What book made you?

Gina and I had a great time at the Cheltenham Literature Festival today. We went to see Meg Rosoff and Patrick Ness who both read from their new books and talked about their motivation to write, as well as taking audience questions. Both write for teenagers but their books easily cross over into the adult world and I certainly sold them across the age range when I had my bookshop.

Meg’s amazing debut novel, written nine years ago, “How I Live Now” has just been made into a film. It is set in the present day and features Daisy, on holiday in Britain staying with her cousins when war breaks out and Britain is occupied. The boys and girls are separated and we end going on a journey with Daisy and her youngest cousin as they search for the others.
Patrick wrote “The Knife of Never Letting Go”. Todd lives in a town of only men (where are the women we wonder?) where everyone is constantly bombarded by the thoughts of others which they can “hear” and which create a constant barrage of sound they call noise. One day Todd and his dog are out in the swamp area and for the first time hear silence….then Todd sees a girl! So begins an incredible trilogy.

Both authors kept us entertained for an hour and then we wandered round the rest of the tents. I have pictured the booth asking the question “What book made you?” As you can see the passers-by were enjoying contributing and reading the answers of others while the children dressed up as story book characters!
I loved the works of Enid Blyton as a young child and her Famous Five got me hooked on reading but “The Weirdstone of Brisingamen” by Alan Garner was my first scary book and took the mystery stories I enjoyed but added a fantasy element that really got me into the sci-fi/ fantasy genre to which I always return.