Peter Burns: I Wish I’d Written

Peter Burns chooses a book that shaped not just his writing but his career.

There are so many books that I wish I’d written – the ones that impacted me enormously as a child such as The Worst Witch, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Lord of the Rings or Northern Lights. But the books I wish I’d written most are the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud.

Back in 2003, I was in my final year of university and I vividly remember browsing in Waterstone’s on George Street in Edinburgh and stumbling across a gorgeous boxed edition of The Amulet of Samarkand. This was a seminal moment for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the book was just incredible – I loved the dual narrative of the acerbic, wise, hilarious and sceptical djinn, Bartimaeus, and the earnest yet ambitious and brilliant Nathaniel/John Mandrake, all set within an alternative London ruled by an all-powerful class of magicians. The plotting was immaculate (as Stroud would prove across all three books in the trilogy), the characters exceptionally realised, the writing mesmeric. I’d been harbouring an ambition to be a middle-grade author since I was a child, and this just added more fuel to the fire.

The other huge influence came from Stroud’s biography on the back flap, which said that he’d been an editor of children’s books before his big break. I was about to graduate with a degree in English and had no idea what to do next (other than to keep writing). Thanks to this spark of inspiration, I studied for a postgraduate degree in publishing and then embarked on what has now been a twenty-year career as an editor and, since 2011, running my own publishing house. Thanks to the wonderful people at Farshore taking a punt on Shadow Thieves, I have taken the final Stroud-inspired step from editor to middle-grade author. It may have taken slightly longer than I planned back in 2003, but I made it. And I’m sure you can imagine my delight when he gave a review quote for the cover of Shadow Thieves. The next step is to try to write something as brilliant as those in his oeuvre.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud is published by Corgi Children’s, 9780552562799, £8.99 pbk.

Shadow Thieves by Peter Burns is out now, published by Farshore, 9780008667818, £7.99 pbk.