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Category Archives: Articles
Are you a writer?
I’ve written the introduction to this year’s edition of THE WRITERS’ AND ARTISTS’ YEARBOOK, published by A&C Black. It’s been published annually for over 100 years and is an indispensable guide for every writer, both aspiring and practicing, with lists of every agent and publisher, creative writing courses, how to put a book proposal together, how to read contracts and royalty statements etc. And it’s published this week – you can buy it here.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
I’ve written an introduction for a new Puffin Classics edition of Roger Lancelyn Green’s classic THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, one of my favourite books from childhood. It’s published this week.
It starts like this: “Before I ever dreamt of writing a novel, before I even thought of writing a short story, I wrote a play. It was an adaptation of the story of Robin Hood and was heavily – very heavily – influenced by the book you’re holding in your hands right now: Roger Lancelyn Green’s classic re-telling of the adventures of Robin Hood. I was twelve years old at the time. Our drama class in school had been given the task of putting on a fifteen minute production for an end of year performance and somehow I ended up as writer-director of the show (I think I wore a special hat during rehearsals). I chose the outlaw of Sherwood Forest because a year or two earlier I had been given a copy of Green’s book and, along with an abridged edition of Mutiny On The Bounty and RL Stevenson’s Treasure Island, it was rarely out of my hands.”
You can read the rest by buying the book!
Pied Piper
I’ve written the introduction for a new edition of Nevil Shute’s 1942 novel PIED PIPER, which is published this week by Vintage Classics as part of their re-issue of his work.
It’s a terrific novel, following the fortunes of an elderly man who finds himself in France during the Second World War and in charge of an ever-growing group of children, each of different nationalities and each orphaned by the war itself. Shute is probably best known for A TOWN LIKE ALICE and ON THE BEACH but PIED PIPER is really worth a read. You can buy it from Amazon or Waterstone’s or other bookshops.
Human Rights in Pictures
More on the anniversary of the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. The UK children’s publishers Frances Lincoln are producing an illustrated guide to the declaration for children to be published in October. Including artwork by some great illustrators, such as Axel Scheffler, Alan Lee and Chris Riddell, the book features two forewords written by David Tennant (“Doctor Who”) and myself. It’s not available yet but you can pre-order it from the publisher’s website here.
