a GOOD separation.’


Since Operation Eiffel Tower, which was published in 2011 and made the shortlist for a Red House Children’s Book Award,


Caldecott’s


writing has moved more towards detective stories with finely seeded clues and adroit plot development. Her novels still make up a cohesive body of work – a child who likes one of her books will almost certainly like the others – but The Mystery of Wickworth Manor, which is probably the most complex and darkest of her novels, is aimed for a slightly older age group – probably Years 6 to 8.


few books I think I was circling around divorce, and in my first two books I have step brothers and sisters and step parents just coming onto the scene. I have been quite tentative but I knew it was an area that I was interested in.’ Because of her own childhood? She nods, ‘Exactly’.


In Operation Eiffel Tower Caldecott went on to deal more directly with family breakdown. Jack and his siblings plan a holiday for their mother and father in an attempt to heal their parents’ relationship and stop them from continually arguing. It doesn’t work – the parents end up separating. Yet, in a fine balancing act, the book also manages to be light hearted and funny, with a bitter-sweet ending. Caldecott says, ‘There are so many books about children and their parents divorcing. I wondered what I could bring that was new and different. And then I thought that actually doing your best to tell the truth about how divorce feels and to make the experience a normal one for children was really important to me. I wanted to tell the truth. It doesn’t matter what fiction says: no child has ever got their parents back together again.’ She continues, ‘Of course that is such a melancholy idea! But


But there is always a wonder about the world. There are always adventures and everybody has a drama in their life.


‘ ’


actually the very best outcome for the children is if the parents are civil to each other and come to an arrangement that they stick to. It is the very best ending that could still be legitimately true. I have had emails from children who have not liked the ending because they wanted the parents to get back together again, but those tend to be children that at least give the impression that their parents are still together. But I have had emails and letters from children whose parents have divorced saying, ‘I really appreciate the ending. It felt really really like


My people are quite ordinary.


However, with her new Marsh Road Mystery series, Caldecott is back on track writing for a younger readership. So far she has completed three books about her five child detectives. She says, ‘They have just been a joy [to write] – really fun. They have a sort of joie de vivre about them. I think they are lighter than anything else that I have done before and very playful, while


still not


being fanciful. They have one foot in reality.’


In fact this description works well for all of Caldecott’s books. They are blithe and playful. And while there are wildly improbable elements woven into her narratives, there is always a grounding in the real world as it is experienced by real children.


She says, ‘I don’t ever write about superheroes or incredibly brainy people or incredibly gifted people. My people are quite ordinary. But there is always a wonder about the world. There are always adventures and everybody has a drama in their life. That is what I want to say about the world – that it is interesting for everybody and children just have to keep an eye out for their own stories and their own adventures.’


Books mentioned, all published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books.


Marsh Road Mysteries: Diamonds and Daggers 978-1-4088-4752-7, £5.99 Marsh Road Mysteries: Crowns and Codebreakers, 978-1-4088-5271-2, £5.99 How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant, 978-0-7475-9919-7, £5.99 How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini, 978-1-4088-0574-9, £5.99 Operation Eiffel Tower, 978-1-4088-0573-2, £5.99 The Mystery of Wickworth Manor, 978-1-4088-2048-3, £5.99


Amanda Mitchison is a journalist and children’s author. Her latest book Crog is published by Corgi, 978-0-5525-6853-1, £6.99 pbk.


Books for Keeps No.213 July 2015 11


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