Allerton Literacy Festival

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone I met at Allerton Primary School, where I was honoured to take part in the Allerton Literacy Festival last week!

Thank you for giving me such a warm welcome – it really meant a lot to hear how much you'd enjoyed reading Varjak Paw.  Things like that make all the hard work worthwhile!

It was great to hear about all your own stories too; there was some fantastic work going on there!  So good luck with your own writing – and please look out for Phoenix in August!

The Supernova Is Coming...

Exciting update on my new book Phoenix!  It's now just two months until publication, and we sent the final files to the printers this week – so I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to post the front cover here!

Hasn't Dave McKean done an incredible job?!  Just wait till you see the interior art!  I'll be posting some in the not-too-distant future, along with more updates, sneak previews, and announcements about events... In the meantime, please share this image (there are buttons below for facebook, twitter etc), and help to spread the word!

School Visit: Hillsgrove Primary

I just wanted to say big thank you to the Year 3's of Hillsgrove Primary School, who I was very honoured to visit this week!

It was amazing to meet so many Varjak Paw fans, and to see all the great work you've been doing.  Thank you so much for your warm welcome and your brilliant questions; I really enjoyed the visit!

It was especially amazing to hear how much some people were looking forward to Phoenix!  I hope you'll enjoy it too... let me know what you think when it comes out!

Lovely comment!

hi sf said I love your books!!! they're amazing!!! Especially Varjak Paw. We have been reading it at school and it is really interesting. We just wanted to say hi!!! :D

NADINE GREEN

Hi Nadine!  Thanks so much for your lovely comment, you've totally made my day!  I hope you'll enjoy reading The Outlaw Varjak Paw as well - here's one of my favourite images from it:

In fact, that's one of my all-time favourite pictures by Dave McKean – along with the unbelievably brilliant work he's done for my new book, Phoenix!  Publication is less than 3 months away now, so I'll be posting some of those new pictures soon...  hope you like them too!  And please let everyone at your school know that there is a new book on the way!!!

School Visit: Summerhill Academy

I went to Bristol today to visit Summerhill Academy, and I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the Year 4's for their fantastic welcome!

It was great to meet you all, and to hear your thoughts about Varjak Paw.  It's an amazing thing for a writer to see readers who are enjoying their books; it really makes all that hard work worthwhile!

I know some people had questions that we didn't have time to answer - but if you still want to ask them, or if you want to say anything else about the visit or the books, this is the place to do it!

Recommended: May 2013

As a regular feature on this site, I'm recommending some of my favourite books every month.  This month's featured author is Ursula K Le Guin!

The first book of hers I read was A Wizard Of Earthsea.  It's the first volume in what was then a trilogy, and is now an amazing six-book cycle.  It tells the story of Ged, a shepherd boy who grows into the greatest wizard of his age.  It was originally published as a children's book, but has attracted readers of all ages.  It remains one of my favourite novels; whenever I re-read it, which I do often, it only ever gets better. This was one of the stories that made me want to write children's books: it showed me how brilliant, ambitious and beautifully-written a children's book could be.

But Le Guin doesn't just write fantasy for younger readers.  She's also produced some of the most interesting and thought-provoking adult science fiction.  The Dispossessed is another one of my all-time favourite books.  It imagines an anarchist society that Le Guin describes as 'an ambiguous utopia'.  If you're at all interested in the big questions of human society, this one is for you.  Whenever I read it, I feel excited at the possibilities of science fiction, and depressed at the thought I will never produce anything half as good!

Finally, Always Coming Home is perhaps her most experimental work; it's an anthropological report on an imagined future society, complete with songs, recipes, stories within the story...  It's not always easy reading, but it creates a whole world of incredible richness and depth, and once you've experienced it, you can't ever forget it.

Here she is talking about her work on YouTube.  She's still producing a steady stream of dependably brilliant books, reviews, blogs; at the age of 83, she remains a total inspiration.  If you want to know more, her website is full of great information, and really worth a visit...

Varjak Paw Around The World, #4

Italy

In Italy, Varjak Paw is called ARTIGLIO LUCENTE!  Well, the character is still called Varjak Paw, but the book title is Artiglio Lucente, which apparently means 'Shining Claw'.

Apart from the language, the interiors are the same as the UK edition, with all Dave McKean's art and layouts.  Here's a scan of the first page, to give you an idea of how it reads in Italian.  You'll notice for example that the Elder Paw is called 'Nonno Paw', which I rather like.  Click on the image to see it larger...

And here's the back cover, where they've put one of my all-time favourite quotes!  It came from an excellent book review site called bookmunch.co.uk, which sadly seems to have gone offline.  They gave Varjak Paw a wonderful review, including this line: "Imagine The Karate Kid directed by David Lynch".  The Italian publishers clearly liked this so much that it's the only quote they've used, anywhere on the book!

Are there any Italian readers out there?  If so, I would love to hear from you!

School Visit: Eye Primary

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the Year 3 & 4 children at Eye Primary School, who I had the great pleasure of visiting last week!

I really enjoyed meeting you all - thank you for your brilliant questions!  I hope you will enjoy reading Varjak Paw, and will look out for my new book Phoenix in August...  And if you have any more questions, or would like to say something about the visit or the books, this is the place for you to do it!

Recommended: April 2013

One of my readers recently asked me to recommend some books that I'd enjoyed.  I thought about this, and decided that it might be interesting to do a regular monthly post about things I've enjoyed - not just books, but also comics, films, music, art - anything, really!  So this month, I'm recommending:

The Kin, by Peter Dickinson - an epic set in Africa 200,000 years ago, telling the story of human origins and evolution.  It's totally gripping, and is powered by all sorts of big ideas about the beginnings of language, religion, politics...  I find this subject absolutely fascinating, and this is one of the best treatments of it I've ever read. The only thing I can compare it with is William Golding's The Inheritors, an unforgettable story told from the point of view of a tribe of Neanderthals who are facing extinction.

This month, I also visited the Ice Age Exhibition at the British Museum, where I saw this Lion Man sculpture.  It was carved from mammoth ivory about 40,000 years ago, which makes it one of the oldest surviving artworks in the world - and I love that it's a man with a lion's head!  The exhibition is stunning: there's something totally magical about prehistoric art, and these tiny, ancient objects still have incredible power...  Here's a short video about it; the exhibition runs until May 26th, and is definitely recommended - I might even go back and see it again!

Interesting question about Varjak Paw film!

Dear SF Said,
We're huge fans of Varjak Paw! (Books 1+2) And can't wait to read your new book. But please could you tell me if there is an animation film of Varjak Paw. My daughter and her friends are nagging me stupid about it! They say they've found a trailer on Utube - but can't locate the actual movie. Please help!
Thanks so much and really well done for writing two of the best kids books ever! Like the Godfather parts 1+2!
SH

First of all, thanks so much to you and your daughter, SH!  That really means a lot.  The answer is that there is no official Varjak Paw film...  yet.  All the animations, trailers and so on that you see on youtube are unofficial fan works.  Personally, I'm glad they exist - but neither Dave McKean nor I were involved in making them.

Having said that, we have had quite a few adventures in Hollywood, trying to make a Varjak Paw film.  As well as being a genius artist, Dave is a brilliant film director.  So we wrote a script together, and Dave did lots of fantastic designs - here's a poster:

The problem is, it's much harder to get a film made than it is to get a book published, and though we got very close a couple of years ago, it's never quite come together.  So at present, there is no official Varjak Paw animation... but I hope that one day there will be!

Phoenix news!

Major announcement: the artwork for my new book Phoenix is now complete!  Dave McKean, who also illustrated the Varjak Paw books, has been working round the clock, and this week, he finished all the interior artwork, plus the cover!  I'm going to be sharing some of his incredible images with you in the lead-up to publication in August - but I'm going to start by sharing some of the images I gave him for inspiration while he was working on it.

The biggest thing I gave him was a beautiful book of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.  Phoenix is set in space, across an entire galaxy.  It starts with a boy dreaming that the stars are singing to him...

... and in the course of the story, he meets Aliens who believe that the stars are in terrible danger.  Together, they must find a way to save the galaxy!  

The Hubble has produced some of the most detailed and astounding images ever made of stars, galaxies, nebulae...

I looked at these images a lot when writing, and was glad to learn that Dave also finds them very inspiring!

For more information on space and the stars, the NASA website is always worth a visit.  And for more Phoenix news, come back soon... I'll be posting lots more about it between now and August!

Varjak Paw Around The World #3

Germany

In Germany, Varjak Paw is called Titus Tatz!  I'm not quite sure how they got from 'Varjak' to 'Titus', but apparently 'tatz' means 'paws' in German, so I think that's a pretty good translation!

The German edition of Varjak Paw uses the back cover as the front.  I was very excited to see this, as the back cover was always one of my favourite images, and it's nice that they gave it so much prominence.  Their back cover is a bit less exciting - just text on a simple background - but I do love that amber colour:

The interiors are the same as in the UK edition, with all of Dave McKean's art and layouts.  The same is true in The Outlaw Varjak Paw - or 'Jagd Auf Titus Tatz', as it's known in Germany.

Unfortunately my command of the German language isn't great, but I'm told this means something like 'The Hunt For Varjak Paw', so again, that sounds like a good translation to me!

Are there any German-speaking readers looking at this blog right now?  If so, I'd love to hear from you - tell me what you think of the translation, and how the books are seen in Germany...

New Post on DFB Storyblog

I've just made a new post on the DFB Storyblog, my publisher's website.  All the DFB authors & illustrators were asked to respond to Eleanor Updale's new book The Last Minute, which is about a massive disaster - so I wrote about the idea of the apocalypse, which is one of the themes of my new book Phoenix (coming in August!)  Here's an image I used - the remnants of a supernova:

Click here to read the full post!

School Visit: Bancroft's Prep School

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the pupils & staff of Bancroft's Prep School, who I had the great pleasure of visiting last week - and an extra-huge thanks to author & head teacher extraordinaire Joe Layburn, who organised my visit brilliantly!

It's always amazing for me to meet Varjak Paw fans - but it's especially amazing when they give me such a warm welcome, and ask me such great questions!  I really enjoyed meeting you all, and I hope you will enjoy reading Phoenix, when it comes out in August!

Varjak Paw Around The World #2

Japan

The Japanese edition of Varjak Paw is one of my favourites, right up there with the Russian one.  Although it doesn't use any of Dave McKean's brilliant art, I love the look the Japanese publishers created for it.  Here's the front cover of the first book:

And here's the back cover:

Unlike the Russian edition, which has different covers but keeps Dave McKean's artwork for the interiors, the Japanese edition has its own custom-drawn artwork & layouts, unique to this edition.  Here's an example - I think this is a scene where Varjak meets the Scratch Sisters:

And here's a dream sequence, which uses the same strategy that Dave did, placing the dream images behind the text, but using the soft charcoal pencil look that the Japanese edition uses throughout:

The cover of The Outlaw Varjak Paw looks pretty similar to the first book at first glance - but look closer and you'll notice lots of small, subtle differences - especially the reflections in Varjak's eye (click on the image to see it large!)

In the first book, you can see the palm trees of Mesopotamia reflected in his eye. But in this one, I'm pretty that it's Sally Bones... and she also appears on the back cover, looking rather terrifying, as she does in the Russian edition.

So what do people think?  Did the Japanese publishers do a good job?

World Book Week 2013

What a great World Book Week that was!  Here's a huge thank you to the all the hundreds of children & teachers I met in the last few days - at St. Paul's Primary School in Cambridge, Highlees Community Primary School in Peterborough, and Beatrix Potter School in Earlsfield.

It was amazing to meet so many Varjak Paw fans, and to sign so many books!  Thanks to you all for making me feel so welcome, and for saying such nice things about my work...  I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of Phoenix when it comes out in August!

Varjak Paw Around The World

#1: Russia

One of the nicest things about publishing a book is watching it travel the world.  Varjak Paw has been translated into many languages; there are many different editions around the world.  One reader recently left me a link to pictures from the Russian edition (thanks, Ivan!), so I decided to do a series of posts about all these editions.

I'm going to start with the Russian one, but I'm interested to hear from Varjak fans in all countries.  Please write in and tell me - how does Varjak look in your country?  Are the publishers doing a good job with it?!  Authors generally don't get any say in how their work appears in translation, so it's very interesting for me to hear people's thoughts.

Here's the Russian front cover of Varjak Paw:

And here's the back cover:

I have to say, I think these covers are amazing.  Of course, I love Dave McKean's original covers, and I'm glad the Russian editions use his art inside the books, but it's great to see another take on it.  I think they did a good job with the sequel, too - here's the Russian front cover of The Outlaw Varjak Paw:

And here's the back, with an extraordinary image of Sally Bones:

What do my readers think?  Have the publishers done a good job?

Inspirations: Cats In Art

As you can imagine, I looked at a lot of cat pictures for inspiration while I was writing Varjak Paw!  So I wanted to share some of them with you this week.

This first one is by Rudyard Kipling.  He drew it to illustrate his story 'The Cat That Walked By Himself', which is one of the Just So Stories.  Kipling's one of my favourite writers, and this is definitely one of my all-time favourite cat pictures!

Cats have a very long history in human art; we've been making images of them for thousands of years.  Here's an ancient Egyptian cat - a statue of Bastet, the cat goddess.

This one's a mosaic from 2nd century Rome; it shows a cat hunting a bird.

And here's a 19th century Japanese woodblock print, by the great Ando Hiroshige.  I love how he captures the way cats watch the world.

Of course, there's been lots of cat photography too.  My favourite cat photographer is Ylla, who made this fantastic image.  I must have looked at it more than any other single image when I was writing Varjak and Outlaw - somehow, I feel it goes right to the essence.

But for me, Dave McKean's pictures are right up there with the very best.  This page is from his brilliant comic Cages.  I read it long before I wrote Varjak Paw; and when my publisher asked me who I thought drew good cats, my first and only thought was "Dave McKean!"

It's still amazing to me that he illustrates my books; I never get tired of looking at his art.  I can't wait to show you what he's been doing for Phoenix - it is absolutely incredible!!!

Writing Music: The Outlaw Varjak Paw

A while back, one of my readers asked if music ever inspired me while writing.  It certainly does, so I made this post about the music I listened to while writing Varjak Paw.  This time, I'm going to share some of the music I listened to while writing The Outlaw Varjak Paw.

I started writing Outlaw in 2002, and finished it in 2005.  During that time, I discovered the band British Sea Power, and particularly their first album, the brilliantly titled The Decline Of British Sea Power.  

I played that album hundreds of times while writing Outlaw.  It had the epic sweep I wanted the book to have; the same combination of darkness and hope.  I would always feel electrified by the surge and crackle of their songs, which often seemed to be on the edge of spiralling out of control - as you can see in this amazing video of them playing live on Jools Holland.

But old habits die hard, and I have to admit, I also listened to a huge amount of The Cure while writing Outlaw. This time, it was mainly their Disintegration album, which remains my favourite of theirs.  To answer an interesting question on my earlier post, I would pick the spine-tingling 'Plainsong' as the music I imagine when Varjak and Sally Bones are on the tower at the end - perhaps not the battle itself, but the moments just before it.

The live version in this video is great, but if you want to hear the original version I heard while writing, you can listen to it on Spotify, where I've made a playlist with a few other tracks that I put on a CD for Dave McKean, when he was doing the illustrations...

School Visit: Saxon Primary

A big thank you to Bonnie Saunders & everyone at Saxon Primary School in Shepperton, who were kind enough to invite me to visit them this week!

Thanks especially to all the amazing Varjak Paw fans I met in Years 4, 5 and 6 - it was a great pleasure to meet you, and to talk with you about writing & books!  I really enjoyed the day, and I hope you all did too.

It was especially exciting for me as this was the first author visit arranged through this site - so if anyone else out there would like to know more about my visits, have a look here.