SAW; Gillian Cross

As mentioned previously, Somerville has produced a huge amount of notable alumni that have become authors. Amongst the Sayers, the Holtbys and the Brittains, the college has also some more modern authors to its name, including that of Gillian Cross. Gillian is a children’s author whose works include ‘The Demon Headmaster’ and ‘Where I Belong,’ and these were the books that she chose to focus on when she came and spoke during Arts Week on Wednesday 2^nd May. I asked Gillian to talk about her experience as a writer, the story of a book from its inception to its publication, her anecdotes along the way and her attitude to reading and writing.

Echoing the sentiments expressed by PD James during the Oxford Literary Festival, it was clear that for Gillian, ‘the books choose you’ and her falling into particularly children’s writing was as much a serendipitous occurrence as the accomplishment of an enjoyable past time.  The Demon Headmaster began as a suggestion from her young daughter that Gillian write about a wicked headmaster, and the rest fell into place. After considering the idea, the hypnotism element was introduced as a way for the headmaster to get away with his agenda, an idea that ‘connected with children’ without being too sinister. Despite it being a novel for young people, Cross had to rewrite a great deal of the book in order to get it right and eventually realised what was wrong with the first draft after sensing subconsciously that there was something not quite right with the story. The book is incredibly important to Gillian; it has always been her most popular book, even before the BBC approached her in the early 1990s to turn it into a series, and her determination to include the scene in the snow where the prefects punish SPLAT for throwing the forbidden snowball by forcing them to roll all of the snow on the field into snowballs, without their hats, coats or gloves despite the BBC arguing that it was too expensive, demonstrates the importance of the book's integrity, despite its young audience.

Gillian’s attitude to the role of an author was also interesting; in terms of research, she suggested that researching hypnotism would have been a barrier, as making it too technical would have removed some of the fun from the book. On the other hand, for Where I Belong, her novel based on a visit to a Leicester school about Somalia required a great deal of research as writing about someone else’s culture involves ‘a moral duty to get it right.’ The talk included a huge variety of material and discussion and it was a pleasure to welcome Gillian back to Somerville.

http://www.gillian-cross.co.uk/