Wild Times: an interview with Anthony McGowan
Nicholas Tucker interviews award-winning author Anthony McGowan about his latest novel, Beck.
His novel Lark won Anthony McGowan the Carnegie Medal in 2020 and was described by the judges as a ‘standalone masterpiece.’ His latest novel The Beck, again no more than 150 pages, is equally good. Homing in on environmental concerns without ever preaching, its characters include a three-legged dog named Rude Word and a grandfather Elvis impersonator. The story is narrated by initially bored pre-teenage Kyle on a duty visit. But things quickly improve when the pair determines to save the local stream. Only just rescued from its previous filthy state it is now threatened by new building developments. There is little time left.
Like a number of his other books, this story is published by Barrington Stoke, a firm long committed to getting good books to as wide a young audience as possible. Is there a reason Anthony has stayed with them for so long?
‘I have other publishers but my books with Barrington Stoke have always seemed to do better, culminating with Lark. Conscious of needing to reach out to reluctant readers, I found after some early feedback from their target readership that it was essential to tell the story as if by a young narrator using language appropriate to his age. Extended metaphors and elaborate sentence structures had no place there. Acting on all this, the end result was actually to make me a better writer.
Children’s books have always been on the side of the countryside. But we now have a government that has declared war on newts and bats should they get in the way of house-building. Is this becoming a more contentious issue for writers such as yourself taking a particular interest in environmental issues?
‘Well, I have written lots of books in many different settings, but whatever is going to happen I still want to show readers that we can have genuine wild life activity co-existing within the sort of suburban, urban settings familiar to most of them. But I also prefer a grittier view of the natural world, showing it as a place of excitement and adventure but sometimes of danger too. I am never one for dipping my pen in the purple inkpot when it comes to describing nature.’
But is the world going in a different direction now? Ten years ago, your fine novel Dogs of the Deadlands described the lives of now feral dogs left behind in and around Chernobyl. Today any story featuring Ukraine would surely focus on what is happening to the humans there.
‘There is no doubt the world does seem incredibly brutal at the moment. All you can do as a children’s writer is to try to nudge things in a better direction, and that goes for keeping faith with the natural world too. As for the future, I don’t necessarily go for straightforwardly happy endings in my stories but I do try to remain positive. I like to make readers laugh and sometimes even cry but ideally to experience both reactions in order to make them think. I also want them to work, speculating as to where the story might go.’
A critic has praised your stories for focusing on working class northern backgrounds which she claims are too often under-represented in children’s fiction. Has she got a point?
‘One of the great things about publishing today is that it is so much more diverse than it was 25 years ago when I started. To that extent modern writers seem to me a much better reflection now of a whole range of young readership. I have been very busy recently with World Book Day, which now turns into something more like World Book Month. This has involved lots of school visits, including some quite challenging secondary schools where I have to work really hard to try to bring round tough year nine pupils to what I’m doing. I particularly like to reach out to children who still value hanging around libraries but who may are also looking for more support.’
You were brought up in Yorkshire and went to a pretty tough school but now live in London and have done so for some time. How has that come about? I can’t pick up any Yorkshire accent now!
‘Oh, that hurts! I can still lapse into the Leeds accent from time to time. But my Mum was Irish and my father Scottish so in a sense I ended up as a citizen of nowhere.’
Chatting to Anthony on Zoom, who is as engaging in person as he is in print, is a pleasure. He is a gift to the 9-12 age range, up till now an essential bulwark in publishing for young readers. His clear, punchy prose sets stories alight from the first page and the issues he has taken on over the years seem virtually limitless. Very funny at times he is also always compassionate, even to his occasional fictional villains. Every new book from this extraordinarily productive author is something to look forward to, and his back list remains as fresh as ever. Those still unacquainted with his work should remedy this as soon as possible; they are in for a treat!
Nicholas Tucker is honorary senior lecturer in Cultural and Community Studies at Sussex University.
The Beck is published by Barrington Stoke, 978-0008722296, £7.99 pbk.
