The SILF photos are here at last!
March 25, 2017 at 9:43 am | Posted in Literary Festivals, Shanghai International Literary Festival | Leave a commentTags: Children's books about 1920s Shanghai, Chinese history, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tal of Rickshaw Rooster
Many thanks to Naomi Eisenbeiss of M Literary Festivals for sending me these fab photos of my event last Sunday! As you can see, the Glamour Bar at M on the Bund is an Art Deco delight, and the perfect setting for a reading of The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster, with that famous race along The Bund in 1920s Shanghai!
I meet a future great writer at the SILF…
March 21, 2017 at 6:29 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Shanghai International Literary Festival | Leave a commentTags: How to Become a Great Writer
Meet Dashiell, a remarkable young man, and his remarkable family Brook, Phineas and Hannah, who have been coming to my sessions at the SILF for some years now. Dash’s mum and dad are both well-known writers, and it looks like Dash is a chip off the old block! We had a lovely lunch together, during which I noticed that Dash was busy with pencils on paper! And here’s what he produced, in just half an hour:
This is Dash’s map of an imaginary country, Syldavia, which he invented over lunch! You can see its boundaries, its mountains, forests, beaches, bays and seas. You can see its capital city, its population, its national flag, its religions, its language and even its writing! This map reminded me of nothing so much as the maps and kingdoms invented by the Brontes in their Haworth parsonage back in the 19th century – and all of the Bronte children were exceptional writers, from an early age.
Dash gave me this map as a gift – which I will always treasure. But he has lots more at home! Now this is what I talk about in my sessions with kids, mums, dads and teachers, about the way great writers are created! The NUMBER ONE requirement is a GREAT imagination – and it’s very clear that Dash has an exceptional imagination. He also has great general knowledge, curiosity and the ability to think deeply. And of course Dash just LOVES reading books – lots and lots of them. And so it is inevitable that Dash will become a great writer one day.
I think we can all learn a great deal from this excellent young man. Thank you Dash.
A Cockadoodle Event at the SILF!
March 21, 2017 at 6:12 pm | Posted in Being an Author, Book launches, Literary Festivals, Shanghai International Literary Festival, Story Readings, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster
On Sunday, I entertained a big roomful of fabulous Shanghai children and their mums and dads when I introduced them to my new Chinese Calendar Tale, The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster! It was so wonderful to be talking all about Shanghai’s extraordinary history, the international Concessions, Shanghai’s most famous road The Bund, and the Roaring 1920s, when my story was set, in a building that was there in the 1920s, just beside The Bund! I could just feel Rickshaw Rooster fluffing his tail feathers, puffing his chest, and getting ready to do an enormous Cockadoodle-Doo!!! Here I am, above, with a fabulous bookstand made by my terrific distributors at Obido, in M’s famous Glamour Bar. Life as an author doesn’t get more glamorous than that! More photos to come!
Shanghai International Literary Festival – in the Paris of the East!
March 21, 2017 at 6:01 pm | Posted in Being an Author, Literary Festivals, Shanghai International Literary Festival | Leave a commentTags: Chinese culture, Chinese history, The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster
Kids often ask me what the best things are about being an author – and one of the MANY fabulous things about being an author is being invited to Literary Festivals in different countries around the world! And the Shanghai International Literary Festival is one of the best there is!
HUGE thanks to Michelle Garnaut, of M on the Bund and the M Literary Festivals, for inviting me again to the SILF this year to present my latest Chinese Calendar Tale to the kids and parents of Shanghai! And what a wonderful weekend I had! We authors all stayed at the beautiful new Wanda Reign on the Bund Hotel, a superb homage to Art Deco and 1920s Shanghai, which of course is also paid homage to in my new book The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster!! So Rickshaw Rooster and I felt quite at home! Above is a picture I took of the Bund in the evening – and you can see the green dome of the old Cathay Hotel (now called The Peace Hotel) where Miss Eugenie Stroganoff was flirting with the band in my story!
And here is, from left to right, The Bund again – you can see the Telegraph Building where Colonel Billy Flynn was posting a letter home in my story, with its big mast, at the back of the row of buildings on The Bund. In the middle is the Pudong skyline, on the other side of the Huangpu River – space-age and modern and extraordinary!! And a gorgeous light show on one of the Shanghai skyscrapers on the right! Shanghai is most definitely a city of ever-blazing lights, and is best seen at night!
And here are just some of the other authors I met: Patrick Lapeyre, a famous French writer and winner of the 2010 Prix Femina; in the middle, from left to right, Michelle Garnaut introducing Lee Tamahori (screen director of the renowned Once Were Warriors and, more recently James Bond film Die Another Day), Anne O’Brien, director of the New Zealand Writers Festival, and the wonderful Witi Ihimaera, author of famous The Whale Rider, talking about their latest collaboration Mahana; and on the right, Zhang Lijia, a famous Chinese author, talking about her latest book! I’m so fortunate to have met them and had lovely long chats with this last weekend!
On Saturday evening, I walked down the Bund to the old Cathay Hotel, now called the Peace Hotel, to take a look! This hotel was THE place to be seen in 1920s Shanghai, at the time The Tale of Rickshaw Rooster was set, and it still has the most beautiful Art Deco carving and floors and ceilings and lights, as well as photos of the old days! Here’s one I discovered – and you can see a whole row of 1920s motor cars in the foreground! It reminded me of The Shanghai Race in my new book!
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