So, we've got a two-part question: what's your favorite book that you've written? And
which one would you recommend to an unenthusiastic reader? From Aliyah.
Aliyah, well, what a difficult question to start with thank you for that. I suppose my favorite
book at the moment, and it changes, is a book called 'The Puffin Keeper'
and I'll tell you why. And I think it's the same for quite a lot of writers, your favorite book is
usually the one that you've just written because it's still in your head. You're still, in a way,
in the process of writing it because you've lived inside the story, you know, for months and months,
maybe much longer for some writers. Indeed, it is for me sometimes, and the Puffin Keeper is a story
that's very precious to me because I was asked to write it for the 80th anniversary of the founding
of a wonderful publishing house called Penguin, Puffin books in fact - a part of Penguin, is 80
years old this year. Puffins. And they said 'would you write a story?' The reason they asked me is
because my wife Claire is the daughter of the man who started Penguin books, a man called Alan Lane
and he started Penguin books all those years ago. And I think they asked me because I write
stories and because I was Alan Lane's son-in-law and grew up with puffins, so I wrote this story
which is set on the isles of Scilly off Cornwall and it's a story of an artist, an old artist
who paints on bits of wood and bits of canvas. He's very poor and he lives in a lighthouse
and it's a story of the saving of the life of lots and lots of people from a ship that
goes onto the rocks and one of these people is a little boy who he looks after along with all
the others he saves. He gives them hot food and wraps them in blankets and saves their lives,
and the little boy is given a picture before he goes away and it's the beginning of the
story of the relationship between him and this old man and how it goes on all the way through
the young boy's life. And I called it the Puffin Keeper, so that's my favorite book at the moment.
If you want to really know why it's my favorite go and get a copy and read it.
[laughter] That's brilliant! How long do your characters stay in
your brain afterwards? Do they live there forever?
Oh, it lingers on! I mean, it's interesting though the main character... the boy is me,
he's always me, because you can't - you have to sort of grow yourself down,
to be a child again, when you write these stories. That's what I do quite often, but the
Puffin Keeper was modeled on a wonderful artist called Alfred Wallace who was a
painter of very very, what we call 'naïve' pictures. He drew... he always drew boats,
and he always drew the sea and they're on tiny tiny little bits of wood. He had absolutely no
money to buy anything... the paint was ship's paint, you know. I mean, we're not talking
about a great artist in a great studio and yet he became really famous after he died, particularly,
Alfred Wallace and his pictures are now in museums and galleries all around the world and he was this
poor little fisherman, painting away in a cottage going half mad. And I used him as my model for
the Puffin Keeper, so I always have a model in my head that's for sure and they linger long. Now you
wanted to know about the other, the other book that was suitable for an unenthusiastic reader?
Yes. Okay um difficult really because
I'm unenthusiastic, I was unenthusiastic so I kind of - I identify with unenthusiastic readers.
I quite liked playing outside when I was little, not reading books. I grew into books and then it
became a really good habit. I suppose I would say there's a book called the Butterfly Lion
which is quite short and that's an important thing for an unenthusiastic reader. It has
some drawings in it, which also spreads the text out a bit. It's about Africa, it's about England,
it's about a white lion, it's about the first world war, it's a love story, it's about
a lion kind of etched out in chalk, cut out of a hillside - chalk, which a boy sees one
day when he's running away from school. I ran away from school. So it's about this small boy
growing up and he's meeting this old lady who tells him a story about her life
and this young man that she meets when she's young
and this white lion. I call it the Butterfly Lion and if you want to know why, read the book. This
will always be my finishing line - reading. [laughter] Butterfly Lion, yeah. Try it.
I love that book. It was the first one I read.
Oh good I'm pleased that's great
It's very slim, very slim and unintimidating. It was brilliant.
Good. There we are, there we are that's the second recommendation now you
must read it.