The Snows of Yesteryear: an Interview with Adèle Geras

by Mary Hoffman for Armadillo Magazine

Armadillo: Reading about your childhood - born in Jerusalem, living in Cyprus, Borneo and various African countries - plus going to school at Roedean and university at Oxford, people could think you'd had a privileged life. Do you feel this is so and if true, how do you think it's affected your attitude to life? You seem always to be a very confident person; does that come from your upbringing.

Adèle Geras: The confidence comes from my parents (I'm an only child) who constantly told me from birth how marvellous, beautiful, talented and generally terrific I was. This laid groundwork that subsequent reality and also some squashing from those I met at my school, etc has done little to eradicate. I am confident and I sort of can't help it, even when there may not be a reason for the confidence, if you see what I mean. I am also an extrovert and noisy and talk too much, so the confidence doesn't even have the grace to be INNER confidence!

I am, though, also very easily wounded, offended and hurt. I get over it quite quickly but am the very opposite of confrontational. I will turn myself inside out NOT to have a fight with someone. I am allergic to them, almost. And yes, I realize and always have done that I am immensely privileged. My education was the very best I could wish for and it's entirely thanks to my teachers at Roedean that I even got into Oxford. While I was there, I did everything but work academically, but still, just being there for three years was the best thing ever. I loved every minute of it and am deeply grateful for all that.

Living in a lot of different countries as a child was lovely too, but it did mean that until I was married, and moved to Manchester I was never able properly to answer the simple question: where do you live? Now I can say, with pride, "I live in Manchester." A great relief, that is.

A: Like me, you've written over ninety books for children and young adults. So you've been in this business a long time. How do you think it has changed since your first book was published over thirty years ago?

AG: Ah, the snows of yesteryear! (Or see the answer about education, above -"Ou sont les neiges d'antan?") It all used to be simpler in the old days because no one actually thought that children's books should make tons of money. Now they do think that so children's publishing has tried to become more like the rest. And since the abolition of the Net Book Agreement, discounting and so forth has become the order of the day which I deplore, really. It's now much harder to write stand-alone novels and because of the massive decline in the buying-power of libraries, we're all doomed, basically. No, not really, of course but you know what I mean.

I feel now that just being offered a contract is the height of my ambition. As long as publishers are prepared to do that, the rest of the stuff (making money, having your books promoted, etc) is just icing on the cake. There used not to be the pressure on individual books to be MASSIVE HITS. You just wrote the best novel you could and let it make its way in the world.

A: And do the changes in the book business affect how you set about the task of writing?

AG: Absolutely not! I just do my own thing and I'm lucky in that so far I've always had takers for what I want to do. Even writing the adult books, which was a much more commercial venture and which did demand of me a book a year, I was mad keen to do each individual book and nothing I've ever written has ever been something I was reluctant to do. Even something commissioned, like CLEOPATRA, is a project that I really liked the sound of when it was suggested to me. Mostly though, it's been my idea, pitched to the publisher and that's how I like it.

A: Tell us about how you write and where.

AG: I write mostly in the kitchen on my laptop with the radio ALWAYS on. This is convenient because I'm within reach of biscuits, coffee, the phone and other nice distractions. I write very quickly when I do write (again, see education. There's nothing like eight years of three-hour exams twice a year to concentrate the mind and foster writing at speed!) I used to lie down on a sofa and write in pretty notebooks but that all came to an end with TROY, which I knew was going to be much longer than my other books for children. So I thought: I'll risk writing straight on to the computer. And I fell in love with the ease of it.

I am very lazy and try and put off writing as much as I can. Often I don't start till two o'clock, having fossicked about on email, cooking, ironing, shopping etc till then. I never do more than a couple of hours actual writing a day because when I am doing it, I am going quite fast and my hands get tired... you don't want to overdo it! I print out what I write each day and correct on paper, which means that when I go back to the text on the machine, I have stuff to put right and that gets me into the rhythm of it. It takes me a year to write an adult book and about nine months or so to do something the size of TROY, say. I could do it all much more speedily if I worked longer hours, but I figure my rate is okay.

A: You have written picturebooks, like Sleeping Beauty (illustrated by Christian Birmingham), junior fiction and quite demanding teenage novels like Troy and Ithaka. I once interviewed the wonderful Margaret Mahy who, like both of us, writes across all these age groups, and she said that she always rejoiced when an idea came with its own format attached. There's a gift in knowing what sort of a book your new idea should turn into, isn't there?

AG: I think this is the most important thing of all, as a matter of fact: recognizing what shape an idea ought to take. Is it a short story? A poem? A trilogy? A single novel? etc... . Once you've got that right, the rest follows naturally. A lot of fiction suffers I think from being squeezed into a shape that isn't right for it... overblown novels which would have made good short books; feeble stories that ought to have been poems, etc.

A: You've been an actress and a singer as well as a teacher and many of your books feature the ballet. Does this theatrical side to your nature help when you "play all the parts" as the creator of a piece of fiction?

AG: I think it helps enormously. I do regard writing as a branch of acting and I love doing all the parts and all the voices and indeed, like Enid Blyton, I believe, I do SEE the scene as though it's a movie unrolling in front of my eyes. I think of each 'bit' of the novel as a 'scene' and the sections as ACTS, so yes, a very theatrical underpinning to everything. The ballet is wish fulfillment. I adore the ballet but am the wrong shape! More of an opera singer shape, me, but that's the beauty of fiction. You can BE anything, anyone.

A: Anyone who knows you, or even visits your website, which is bursting with recommendations, sees that you are a voracious and enthusiastic reader. You are a great keeper-upper with contemporary literature. Tell us again here who your favourites are currently and why you like them.

AG: How long have you got? I am currently rereading the excellent Dorothy Whipple (Persephone books) who is quite marvellous. I love all kinds of thrillers, (CJSansom, Arnaldur Indridasson, etc) and my best of all is Ruth Rendell whom I admire enormously, writing at her age and so well... .especially as Barbara Vine.

I love Anne Tyler, Barbara Pym, Edith Wharton, Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy, and am now a HUGE fan of Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time, having failed to read it three times before now. I think you might have to be middle aged to appreciate it. There are TONS of others. I am very keen on William Maxwell and one of my favourite novels ever is one of his called TIME WILL DARKEN IT. But you're right... I am a voracious reader and nothing pleases me more than a bound proof coming into the house. I've been lucky to know a lot of people who can send me these! And you'll notice that I've not mentioned any children's writers. Too many of them are my pals!

A: You've been a great stalwart as our main poetry reviewer on Armadillo and have a daughter, Sophie Hannah, who is a distinguished poet as well as now a successful crime novelist. Has poetry always been an important part of your reading life and do you ever write it yourself?

AG: I have always loved poetry and my dad used to read me Keats when I was seven. So much for age-banding, eh? I have written it all my life, and have even published one collection VOICES FROM THE DOLLS' HOUSE (Rockingham Press and probably available on line somewhere.) I have won lots and lots of competitions and prizes, the two most prestigious of which are The Wingate Poetry prize and the AE Housman Prize which was marvellous... £1000 for a single poem! There is also a lot of poetry in my novels, here and there, most of all in Ithaka and also a bit in the forthcoming CARTHAGE

A: You have a strong romantic streak; who is your favourite "romantic" writer?

AG: I'm not quite sure what to say here... .I love Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre is the uber-romantic book I reckon. Also love Daphne du Maurier, and all kinds of writers who write good love stories. Anna Karenina, etc. I can't bear what is called 'romantic fiction' these days, ie Barbara Cartland and Mills and Boon. I have never been able to read more than a page of either.

A: Many of your teenage and adult books feature family secrets, often revealed at a big get-together in a grand house. Anything autobiographical there or do you just love the endless variety of family and the glories of the Poirot-esque "denouement in the library" type?

AG: I suppose I've always been envious of anyone with SISTERS or even brothers. I adored Little Women for that reason, so I like to make my families densely populated. I like big houses because you can fit all the characters into one place, which makes life easier and fits with the Greek unity of place. Those unities have a lot going for them, I reckon. I do love family secrets etc in a novel and a denouement too... .I am not a stream of consciousness type. I like to write what is a novel under this definition of the form: "Proper people in interesting situations." I have never had anything to do with a great house except visit it as a guest. I live in a four bedroom Edwardian semi! All the stuff about big houses is MADE UP!

A: I've heard you say that your young adult fiction is regarded as "literary" but your actual adult novels have been labelled as "women's fiction". You are the same writer, so why should this be? Do you think adult publishers, reviewers etc are keener to pigeon-hole writers than their children's literature equivalents are?

AG: They certainly are! When I signed up with Orion it was made clear to me that a BESTSELLER was what I had to be: i.e. popular! I think one of the reasons why I am not a massive bestseller is precisely because my books, even though they were on sale in supermarkets etc are perhaps a little more literary... .or a little more middle class or something... than the publishers expected. I'm not sure, but it's a thought. With teenage books, I always get brilliant reviews, which are not borne out by my sales figures so I'm thought of as a bit literary... Or that's what I think. Anyone out there who knows different, please tell me.

For a literary writer, I haven't done terribly well. I have only once, for instance, been on the Carnegie shortlist, for TROY, and have never won or been on the shortlist for any other UK prize over the last thirty-one years. I have, though, won two prizes in the USA. I guess that means that on one level I'm a failure... .no huge sales, no prizes... but see "confidence" above and also my complete love of all my own books and that's probably enough to keep me writing. And I do have READERS who are keen on my books, and also editors who think highly of me, so I thank my lucky stars, really!

A: What is the next children's book going to be?

AG: It's for young adults, or adults or crossover or any child too... CARTHAGE from David Fickling books, some time next year.

A: And is there another adult book in the pipeline?

AG: There is another adult book in MY pipeline but not contracted. I'm going to write the whole novel (haven't worked it out yet, so early days!) and my agent will try and sell it. So one more ride for me on the publishing carousel, though I am optimistic about this because... well, see "confidence" above again!

A: I read on your website that a German TV company want to make a drama of your first adult novel, "Facing the Light". Tell us about that.

AG: Yes, an option on Facing the Light has been sold to a German tv firm called Ziegler. They are apparently very keen to do it but many a slip etc so I am not breaking out the champagne quite yet. Still, it's encouraging. My adult books do quite well in Germany.

A: Finally, where do you stand on the hot topic of age-ranging on children's books?

AG: Totally against it... and am one of the signatories on the 'disavowal' website (No To Age Banding). Dreadful idea. I actually wrote an article saying how daft it was back in March, in Publishing News. It didn't make much of a splash but I'm glad I did it because now I can send it out to anyone who is interested in my views on the matter.

Interview reproduced by kind permission of Armadillo Magazine.