Authorgraph 274: James Mayhew

James Mayhew Interviewed by Ferelith Hordon

There cannot be many author-illustrators, or book creators, for whom image, colour, words, music, (even smell) work together in the creative process. James Mayhew is certainly one of those. His bibliography spans an impressive three decades with his latest, My Book of Classic Nursery Tales,  (Otter-Barry Books) just out. I spoke with James on Zoom about his career and what inspires him. His response was as creative and interesting as his work.

James grew up in the village of Blundestone in Suffolk, a place more famous perhaps for its association with Dickens and his character David Copperfield. James was not an early reader. Rather, he describes himself as a ‘reluctant reader and writer’, feeling inadequate in comparison to his sister, who was fluent at a young age. He said he didn’t want to read or write because, ‘I always wanted to draw. That’s what interested me.’

Even then, James and his sister went to the library regularly, where he would choose books because of their illustrations. He would scrutinise them closely, admitting ‘that’s why I fell in love with books; I loved the pictures I saw in them’. He wonders if he had been drawn more to reading, whether this early connection to illustration would have happened. Perhaps his career might have been very different. ‘I sometimes wonder if we rush children away from pictures too rapidly and whether we lose gifted people by doing that,’ he reflects. He is saddened by the thought that a child could be seen as too old for pictures. His parents, however, were always supportive. ‘The best Christmas present I received, I can remember vividly. I was 10 years old… it was a wooden box my father had made full of art materials.’ James still has the box to this day, and it is always full of materials.

School also played a part. He remembers the time a supply teacher brought bottles of inks and steel nib pens into class – the colours like stained glass, the intoxicating smell… ‘They were magical,’ he smiles. Using these old-fashioned pens just ‘clicked’. He fell in love with drawing and began to interrogate images. He was – and still is – fascinated by line work and cites the artists who inspired this – Ardizzone, Quentin Blake, Tove Jansson, artists of the ‘50s and 60’s who were doing interesting things with line.

Illustrating children’s books was not an early ambition; he rather fancied stage design. He took the general course on illustration offered at Maidstone College. A second-year project was aimed at the Macmillan Prize for Illustration, a new award for unpublished illustrators. This was Katie’s Picture Show, but it was not actually put forward by his tutors. At the time, the Orchard Books imprint had just been created by Franklin Watts. James took it upon himself to send in his dummy for Katie – in his words, a very rough and scrappy production. It was accepted by Judith Elliot who saw the potential, though he confesses he still hadn’t found his illustrator’s voice yet. Still today, he’s ‘not sure I ever have. I think I am still searching.’ The publication of Katie’s Picture Show resulted in a whole book series in which Katie visits galleries and museums – and is still in print after 36 years; quite an achievement, and one that has inspired many young readers. James is very proud of this.

Eventually, there came a moment when he realised that he did need to move on – in fact he felt he was losing himself, since for the Katie books, he had to immerse himself in the works of great artists to recreate them within each book. He reached a point where he wanted to do something very different. This resulted in working on titles such as Pinocchio and encountering Shakespeare in retellings by Beverley Birch in Shakespeare’s Story Book.

James is not just an illustrator of his own books, of course. He has collaborated with other authors, and this is something he has always enjoyed – partly because there is the element of surprise. However, he is also an author who creates his own texts, an experience, he says, that is very different because, ‘If writing for oneself, you know all about it and visually how it should look.’ As with his artwork, he is very self-critical and it has taken time to feel confident – ‘I had to work quite hard at writing. Only recently have I felt happy with the way I write and able to enjoy that side of my work.’

Storytelling is a very important element in James’ work, whatever the medium. In 1993 Koshka’s Tales: Stories from Russia appeared with its vibrant artwork. Illustrated within a month to meet publishing demands, it is a book that made him very proud. This is unusual because, James states, ‘I look back very critically at my books…but Koshka’s Tales is one of those books I wouldn’t go back and touch.’

Music, relationships and memory also play an important part in his creations. He recalls the moment when music made a real impact – listening to a recording of Scheherazade by Rimsky – Korsakov – an LP with a cover image by Dulac. ‘That is still today my reset music,’ he shares. James has loved opera since he was a teenager. Memory, and nostalgia for childhood experience, colour how his books begin and then grow either through images or books he read as a child, becoming subtle resonances that add depth to his creations. Like many artists, he never leaves home without his sketchbook. Indeed, he confesses he feels anxious if he does not have something to write or draw on. His work will then be created in hard copy.

Recently, this has seen a development in technique which he attributes to his illustrations for Mrs Noah’s Pockets, a book written by Jackie Morris for him. He describes it as his renaissance after a difficult period in his life. ‘Out of that came the realisation that I was not happy with my work; it had become stale.’ The result was the textured, colour-saturated collages that bring such life to his latest titles – ‘I really felt free again.’ In this process, he saw new landscapes, the possibility of taking risks and experimenting. Collage is still an element in his latest title, My Book of Classic Nursery Tales, but for the first time, he has turned to some digital interventions by taking over the whole process of scanning the images himself. This, he feels, has given him a much greater sense of control, especially over details. Thinking about a very much younger audience, he has also gone for a softer approach than the more sophisticated techniques in the Mrs Noah series, Once Upon a Tune or A Symphony of Stories. The choice of stories in this collection is drawn from his own memories of the nursery stories of his childhood. They may be familiar but, as he observes, one cannot have too many different approaches. These are his retellings, which will have personal elements – indeed this link to the personal is the reason for including the not so familiar Spanish nursery tale: The Vain Little Mouse. In making his choices, James has done extensive research, something he has thoroughly enjoyed, especially exploring different voices and opinions. In the end, ‘I love finding my voice and telling these stories again fresh for a new generation my way… this is what I think works.’

Looking forward, I am sure that there are many more stories to be brought alive through the words and images created by James Mayhew – stories rich in images, rich in memory, rich in music; stories  taking the audience young and not so young on journeys full of imagination and colour. We must be so glad that when faced with the decision between training to be a theatrical designer or an illustrator, he chose the latter, which, in his own words was, ‘… the right decision’.

Ferelith Hordon is editorial advisor to Books for Keeps.

Books Mentioned

My Book of Classic Nursery Tales James Mayhew, Otter-Barry Books Limited, 9781915659736, £16.99 Hbk

A Symphony of Stories Musical Myths and Tuneful Tales: James Mayhew, Otter-Barry Books Limited, 9781915659347, £18.99 Hbk

Mrs Noah’s Pockets James Mayhew, Jackie Morris, Otter-Barry Books Limited, 9781910959091, £12.99 Hbk

Katie’s Picture Show James Mayhew, Orchard Books, 9781408332405, £7.99 Pbk

Koshka’s Tales: Stories from Russia James Mayhew, Graffeg Limited, 9781913634735, £9.77 Hbk

Shakespeare’s Story Book: James Mayhew, Beverley Birch, Hodder Children’s Books, 9780340875483, £9.99 Pbk

Once Upon a Tune: Stories from the Orchestra: James Mayhew, Otter-Barry Books Limited,  9781913074036, £16.99 Hbk