The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Hilary McKay

The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Hilary McKay

Summary: Bookbag really enjoyed Hilary McKay's Wishing For Tomorrow (the sequel to A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett) and couldn't resist the opportunity to ask her a few questions.

Date: 26 October 2009

Interviewer: Keith Dudhnath

Share on:

Bookbag really enjoyed Hilary McKay's Wishing For Tomorrow (the sequel to A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett) and couldn't resist the opportunity to ask her a few questions.

• Bookbag: When you close your eyes and imagine your readers, who do you see?

Hilary McKay: Oh, dear, I have never done that. But (anything to oblige) I tried it just now. And what did I see? Not readers anyway. A glimpse of landscape, a flicker of a character passing by, but no readers. A pity; they would have been an interesting sight.

In the further interests of research I asked a musician (not having a writer handy) what he saw when he closed his eyes and imagined his audience. I am loading up the dishwasher, he replied. Or is it a trick question?

So he was no help.

• BB: What was the motivation for writing a sequel to A Little Princess?

HM: I wrote Wishing For Tomorrow for several reasons. To answer the unanswered questions of what happened to the characters whose fates were left unresolved in A Little Princess. As a break from those blessed Cassons. Most of all, for fun. I loved writing it - I loved the minute, detailed world of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary and the people who lived in it.

• BB: Were you nervous about the response from the public, given how much of a favourite the original is to so many people?

HM: Not nervous. That is too shivery a word. Slightly trepidatious (my spellcheck tells me that is not a word but I think it is too useful not to be). I did wonder. But then I thought, Oh well, they need not read it if they don't want to. And I need not take their opinions too much to heart. After all (let's keep this in perspective) it is only a rather short, rather frivolous little story. In the end.

• BB: If you had to write a sequel to another classic, which would it be and why?

HM: The Lord of the Rings. And I would write it in order to sell the film rights.

• BB: Do you miss the Casson family as much as we do?

HM: No, I do not miss them at all, and the reason I do not miss them is that I am at present engaged in writing a sixth book about that scatty crowd: Caddy's World.

• BB: Is it hard for children's authors to get the same recognition as authors for adults?

HM: I suppose we do not get reviewed very much in comparison. But that is a great generalisation. J K Rowling and Philip Pullman don't do so badly. Perhaps we get the recognition we deserve.

• BB: Which three books should every child read?

HM: That depends of course, entirely on the child. The closest I can come to a reply is three books that I am very glad that I read as a child. TH White's The Once and Future King. Eleanor Farjeon's The Little Book Room. Jane Gardam’s The Hollow Land (except for the last chapter).

• BB: What are you reading at the moment?

HM: At the moment I am reading: Graham Swift's Waterland, Gilbert White's The Natural History of Selborne, Jilly Cooper's The Common Years.

• BB: Which book has most influenced you, and do you still have a copy?

HM: There is no book that I have read and loved that I do not own. So how lucky am I?!

• BB: What's next for Hilary McKay?

HM: A three book series for Scholastic about a little girl called Lulu, a friend of Charlie's. Caddy's World (see above). And of course, to fill in the odd moments, the Lord of the Rings sequel...

• BB: Haha! Excellent. We can't wait to read all of those. Thanks a lot!

Check out Bookbag's exciting features section, with interviews, top tens and editorials.

Comments

Like to comment on this feature?

Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.