Multiple Award Winner Geraldine McCaughrean Popular Literary Festival Pick
12-Aug-2011
GERALDINE McCAUGHREAN will be popping up all season at literary festivals around the country including Edinburgh, Bath, Wigtown and Throckmorton, since she has not one but eight new books out and about.
“Actually, only two of them are new,” says Geraldine, “but it’s great that the others are getting suited out in fresh livery. While a book’s in print, its author still exists.”
With 164 books behind her, Geraldine should continue to exist for a while. She is probably best known for her official sequel to Peter Pan, Peter Pan in Scarlet, commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital when the copyright on J M Barrie’s book was getting dangerously close to expiry. It published in 50 languages and is being filmed by Headline Pictures next year.
Last month she was shortlisted, for a record-breaking sixth time, for the Carnegie Medal with The Death-Defying Pepper Roux of which one review said: “If you want to compare it to something else, try Borges or Garcia Marquez” .
As well as a Carnegie Medal, she has won the Whitbread three times, the Guardian Award, Blue Peter, UKLA and four Smarties Bronzes; also America’s coveted Printz Award for teenage fiction with The White Darkness.
“I write for all ages – everything from picture book texts to adult novels. My trouble is, I’m scared no one will ever ask me to write another book, so I grab every opportunity that comes along. The thing I’m least good at is the self-help cyber stuff. We authors keep being told it is our only hope of survival – Twitter and Facebook and daily blogging… I just want my books to speak for me. I know publishing used to be a bit on the unworldly side, but I liked that about it. It all started going wrong when the marketing men took the reins. That’s why I’m grateful to sites, like this one, that say: ‘Look folks, you enjoy books: here are some recommendations, or here are some excerpts or here’s where to go and meet a bunch of people who enjoy writing books.’ “
During a career that spans 30 years, Geraldine has written (as well as copious novels for young people) retellings of myths, legends, fairy tales, ballets, the Bible, Shakespeare and inaccessible classics; plays for radio and theatre and five adult novels. New out this season are:
P
ull Out all the Stops adventure and comedy aboard a derelict Missouri showboat.
Monacello – Naples’ local folkloric bringer of mischief and good luck. Illustrations so good Tate Modern are stocking it.
101 Stories from British History; a big, sumptuous book telling thekind of stories which used to count as ‘history’ but are no longer told in schools for the paltry reason they may not be true (plus some that definitely are.)
Cowboy Jess + Cowboy Jess Saddles Up – western adventure for 7-10s because whatever happened to all those great TV cowboys we used to watch?
Robin Hood & a World of Other Stories; George and the Dragon & a World of Other Stories; King Arthur & a World of Other Stories myth, legend and folklore from around the world. Perfect one-a-night reading.
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