PenguinReaders' Group
 

Featured Author

Mr Toppit

This month our Featured Author, Charles Elton, answers questions from from last year’s winners of the Penguin Orange Broadband Readers’ Group Prize, Laura’s Book Group. They are based in Edinburgh.

Q: Were the humour and hilarious characters, such as Lila, a deliberate tool to lighten some of the dark actions and themes within the book?

A: I wish I could say that anything in the book is deliberate. It took a long time to write (15 years) and I'm afraid that the reasons for why a lot of things happen in it are rather lost to time. I didn't really plan too much. Things came into my head and I followed them up. Generously, you might say the book is a work of instinct rather than planning.

Q: How/did the Harry Potter phenomenon, which exploded over the time you were writing the book, affect the plot/character development?

A: I was lucky with the Harry Potter thing. The 'model' was really Christopher Robin and Winnie The Pooh in terms of world-wide fame but then HP came along and proved that children's books could still take over the world.

Q: On the first page Luke says he has no idea what the last sentence in the last Chronicles book means – do you?

A: That's a tough question, particularly as it was the first sentence I ever wrote of 'my' book 15 years ago and I had no real idea of where I, or my own book, was going. I suppose I meant it to be deliberately open to interpretation - he could be an Aslan like figure, or it could be that Mr T is going to wreak havoc on the world. Penguin asked me to write imaginary blurbs of the five Hayseed books and I was surprised how fully formed the story of the books seemed to be in my head even though you don't get much of an idea of it from the snippets in Mr Toppit. I could dredge them out if you wanted.

Q: How has your experience as the focal point of media attention compared with that of the Hayman family?

A: There has been some media attention on me, but I'm pretty low down the food-chain celebrity-wise. I'm not accosted by complete strangers at cocktail parties anyway.

Q: The characterisation in Mr Toppit is outstanding; how much of this is based on real people you know?

A: I think I've met a lot of vivid people in my life and I suppose I'm always drawn to larger-then-life types. They certainly found their way into my book.

Q: Who was your favourite character from the book, and why?

A: I really like Luke obviously, not just because he's got a lot of me in him. I like his deadpan way of looking at life, often concentrating on the small details and glossing over the big things. I'm particularly fond of Alma, Laurie's mother because, although she's a bit of a monster, she did try to protect Laurie in her own way.

Q: Did you have a clear plotline for the Hayseed Chronicles in place whilst writing Mr Toppit?

A: See answer 1. I think it was all in my head from the beginning, but I never made any notes or really planned anything. I imagine that proper authors have pin boards with index cards on them, and maybe one day I'll be able to do that.

Q: Is there any way we can bribe you to now write the Hayseed Chronicles?

A: Lots of people have asked me that. It's easy writing snippets of something. I think some people imagine I wrote a lot of the Hayseed Chronicles and just included the best bits. In fact, I never wrote any more than is actually in the book, which is very little. I’m not sure I'd be very good at writing children's books. I find children and their motivations rather mysterious, particularly my own children.