16.04.15
www.thebookseller.com Q&A ANTHONY BROWNE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR The Shape shifter
The renowned author and illustrator tells Felicity Wood and Paige Davis about the challenges and rewards of collaboration, and why reinventing a classic book for a new generation brought an unexpected freedom
Felicity Wood: Are you looking forward to the London Book Fair? Anthony Browne: Yes, its getting better and bigger each year and it is a great event to participate in. It will be great—as usual!
FW: Your latest book, Frida and Bear (Walker), came out last month. What can you tell us about it? AB: It’s going well. It’s a rather unusual book, one which was great to work on, I enjoyed it a lot and I like the finished product. It follows on from The Shape Game [Browne’s imaginative drawing game, where one player draws an unrecognisable shape and a second player transforms it into a recognisable object], because both Frida and Bear love to draw.
FW: How was it working on Frida and Bear with fellow illustrator Hanne Bartholin? AB: She is one of my closest friends, so it was great to work on it with her. I was concerned at first—I have worked with writers and illustrators before and found it harder than working alone—but it went well, other than a few disagreements in the process that were smoothed out. I like working alone, only because I can work at my own pace and have my own ideas. But it is always nice to have a change and
to switch stuff up with a new challenge, but for me working with others is always slightly harder.
FW: How was it working on a new version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland? It was great. My version was originally published in 1988 but Walker re-released it last month for the 150th anniversary, deciding to bring it out again with a new cover. It was quite a hard
book to illustrate as it came with a lot of history, but it was fun because I knew that I didn’t have to do what other illustrators had done before, and once I gave myself that freedom it became a really enjoyable task. When I was doing the book I wondered if the world needed another Alice in Wonderland, but I see Carroll’s work as a bit like Shakespeare’s: there are many different ways to reimagine it. So it gave me some space to have fun as well.
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ANTHONY BROWNE: THE STORY SO FAR
Born in Sheffield in 1946 and raised near Halifax, Browne has nearly 40 books to his name.
A graduate of Leeds Art College, his first book, Through the Magic Mirror
(Walker), was published in 1976. Gorilla (1983) won many industry awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Emil/Kurt Maschler Award and The Boston Globe Book Award.
In 2000 Browne became the first British illustrator to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international honour for illustration, for services to children’s literature.
Q&A AUTHOR OF THE DAY
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[Hanne Bartholin] is one of my closest friends, so it was great to work on Frida and Bear with her
FW: Did you enjoy your time as children’s laureate? [Browne held the position from 2009 to 2011] AB: Yes I did, it was challenging but it was fun. It was a real honour to be given such a great task; the only problem I found was that I wasn’t sure what to agree to do and what not to do, as you are asked to do so much. Another thing was that I suddenly had to be a spokesperson and have views on everything. But it was still extremely fun.
FW: When you have an idea for a story, does it come to you completely or do you have to keep building on different ideas? AB: It’s usually just a little idea, or maybe just an image that the story could be based on. It’s hardly ever a whole story.
Anthony Browne will be in conversation with Nicolette Jones, children’s books editor of the Sunday Times, today at 11.30 a.m. at the English PEN Literary Salon.
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