Writer in Residence

Oh my Lord. I DIDN’T ACTUALLY KNOW YOU’D ACTUALLY READ MY BLOG. This is terrifying but thank you for the posts.

To answer your questions, no, I’m not Dutch. Like so many Australians I’m a bit of a bitzer with a good dash of English, French, Irish, Viking, Scottish and everything from earls to potato farmers in the mix. To make things more confusing, I was born in the UK but schooled there, here and in Germany. I shall (do my best) to post a photo for you just so you know who you’re dealing with.

[Sorry, just tried but can't do it. That's what comes of dealing with a Gen X'er who was still able to submit hand-written essays at university. Here's a link]

My novel is a bit peculiar but it’s about a young girl called Olive with an absentee flaky hippie father called WilliamPetersMustardSeed and a workaholic barrister mother called Mog. School life gets tough and Olive sort of separates from her alter ego, Pip is created and together they sets out to find their dad.

I’ll give you the link to a few kind reviews (by particularly shrewd reviewers). You can probably google some nasty ones, but obviously it wouldn’t be in my financial interest to show you those as I have my eye on a pair of lovely brown shoes with a completely impractical heel.

My partner has been shamed by your comments and is now almost at the end of Chapter 19. This is not bad for a man who has not slept for the last 4 nights. I really can’t recommend a career in the law.

Okay, well I am going through a bit of a reading phase at the moment. Whenever a writer notes that s/he is going through a bit of a reading phase at the moment, it is usually code for “I feel too exhausted to write”/ “I can’t be fagged starting my next novel”. However, as details of my work as a lawyer, trips to the GP and recent discovery of a new organic shop that makes excellent banana smoothies would not make particularly interesting or relevant reading, I thought I would share my new favourite author with you: Steve Augarde.

Repeat after me: Steve Augarde is wonderful, Steve Augarde is wonderful, Steve Augarde is wonderful. He has created the most beautiful trilogy – The Various. This has all the glory of a book set in the English country side, featuring a family of kids with Enid Blyton freedom to roam free (and Enid Blyton appetites for picnics) and a good enough dose of boarding school in book II to fulfill any residual English boarding school fantasies anybody who has not attended boarding school may be harbouring. And to think he has mixed this with a very engaging other (if mini) world. Augarde is on the same list as Philip Pullman in England (this is industry speak to mean that the same publisher – David Fickling – publishes his books) so if you enjoyed His Dark Materials I think there’s a good chance you might enjoy The Various too.

To make Augarde even cleverer, I should also note that like Pullman (and very unlike me), he had enough talent left over to design some very charming illustrations for his books.

The best tuition any author can receive is from reading (I always find it curious that people who don’t read sign up for creative writing classes) and obviously the very best authors are the very best teachers. However, whether you are a reader or a writer or an aspiring writer of young people’s literature, I commend Augarde to you.

Did that sound too didactic?