that's why he wrote. Then again, he was also the most successful writer and playwright of his age --- the richest author in England. So I guess he also had quite a professional attitude to his writing. He was not just some amateur, sucking on his pencil and letting his fantasies run away with him.

Q: If you could have a conversation with J. M. Barrie today, what would you like to say to him?

GM: "My word, you're looking well for your age!" Seriously? I suppose I might ask if he minded me joining in his game --- and show him I had nothing wicked up my sleeve (like a hook).

© Copyright 2006, Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.

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