Michael Pryor's Blog, page 24

A great feature, thanks to Retronaut, with some splendid, inspired imagining of London streets as canals.

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The book I remember most fondly from my childhood would have to be Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.

I'm not sure how old I was when I first read it, but I must have been quite young because I remember it as being my first 'big' book and I also recall feeling a sense of accomplishment, as well as a little amazement, the first time that I managed to make it all the way through to the end. It probably remains the only book from my childhood that I've re-read a number of times over the years.

One of the things that made WITW so memorable for me was that it was my first real experience of reading a story that drew me completely in to another world – the world of the woodlands and the riverbank. Right from the start, I really wanted to be there with Ratty and Moley 'messing about in boats' and in a way of course, I was. Whenever I reached the end of the story and turned that last page, the magical world of WITW was one that I always regretted having to leave.

But even more than the setting, it was the wonderful cast characters I loved: mild mannered, timid Moley with his hidden strengths; good old, reliable and friendly Ratty; gruff but wise and inspirational Mr Badger; and finally, that loosest of all loose canons, the conceited and incurably over-enthusiastic Mr Toad.

Who would have ever thought that a rat, a mole, a badger and a toad could be so appealing? I think perhaps for me, it was the innate warmth and decency of the characters, particularly Moley and Ratty, along with their loyalty, courage and especially their friendship that I've always loved the most. (Although I do acknowledge the fact that it is a very heavily male-dominated cast.)

But what a story! You'd be forgiven for thinking that a tale about a bunch of woodland creatures would be fairly mild and underwhelming. But nothing could be further from the truth. WITW contains among other things: boating mishaps, a caravan road trip, the dangers of the Wild Woods, grand theft auto, multiple car crashes, a house arrest, police chases, a court room drama, a 20 year prison sentence, an escape by a cross-dressing toad, a fugitive on the run, a pitched battle against an army of mansion invading weasels, stoats and ferrets, a lost son and even a mystical encounter with the god Pan! Could you really ask for anything more?

Sometimes when you re-read a favourite book from your youth, it doesn't quite live up to your memories. Although I've not read WITW from beginning to end for many years, when my children Meg and Joe were little one of our family's favourite videos was a terrific animated musical version of it that we watched repeatedly and always sang along to.

I can't see WITW with its wonderful depiction of both simple pleasures and grand adventures ever losing its appeal for me. I'm sure I'll always be drawn to this tale of a trio of unlikely companions who band together in the name of friendship, to save another friend – albeit a wildly incorrigible, ungrateful and pompous one – from himself.

Michael's most recent book is: Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel (2011) Omnibus Books/Scholastic Australia. For more, see Michael's blog at www. michaelgerardbauer.wordpress.com.

Just arrived on my doorstep – Steampunk Playing Cards from Theory 11. Magnificent!

Foz made a splash debut in 2010 with 'Solace and Grief', and followed it in 2011 with 'The Key to Starveldt', both powerful and moving horror/paranormal tales.

From the moment my grandmother gave me the first book as a ninth birthday present, I was hooked on the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, which follows the exploits of various mice, squirrels, otters, moles, shrews, badgers, hares and other woodland creatures attached either to Redwall Abbey or the mountain of Salamandastron. Though aimed at a middle-grade audience, I loved the books so fiercely that I continued to read and re-read them right through to university, so that for nine whole years, they defined and dominated my reading habits.

The series was more than an infatuation: it was a learning curve, though it's only recently that I've recognised it as such. Unusually for a middle-grade author, Jacques never flinched from killing characters – even ones who were very young, very old, or in love – or leaving having them suffer permanent injuries, so that you could never lapse into assuming that everyone you cared about would emerge unscathed. His books were populated by a diverse cast of heroes and heroines in equal measure, with different ideas of strength, courage and competence lauded and explored from volume to volume. History, poetry, puzzles and riddles were always a part of his stories, and if characters' speech patterns and behaviour were usually defined by species, there were always exceptions to the rule, with an overriding theme of cooperation and solidarity between the animals carrying more narrative weight than an emphasis on their differences.

As a child, the books made me cry on many occasions, and even as an adult, recalling them provokes a similar emotional response. But perhaps most importantly to both my feminist sensibilities as an adult and to the tomboy girl I was, whether he was writing about adventure, love, war, betrayal, redemption, courage, mysteries or comedy, there was always something fiercely egalitarian to Jacques's work. Because the heroines of Redwall came in all shapes and sizes: there was Hon Rosie, the laughing hare warrior and devoted mother; Lady Cregga Rose-Eyes, a battle-hardened badger berserker who nonetheless lived out her final years as a nurse; the sarcastic and brave nomad squirrel, Russa Nodrey; the kind, inquisitive hedgehog Tansy, who went on to become Abbess of Redwall; the mouse Mariel Gullwhacker, a loving daughter, fierce survivor and roaming adventurer; otter Grath Longfletch, a peerless archer on a revenge quest; and stubborn, quick-witted Laterose, a peaceful mouse who nonetheless fought against slavery.

In so many ways, the Redwall series defined, not just my childhood, but my love of reading. It was the first series I ever became emotionally invested in, yearning desperately after each new book, and though the world wasn't strictly fantastic, it nonetheless cemented my love of fantasy. As Jacques passed away in early 2011, there will be no more new stories – though from the year I was born to the year he died, he expanded Redwall at almost the rate of a book a year – but the 22 he did write will be with me forever.

Foz's website is http://fozmeadows.wordpress.com and her most recent book is 'The Key to Starveldt'.

Kate is the author of  the much  loved 'The Chanters of Tremaris' series.



http://kateconstable.blogspot.com/

16% of people think a placebo was a government official in ancient Sumer.

4% of ants are actually small sticks.

8% of people have no nail on their little toes.

14% of Renaissance painters were allergic to cheese.

28% of people have faces that cannot be caricatured by cartoonists.

71% of directions given by strangers are wrong in either direction or duration.

5% of Monopoly games are played strictly by the rules.

94% of clouds aren't any shape at all, really.

12% of economists worship the Great White Sow.

77% of meetings are too long, 22% are pointless.

44% of cats can't smile.

23% of politics makes no sense at all to anyone.

2% of traffic lights are telepathic and change to red just to spite you.

88% of items marked 'Handwash only' are thrown in the washing machine.

Justin  is the author of over 30 books for children and young adults, including the hugely popular Extreme Adventures series.

www.justindath.com

I can finally divulge details of the top secret project I've been working on for some time. 10 Futures is a series of linked stories which explore humanity's next hundred years. Ten story segments, ten possible futures, each with its own challenges and opportunities – overpopulation, worldwide financial collapse, medical miracles, the rise of artificial intelligence, virulent pandemics, global warming/climate change, greatly increased lifespans, religious fundamentalism and war.

What unites these stories is the presence of Tara and Sam, best friends forever, coping with the futures that we are setting up today. Every one of the story segments is based on a current trend or development – technological and sociological – with the assistance of a simple question: what happens if this continues?

I spent a great deal of time researching these trends, and every item I uncovered was balanced by my need to work with the human aspect of these changes. the How do you grow up in 2050? In 2080? In a world where water is rationed? In a world where freedom is unknown? In a world where your partner is chosen for you by your genetic suitability? Much will stay the same – people will still be people in 2100 – but some new ethical and moral dilemmas will be spawned. What are the rights of clones? What is the punishment for water theft in a world where everyone is thirsty?

I'm immensely proud of 10 Futures. Imagining the future is important. If we don't think about it and talk about it in an informed and thoughtful way, we're stumbling ahead blindfolded. Is that any way to proceed?

10 Futures comes with an extensive set of Teachers' Notes aligned to the Australian Curriculum and will be available in April. For more, including ordering details, see the Random House Australia site.

Leanne Hall

Whenever I'm in a second-hand bookshop, the first thing I always do is go to the children's shelves and look for a copy of Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler. But I'm not looking for just any copy; it has to have the original 1970s cover with illustrations by Fritz Wegner. Jacob Two-Two is still in print and can be ordered from the US, but only with very ugly modern covers.

Look at that! Isn't that a magnificent cover? Doesn't the Hooded Fang look ferocious? Aren't you wondering why he's wearing such a revealing dressing gown?

Jacob Two-Two is the youngest of five children, and feels so disregarded in his large rowdy family that he finds it necessary to say everything two times. This lands him in a pile of trouble when he offends a local grocer by asking for `two pounds of firm red tomatoes' twice. Before Jacob Two-Two knows it, he has been tried before a very unsympathetic judge, and incarcerated in the dreary Slimer's Isle prison that is ruled by the terminally cranky Hooded Fang. Luckily for Jacob, the intrepid Shapiro and O'Toole (who bear a suspicious resemblance to Jacob's brother Noah and sister Emma) from child liberation organisation Child Power have a plan to spring all the children from the jail. But Jacob Two-Two also has an anonymous helper and friend within the bars of the prison…

Fritz Wagner's illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and oh-so-seventies. Here we have the dramatic scene of Shapiro and O'Toole confronting the courtroom. As a child I desperately wanted a Child Power outfit with flared Day-Glo jeans. I didn't even know what Day-Glo jeans were at the time, but I wanted some.

I related very strongly to Jacob Two-Two as I was also the youngest child in my family. I understood perfectly his feeling that he could not be heard, and shared his frustration at being too short, too young, too weak, too silly and too careless to do so many grown-up things his siblings were allowed to do.

Mordecai Richler confirmed my suspicions that there are some adults who pretend to love children, but who do not; and equally, that there are some adults who pretend to hate children, but secretly love them. And I loved the message that the gnarliest, foulest-looking monsters could be the biggest softies of us all.

I'm not joking when I say this could be the best book ever written. I have memories of walking around the house as a child, with Jacob Two-Two clutched to my chest, and muttering lines from it under my breath as if they were spells.

Leanne's new book 'Queen of the Night' will be published by Text Publishing in February 2012. For more, visit Leanne's blog.

Today's Guest Blogger is Ian Irvine, one of our foremost fantasy writers and the author of the best-selling 'Three Worlds' sequence.

We didn't have TV until after I finished the HSC, in 1968, and my primary form of entertainment from the age of 4 was reading. I devoured books, thousands and thousands of them, indiscriminately, and the books I most enjoyed were tales of adventure and derring-do in exotic places.

Among them, many of my favourites were the Biggles stories from the Second World War. And of all of the Biggles books, the one that stands above all others is Biggles in the Baltic, first published in 1940.

I have a very fond memory from the age of eleven or twelve, of sitting in the window seat of our house in a little country village, reading all day while the rain poured down outside. Biggles in the Baltic seemed to have everything – a locale unlike anything I'd ever encountered, a secret flying boat base in a cavern on a little island in the Baltic Sea. Plus wild weather, the sinkings of various enemy vessels, dogfights, air crashes, secret missions, attacks and counterattacks. Biggles caught by his arch-enemy, Erich von Stalhein (the first arch-enemy I'd encountered in fiction), and sentenced to death. Rescues, explosions, more crashes, and planes that won't go when they're most needed – what a great read that was. I must have read it a dozen times before I grew out of Biggles a few years later.

But I still love those kind of tales. Reading them and writing them. And I'm sure they did wonders for morale during the war, too.

Ian's latest book is 'Vengeance', Book 1 of 'The Tainted Realm', published by Orbit Australia in November 2011, and Orbit US and Orbit UK in April 2012. For more, visit Ian's website: http://www.ian-irvine.com/taintedrealm.html