Tag: interview

102 – Interview with Anne Fine

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November’s Leicestershire Children’s Writer is the legendary Anne Fine, author of dozens of books including the Diary of a Killer Cat series, The Chicken Gave it to Me, Bill’s New Frock, Flour Babies, Madame Doubtfire, and her most recent book, Aftershocks.

Anne’s writing skill is matched by her sense of humor and her thoughtfulness, and it was a great pleasure to be able to speak with her. In our conversation, she discusses her latest work, her surprise that Bill’s New Frock remains relevant today, and how she really feels about the cat who inspired her to write Diary of a Killer Cat.

You can learn more about Anne and her work at annefine.co.uk.

98 – Interview with Chloë Townsend

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October’s Leicestershire Children’s Writer is . . . co-host of the show Chloë Townsend! She may be only nine years old, but she is already a published author with plenty more to come.

When selecting local authors to feature this year, I tried to choose a wide variety of interview subjects, and it occurred to me that I had been only interviewing adults! Luckily, right in my own home is a funny, interesting, hard-working writer. Please enjoy my conversation with my daughter Chloë about what interests her, the sort of books she is currently working on, and what she thinks she’ll do in her future career.

83 – Interview with Ben Dixon

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July’s Leicestershire Children’s Writer is Ben Dixon. Ben spent his teen and tween years in Leicestershire, giving him experiences that helped him create the delightfully relatable world of Neil Peel. Neil navigates secondary school life in a trilogy of novels that portray his mishaps with school bullies, his sometimes friendly, sometimes dangerous big sister, and his own failure to understand that sometimes being perfectly honest isn’t the best idea.

You can buy copies of the Neil Peel series in bookstores in the UK and US, as well as online:

And you can follow Ben online:

67 – Interview with Tom Phillips

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March’s Leicestershire Children’s Writer is Tom Phillips, also known as Tom the Tale Teller. He’s the author of Leicestershire Folk Tales for Children, a collection of local stories from the spooky and fantastic to the sad but true.

In our conversation, we talk about the importance of keeping in-person storytelling alive. It’s more important than ever in a world full of digital distractions. Tom explains how he selected the stories for his book, how he dealt with the problem of multiple versions of a story, and how he managed to simplify the very complicated tales of Lady Jane Grey and Richard III. We also mention two places that have inspired storytelling for each of us — Bradgate Park here in Leicestershire and Sycamore Canyon in Los Angeles.

You can find Tom the Tale Teller online. Give him a follow to see videos of past storytelling and find out where you can see him in person!

Check out my previous features of Leicestershire Children’s Writers. Each month this year I’ll be featuring an author from my community!

58 – Interview with Jonathan Emmett

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Jonathan Emmett is February’s Leicestershire Author of the month! I really enjoyed our interview, in which we talk about his fun childhood spent using tools, his training as an architect, and how he blended his interests in problem-solving, design, and storytelling during his successful career as a children’s author.

Each month this year I will be featuring authors who are from Leicestershire or who live here, as my way of using the show and its growing audience to support writers in my local community. If this interview is any indicator of things to come, I’m going to have a lot of fun over the coming months speaking with really interesting people!

Jonathan grew up in Enderby, a village just on the southwestern outskirts of Leicester City. The librarian in Enderby fortunately had an eye for American authors like Maurice Sendak, P.D. Eastman, and Dr. Seuss, all of whom were a big influence on Jonathan as a child. His parents encouraged him not just to read, but to play with real tools, building and designing things from a young age. As he trained to become an architect, he learned that Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs were really useful in designing pop-up books, something he still does today.

This interview gives a glimpse into an interesting career, with sound advice for prospective authors and fun reflections on the importance of allowing just the slightest bit of danger into childhood.

You can learn more about Jonathan Emmett and the books he’s written at jonathanemmett.com. Follow him on Twitter at JonathanEmmett, Facebook at JonathanEmmettAuthor, and Instagram at jonathanemmett. He also has a YouTube channel and a Pinterest page.

Activity: Make A Pop-Up!

Jonathan Emmett doesn’t just write books — he designs them! His background as an architect helps him come up with clever designs for books that pop up into three dimensional pictures. Check out his page on how to make your own pop-up pages.