An Interview with Britta Teckentrup

Britta Teckentrup is the creator of over 100 picture books and has an international reputation. Mat Tobin reviewed her new book When I See Red for Books for Keeps and interviewed her about her work and process. Our thanks to them both.

Please could you tell us a little about growing up in Wuppertal and how/whether these experiences affected the choice of content in the picturebooks you have gone on to create?

I was raised in Wuppertal – a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.

We lived in a house on the outskirts of the city right opposite a forest and large fields.

Wuppertal is probably most famous for its upside- down railway, called the Schwebebahn, and Pina Bausch and her dance theatre. I guess that Pina Bausch and growing up around so much nature had a big impact on my work. A lot of my books deal with aspects of nature, human emotions and relationships.

Here are two pictures of me when I was a child in the 70s in the garden of my parents‘ house.

Were there any illustrated books or pieces of art that you encountered as a young child that inspired you to want to illustrate or write stories yourself?

I had the book No Kiss for Mother by Tomi Ungerer which intrigued me when I was little.

I also grew up with a lot of Fairy Tales and still remember the richly illustrated books – which were quite dark at times, but very inspiring.

I also remember a Franz Marc reproduction print at my grandmother’s house that I loved when I was a kid and my father always had lots of art books lying around … I was particularly impressed by a Paul Klee book if I remember correctly, and I tried to copy some of his images.

Can you talk to us about your time at St. Martin’s College and the Royal College of Art? Were there particular modules or lecturers that inspired you? Did you find that you were drawn to particular modes of media in the art that you have gone on to create?

I was always drawn to collage, printmaking and anything to do with paper and texture making. I studied Illustration at St. Martins and Christopher Brown, Chris Corr and Matilda Harrison were some of my tutors there. At the Royal College I studied Fine Art Printmaking and some of my tutors were Nigel Rolfe, Jon Stezaker and the late Helen Chadwick whom I hugely admired. Her work was very inspiring to me.

You have a huge catalogue of books to your name and have worked with writers like Daniel Pennac and Patricia Hegarty. Can you talk us through the early experiences of working with the words and ideas of others and some of the restrictions too?

I have illustrated my first book straight after leaving St. Martins in 1993. It was called Coyote makes Man and was written by James Sage. The Publisher was called ‘ABC All Books for Children’ and I went on to illustrate three more books for them. The first three books were written by others and I did not see myself as a writer at all until the publisher encouraged me to come up with my own idea for the fourth book, which was quite daunting at the time but wonderful in hindsight.

I do like working with the words and ideas of others but I much prefer to create my own stories (it did take quite a few years to build up my confidence to write and even longer before I could refer to myself as a writer as well as an illustrator.)

I do have more control when I am in charge of the text and the illustrations, it allows me to change things around at any time and sometimes dismiss whole passages altogether.

Text and illustrations grow alongside each other (quite often the images come first), which gives me a lot of freedom.

Working on somebody else’s text is a little more restricting and I can’t help wondering what the writer might think of my illustrations. It is a very different way of working, slightly less intuitive but rewarding in a different way.

Working as a team and with the words of somebody else always broadens your horizon and I get to illustrate wonderful ideas and words that I would have never thought of myself.

You are an illustrator who has been able to have their work printed in picturebooks and exhibited in galleries and art fairs around the world. Why do you think people have narrow concepts of picturebooks and still see them for the very young alone? Have you found this to only be a UK thing?

It is a shame that there seems to be some kind of cut-off age where pictures suddenly don’t seem to matter anymore, isn’t it? Reading images is the first language we learn and then we somehow ‘unlearn’ it again. I wish that there was a big picture book market for adults and teenagers as well as for very young kids. You don’t really grow out of picture books in my opinion and I do love picture books that are universal and work for children and adults alike.

I have found a few publishers with the same vision, but it is a lot harder to publish that type of book. I don’t think that publishing picture books for the very young only is a typical UK thing though … it can be quite similar here in Germany.

I have enjoyed reading and sharing a lot of your picturebooks and they have often dealt with the natural world or feelings through poetry. When I See Red feels more emotionally charged: a powerful call to arms. Can you introduce us to it and how it might be different/similar to your previous work?

When I See Red is similar to a few of my books (like i.e. My Little Book of Big Questions or Before I Wake Up) as it deals with feelings and emotions, but I have never picked such powerful and at times dark and overwhelming feelings like fury and rage before. I wrote the first draft of the poem a few years ago. The book was triggered by some personal feelings and also by the #metoo, #blacklivesmatter and #fridaysforfuture movement – as I was trying to understand feelings of rage, fury and anger a little better. (For some reason it feels quite timely to publish the book now.)

I also think that anger and rage is too often seen as just a negative and primitive emotion and supressed – especially in girls. But it also acts as a warning signal when somebody is crossing our borders or an injustice is done to us. We can react with sadness or anger – but whilst sadness makes us powerless, anger can empower us if used in a healthy way.

I felt a need to highlight the positive aspects of rage (without validating aggression).

On a different level I wanted to write a book that could maybe act as affirmation and an opening to talk about anger and rage as they can be so difficult to articulate – especially for children. Maybe the book can help to make sense of these sometimes overwhelming feelings.

Did the words come first when you were creating When I See Red or were there images in your mind’s eye?

This is one of the few books where the words came first, but I had to re-write the poem many times and there was a time when the images took over and guided my words. They helped me to understand what I was really trying to say.

My very first draft of the poem lacked the message that rage can have the power for change and to move forward if used in the right way. The draft just described an outburst of anger and then everything goes back to the way it was – there was no ‘open door’ or ‘room for change’ at the end of the poem. But I wanted to describe the type of fury and rage that can bring change, wakes you up and makes you act. A force for good, a vehicle for changing from within.

I read this as a book about validating anger and using it for a positive change. Can you talk a little about why this book at this time, its significance to you and the importance of Anni Lanz on your thinking?

I have found some wonderful quotes about anger and rage (by Gandhi, Aristotle, Thomas of Aquino and others). We picked Anni Lanz in the end because she is a woman, an activist for human rights and she is relevant now.

You’re now living in Berlin with your family. Can I ask whether you find there is a difference in how open children’s literature is in exploring powerful emotions and controversial subject matter between Germany and the UK?

That is a very difficult question to answer and I don’t really want to generalise as it all depends on the individual publisher. I am very grateful that I had the freedom to pick my two main German publishers –Prestel and Jacoby&Stuart. They both have very strong visions, are very open and not afraid to publish books that are a little ‘different’ and tackle difficult subject matters. There are a few publishers in Germany that would be open to explore powerful emotions and controversial subject matter. But there are probably as many – if not more – publishers that would play it safe.

I guess that it is fairly similar in the UK?

Thank you so much for your wonderful and insightful questions

When I See Red is published by Prestel, 978-3791374949, £10.99 hbk.