Why Conn Iggulden writes (and reads)

Davy and Daniel realize that their warm summer glory days are numbered -- they've figured out a system where they finish all their school work by lunchtime, so I'll let them head outdoors to the shop where this past week they built themselves a workbench, complete with bookshelf -- and they're frantically coming up with projects to fill the remaining days. Which is why Daniel's copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys (UK edition) looks like this:



















They are making the most of some outdated business card/bookmarks with which a friend gifted us.

Since the Big Red Book has been turning up everywhere around here, indoors and out, I was interested the other day to read this Guardian interview with Dangerous Book co-author Conn Iggulden on "Why I write"; from which:

What was your favourite book as a child?
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. At a very young age, I wanted to have a special bond with animals and birds. I wanted there to be magic in the world, or at least in me. In The Secret Garden, Dickon had that bond and I remember envying him. I also have the idea that he was as grubby as I usually was.

When you were growing up did you have books in your home?
Yes. The house was filled with them. I ate breakfast with Adrian Mole propped under my plate of toast. I read in the bath, in trees and occasionally on the roof. My brother slept under a set of shelves so bowed that I honestly thought they would one day collapse and kill him.

Was there someone who got you interested in reading books or writing?
My Irish mother told me vivid stories of history and grisly executions from a young age. She quotes poems and loves words to this day. I doubt I'd be writing without her tales. Still, I don't really know where the original story-telling bug came from -- loneliness, perhaps.

What made you want to write when you were starting out?
I began with fantasy novels and loved the wild flights of imagination. That was a drug to me and a world I wanted to join. It's difficult to explain, but it's a wonderful feeling when the words come.

Iggulden's current writing projects according to the interview include a second Dangerous Pocket Book, and a book of heroes with his brother David. Read the rest here.

Bibliographilia

from today's New York Times:

Readers are often impressed with his bibliography, Mr. Crichton added. “People will often say to me, ‘Oh my goodness, look how many books you’ve read,’” he said.

Which makes some observers suspicious that while a bibliography can appear driven by scrupulousness and politeness, vanity is the real culprit.

Proud mother moment

Had word over the weekend that seven-year-old Daniel's story about the Charter Oak had won author Jennifer Armstrong's first writing contest just for homeschoolers; the contest had been the kids' writing project for the month of September, a way of easing them back into school and writing with a fun assignment. The prize is an autographed copy of Jennifer's new book, The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History, which makes all of us here very, very excited. Daniel, my hockey fan, is especially thrilled that Jennifer promised to mail the book from Detroit, home of the Red Wings. Thank you, so much, Jennifer! This is the second writing contest Daniel has won this year, and a big boost for a boy who most times would rather be outside with a penknife rather than a pen.

Jennifer has been busy lately; besides two new books and all of the associated travelling, which you can read about at her main blog, she has revamped her website and started a new blog just for contests (bookmark and Blogline it!) with the promise of new contests each month.

More news from across the pond: Lynne Truss on "Why arnt childrun being tort how 2 rite?"

My father was darling enough to send me this morning Lynne Truss's latest article from The Telegraph.

The actual headline, "Why arnt childrun...", is rather misleading since the article deals not with spelling -- which isn't taught anymore either, at least here in Canada -- but with the mechanics of writing. I would have subtitled my post "Why Araminta and Philip Can't Write," only Dakota, Denver, and Chelsea in North America are no better off. Each year I spend an inordinate amount of time at the local country fair perusing the school displays, mostly gaping at the high school collages (not essays) about popular movies like "The Truman Show" (not books). Very adept with scissors and glue, not so adept with words, sadly, which are apparently optional. Or at least not as decorative.

As Ms. Truss -- "Designated Worrier for the English Language" since the publication of her zero-tolerance Eats, Shoots & Leaves -- writes,

Last year, only 71 per cent of girls and 56 per cent of boys aged 11 reached level four – the standard of writing expected for their age. School inspectors were themselves recently e-mailed some guidelines by Ofsted on the difference between "its" and "it's", and how to spell words such as (useful in the circumstances) "under-achieve".

"But what about all those lovely A-level results?" you object. Well, a few months ago, the Royal Literary Fund published a report, Writing Matters, that put those A-levels into perspective. Since 1999, the fund has been placing professional writers in universities, to work one-to-one with students on their writing skills, and their report was full of plain, staggering shock at the state of students' entry-level abilities.

From every angle, the same message arrived: students who are arriving at university, many with multiple A grades at A-level, simply don't know how to write. Many of them actually resent the idea that suddenly they are expected to be able to....

Why isn't writing – not reading – given more prominence in schools? I really don't understand it.

And,

No one just picks up the mechanics of writing, just as we don't pick up how to play the piano simply by listening to it. Theory, moreover, is no substitute for practice, or for learning through making mistakes.

For decades, there has been an ideological reluctance to point out mistakes in written work. Pointing out "errors" was seen as discouraging to children, as well as unacceptably judgmental. But, when you look at it, what a patronising attitude that is.

Don't kids have the right to know if they are getting something wrong? Then they can either have the pleasure of getting it right next time, or they can make an informed decision that, actually, they absolutely don't care. It is patronising not to correct someone who is supposed to be learning; in fact, it's quite a good idea occasionally to force people to confront the scale of their own ignorance.

It's not just people's self-esteem that's at stake, after all. It's the future of written English.

Is this an elitist point of view? No, it's quite the opposite. To me, it's very simple: being good at English means you've been taught well. The idea that "correct" or standard English belongs only to rich and privileged people is preposterous from every angle.

The English language doesn't belong to anybody: it certainly doesn't trickle down from the top. Mark Twain said it brilliantly 100 years ago: "There is no such thing as the Queen's English. The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company, and we own the bulk of the shares."

Go on, read the rest. Read it and weep.

Homeschool contest: Tell your favorite American history story

and you just might win a prize!

If this sounds like a fun way to kick off your family's new school year, not to mention a nifty writing assignment for the kiddies, Jennifer Armstrong, author of the new history title, The American Story, wants you. Details of Ms. Armstrong's new contest just for homeschoolers are here, and as she writes, "Have fun! Writing about history is a blast!" Ten winners will receive an autographed copy of the book.

And did you notice that Jennifer Armstrong's new blog is called Just for Homeschoolers? Color me impressed.

UPDATED to add: I'm feeling even more colorfully impressed this morning.