Byatt children's book interview with sam

Byatt is the author of numerous novels, including the quartet the virgin in the. Celebrated novelist margaret drabble has said her lifelong feud with her sister and fellow literary dame a. Get to know your favorite or soon to be favorite authors by reading our exclusive interviews. Partly this is because it is, as sam leith observes in his interview with byatt, a disconcertingly centreless book. Nesbits magical stories and the wind in the willows, inspired her to write the novel. Twist in the tale for love life of drabbles man by. Byatt has said in interviews that fairy tales and the childrens books of the late nineteenth and.

Byatt has said in interviews that fairy tales and the childrens books of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as e. Her sisters are the novelist margaret drabble and the art historian helen langdon. Years later, he tried his hand at another byatt novel, the childrens book, but found it. In an interview with sam leith of the guardian, byatt told a story about a. While the central character of olive is a writer of childrens literature, supporting her large family with her writing, the title of the book refers to the children in the book. Byatt speaks about the capacity of language to depict the surrounding world in inexhaustible ways. One of the characters in her new novel, the childrens book, she says, represents my greatest terror which is simple. Byatt reads from the childrens book, a finalist for the booker prize, which the sunday times of london has. Its not just that its populated by a vast array of vividly realized characters, nor that the characters whose threads one initially assumes the narrative will be built around, olive wellwood, prosper cain and the two boys, tom wellwood and phillip warren, quickly become just part of a much larger fabric. Byatt was born in sheffield as antonia susan drabble, the eldest child of john drabble, qc, and kathleen bloor, a scholar of browning. Byatts hostility to the cult of feelings can, though, be easily misunderstood. The childrens book is rich with history and generous with story, detailing the lives of a group of.

As a longstanding byatt sceptic, i was caught offguard by possessions warmth and wit. I started with the idea that writing childrens books isnt good for the writers own children. Byatt s publisher is keen to present the childrens book, her first novel for seven years, as an equal to possession, the work that secured her reputation and her massmarket appeal nearly 20. Dame antonia susan byatt received the seventh pak kyongni prize at award ceremony held at the toji cultural center in wonju on october 28. Sam mcbratney has been writing children s books for more than 30 years. Even more than byatts former novels, the childrens book works through a complex of multiple. When his kids were growing up, he told whimsical original bedtime stories every night. Near the beginning of her long career as a novelist and critic, a. In an interview about this novel, she comments on this period. Tom, julian, philip, elsie, dorothy, hedda, griselda, florence, charleskarl, phyllis, and others, following each as they approach adulthood and the terrors of war. We love shining the spotlight on brilliant authors. The childrens book is filled with emotion and into it is woven, discreetly and obliquely, one of the central emotional facts of byatts own life, the loss of her son in a car accident when he was 11.