trying to make them ‘feel’ something. But readers – both disabled and non-disabled – will be absorbing ideas about disability that are distressing and wrong.” Lucy points to the meticulous research that authors carry out in in other areas – for example, portraying different professions, such as surgeons or judges – and calls for the same rigour when portraying marginalised identities. “The trouble with disability is that authors have tended to just use their imaginations,” says Lucy, “whereas if we could take disabled characters as seriously as we take brain surgeons and do the research…”
The pair are currently working on an anthology of experiences from 20 disabled writers, and Lucy is due to publish her first solo book next year. She says: “It is a picture book called Mama Car and it’s about a child with a wheelchair-using mother. There is such a stigmatised view of wheelchairs, but for a child of two or three, it is just a chair with wheels. “My children’s take on my wheelchair is that it’s something precious – a source of enormous comfort for them. They can just climb up onto my lap, like a home from home wherever we are. “
no representation is better than bad representation.
“If you have a disabled reader and a non-disabled main character, the disabled reader will probably identify with that non-disabled character. But as soon as you put a stereotyped disabled character in there – a Tiny Tim – then disabled children can have terrible moments when they read those depictions and realise these are supposed to be them. I don’t think authors really consider disabled readers
– that disabled children will read their books. If you want to include a disabled character in your book, imagine how a disabled child would react to reading it – and if you feel any discomfort about that, ask yourself why.
“If you are only writing from your imagination then you will almost certainly reach for the tropes first – whether those of race, gender, sexuality or disability. Disability is often used as a narrative device, where the presumption is a non-disabled reader, and the author is
The normality of disability is something that James and Lucy are keen to convey, shifting narratives away from heroic struggle, pity and all the other stereotypes.
Lucy sums up their ethos, adding: “We just want disability to be written truthfully, as a normal part of life.” You’re So Amazing! by James and Lucy Catchpole, and illustrated by Karen George is out now (Faber & Faber). For more from the Catchpoles, visit
www.thecatchpoles.net. PEN&INC
All illustrations by Karen George
http://karengeorge.net Spring-Summer 2023 PEN&INC. 7
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