Today, in a class about the role of literature in society, I began to think. Of course I love reading. Naturally a lot of my favourite writers have influenced my writing. I know I consciously started using adverbs more after reading Georgette Heyer. But then, I also began to wonder, which writers made me who I am?And then, I came up with my top five writers of fiction. I have no idea who I'd be without them.Enid Blyton When friends tell me that their parents threatened to send them to boarding school if they were too naughty, I realise that that's one threat that would never have worked for me. Simply because I have cotton-candy ideas that boarding school consists of nothing but midnight parties.L.M. Montgomery Anne taught me two things - one, it's not such a bad thing to be talkative and two, imagination is a truly wonderful thing. Emily's 'flashes' and Anne's wild imagination … [Read more...]
A Doll’s House
I love how time changes the way I read a play. I read A Doll's House. Again. I imagined how it would be on stage. I cringed, yes. I closed my eyes, yes. But I enjoyed it. I read it cover to cover without needing a break. I did not worry about how good or bad a translation it is. I just saw it as it was - a play that has the power to make you squirm from the time the curtains are drawn open to the time the door is slammed shut.And just about seven months ago, I wrote:The Norwegian playwright I had never heard of - that's how I once began to read the play. It was far more powerful than Ghosts, and far more interesting than An Enemy of the People. I wonder why I made those judgements. Now, I cringe at so much more and wonder about how good the translation is. That's what studying English does to you. Yet, it's a strong play. It's one that I still read with the whole bag of emotions - … [Read more...]
Airs Above the Ground
I remember quite enjoying Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart. Maybe I didn't like it as much as The Ivy Tree or Madam, Will You Talk? but I did enjoy it.This time, I enjoyed the beginning. The Spanish Riding School, the levade, Timothy in his awkward state between adolescence and adulthood... I smiled through all of it. I liked the sudden unreliability of the narrative voice, the same technique that blew me over in The Ivy Tree. I liked the balance between description and narration.In fact, I think I liked the story till the husband makes an appearance.Is it just me or is the novel too full of dramatic action and corny romance to be really enjoyable? … [Read more...]
Colour your Ideas
My first workshop as part of the Creepy House Reading Challenge is this Sunday! A workshop for the little ones (age 5-7), I call it ...Read Aloud and Colour your Thoughts! Sunday 12th January, 2014. 11:00 am - noon Stories are always more fun when they have pictures. When they have more pictures, they are more interesting! So read a story, or listen to a story and imagine... Whatever you imagine, put down on paper. Draw and colour images from what you read – fill your ideas with colour! The best illustration will receive a prize. If the children are old enough and comfortable enough, I will ask them to read. If not, I'll read out to them. The children will be given paper and crayons. I'm excited to see what they come up with! … [Read more...]
The White Horse of Zennor and Other Stories
I love short stories! I wrote in my diary not very long ago, I think short stories are far more exciting to write because they capture a spark of imagination that lasts right through the moment of the story. A full-length novel... It begins with the spark, but for me involves more laborious imagination and less exciting inspiration.I've read The White Horse of Zennor and Other Stories before, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. Writing about the sea is an old idea. I think, of course, of Tennyson and so many others. Michael Morpurgo captures the same excitement and thrill of the sea in stories that mix the traditional and the modern.Magic, folk-tales and a very willing suspension of disbelief come together to create stories that are filled with wonder. The first story, The Giant's Necklace, made me sad, but it was so gently told, with such great sensitivity, … [Read more...]
All Because of Jackson
There's a bubble of contentment within me whenever I read Dick King-Smith, and All Because of Jackson is no different.Filled with delightful pictures and dreams, All Because of Jackson is the story of a rabbit. Of course, with Dick King-Smith, it has to be about an animal. An animal that is perfectly ordinary, but different.Different because Jackson the rabbit wants to be a sailor. No rabbit becomes a sailor! Human beings eat rabbits!But Jackson wants to be a sailor.And so he does.All Because of Jackson is a twenty-minute voyage of joy! … [Read more...]
Moon Pie
Every page of Simon Mason's Moon Pie rang true. On the book-cover, I remember reading that someone called it an 'ultra-modern' story. I was not sure what to expect.I certainly did not expect this kind of brutal honesty. It made me shake my head and cry.Eleven-year-old Martha is puzzled by her father's strange behaviour. Martha's mother is dead, and the girl assumes that her father is grieving and so, naturally, behaving strangely.But Martha's mother always said that someone had to think straight, someone had to keep his head.So Martha has to keep her head. After all, she is eleven, she tells herself. She is old enough to take care of herself, to take care of her five-year-old brother Tug and to make endless lists of things to do to maintain order despite her father's strange behaviour. She is eleven. She cooks, makes lists and tries to do the things on the list.One … [Read more...]
A Mouse Called Wolf
Whenever I read Dick King-Smith, I think about C.S. Lewis's oft-quoted “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.” How true it is!Whoever heard of a singing mouse?From the single line on the book cover, reading the book is like a joyful ride into a story that moves from the first page to the last in the course of about half an hour.When Wolfgang Amadeus Mouse was born, he was the littlest of all, so his mother wanted to give him a grand name. Her nest was was made of a chewed up sheet of music and somehow, a little bit had remained unchewed. It said 'Wolfgang Amadeus Mo'. Of course, Mary Mouse knew that the last three letters were missing because what could the name be but Wolfgang Amadeus Mouse?Wolfgang Amadeus had to have a nickname, of course. His name was rather a mouthful. And so, his twelve siblings nicknamed … [Read more...]
Simon the Coldheart
What is it about Georgette Heyer that she can turn imagination into language so brilliantly?I reread another Georgette Heyer, before reading Simon the Coldheart, and found myself skipping large sections of it. I think time has made me a little uncomfortable with the romance that she portrays. I squirm more than a little, and run my eyes over the pages sometimes, without reading much. I realise I don't like her ideas of mastery in romance or the way in which so many of the heroines just seem to give in.Yet, I enjoy Georgette Heyer.Why?Each page sparkles with fun. I love the humour; laughter rises to my throat time and time again. Those are the answers that come to me instinctively.But Simon the Coldheart is not one of those novels. It's not one of those with joyous gurgles of laughter. It's one in which the romantic element kicks in quite late in the novel. But I read on and on, … [Read more...]
The Worry Tree
I remember having a conversation with a friend about the challenges faced by each generation. "Our grandparents had to work hard - physically," I said. "My grandmother has so many stories of how difficult it was to make dosa batter and things like that. Our parents had financial difficulties, more than anything else. What about us?" "We have emotional and intellectual issues," my friend said, thoughtfully, "basically about who we are and what we want from life."In that sense, I think The Worry Tree reaches out to the children of this generation. Children who are worried. Children who sometimes don't realise that problems around them aren't their fault.I loved the idea of the book, reading page after page with a half-smile. I love the pages at the end where the child who owns the book can write down his or her own worries, hang them up on the worry tree, so to speak.I took about an … [Read more...]