Title: The Interview: Text page
Course: How to use Dictionary Apps

The Interview: Text page

An interview with Jonathan Stroud

Jonathan Stroud, author of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, discusses his life and his books

Please tell us about background

I was born in Bedford, England, on 27th October 1970. Between the ages of seven and nine I was quite often ill, and spent long periods in hospital and at home in bed. During this time I escaped from boredom and frustration by reading furiously: books littered my bedroom floor like bones in a lion's cave. I tended to enjoy stories of magical adventure more than ones about real life, and around this time I fell in love with fantasy.

Throughout my school years I experimented with different kinds of writing, often illustrated. I tried comics, board games, and later poems and plays. Without being entirely aware of it, I was searching for the kind of writing that suited me best.

I left university without a clue what to do. But I got an editorial job at Walker Books, in London, and began to learn about children's books. For several years I worked as an editor: helping authors with their ideas and their texts, consulting with designers and artists about the visual side, helping to create books of many kinds. In my free time, I was busy writing also. I did several puzzle books for Walker, and began working on a novel, too. When Buried Fire was published in 1999, I knew that I had found what I truly wanted to do, but it took until 2001 before I finally took the plunge, gave up being an editor and tried to write full time.

When did you start writing?

Around the age of seven I began writing adventures inspired by the works of Enid Blyton. These featured bands of children, robbers, stolen loot, ruined castles, secret passageways and hidden doors that swung open if you tripped on a tree root. All the other children in my class wrote stories that ran maybe a couple of pages; mine went on indefinitely until the teacher ran out of paper.

How long does it take to write a book?

A longish novel, such as The Amulet of Samarkand, takes a year or so. Usually there's a couple of months when you're developing the idea, then you've got maybe 4-5 months of solid writing, until the first draft is done. After that there are perhaps 2-3 months of rewriting, editing and copyediting. And then you have to wait for another few months for the thing to be printed and published! But a lot depends on the length and complexity of the individual book.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Ideas come from everywhere and can hit you at any time. I once got a very good one in the bath. The idea of Bartimaeus came while walking gloomily home in the rain. Ideas can be big or small, I think they come from almost anything: people you meet, places you go, things you read, conversations overheard, dreams, newspapers, today's television, childhood memories. The thing to do is write them down when you get them, or they'll quickly drift away.

What's your favorite book that you've written?

I'm pretty proud of all of them, but I guess it has to be Ptolemy's Gate, because this was the most challenging. I had to bring the Bartimaeus Trilogy to a satisfying conclusion and tie up every thread, and I'm happy with the way it worked out.

Who's your favorite character from your own books?

It has to be Bartimaeus, because he's the most fun to write. I like doing his jokes and footnotes, and I love the energy of his voice. It was when I first heard him speak, on the first page of The Amulet of Samarkand, that I knew the book would be exciting – and this was before I knew anything else about it!

Do you base your characters on people you know?

Not really. I suppose all writers must create their characters from bits and pieces of people that they've met or seen, but I don't deliberately set out to reproduce a living person. Having said that, the early character of Nathaniel in The Amulet of Samarkand is a bit similar to the way I was when I was in my early teens – proud, uptight, idealistic, hard-working, over-serious. I hope there's a bit more of Bart in me these days.

Who's your favourite author?

I don't have a single favourite; it depends on my mood. I love Robert Louis Stevenson, who did Treasure Island, because he writes literary books that are also great adventure stories. Other favourites, who are all very different, are Dashiell Hammett, Evelyn Waugh and PG Wodehouse.