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An exclusive interview with
Simon Packham,
author of
comin 2 gt u
and The Bex Factor. |
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Where did you
grow up?
Brighton. I spent many hours(including ‘revising’ for
my A Levels) on the beach.
In the winter the seafront takes
on a slightly sinister quality,
which I’m going to use
in my next book.
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What did you want
to
be when you
grew up?
An actor or a songwriter.
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What were you
passionate about
when you were young?
Football, a table football game
called Subbuteo and going
to the Theatre Royal
in Brighton.
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What did you hate?
Sunday afternoons and
being sick (my Mum would
put a washing-up bowl
by the side of my bed).
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What was your favourite
book when
you
were growing up?
I loved the William books by Richmal
Crompton, and was also rather fond of
Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking,
a nine year old Swedish girl with the
strength of a strongman who lives
with a monkey called Mr Nelson
and has her own horse.
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What are your
favourite books
for young people today?
How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff) Framed (Frank Cottrell Boyce)
and my whole family enjoyed
My Brother’s Famous Bottom
(Jeremy Strong).
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When did you start writing?
I wrote a play called ‘Stone Circle’
when I was about 9 years old,
but our cat, Zippy, ripped it to shreds.
I cried so much that my Dad
typed it all up again for me.
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Why do you write?
It’s probably my way of trying
to understand the world a bit
better and hopefully finding
humour in the things that
scare me most.
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When and where
do you write?
I started writing in the bedroom, but
since our loft conversion I now have
a room for my writing and music
equipment. It also means I can hardly
hear my son Jon’s band (name
currently under discussion) when
they rehearse – and play FIFA
2010 – on Saturday afternoons.
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What do you do when
you’re stuck for an idea?
Go swimming.
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Tell us something
we didn’t know
about you.
I once had a job playing the
violin for a ballet dancing duck
in a supermarket
in Leicester.
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What made you want
to write comin 2 gt u?
I wanted to write about three
generations of men struggling to
live up to their generation’s idea
of what it takes to be a man.
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Is it based
on
your
own experience?
I was certainly bullied for a short
while at school (although not nearly
as badly as Sam), but the Granddad
character is based on my dad
who served in the navy during the war.
His ship wasn’t sunk, but it was
badly bombed and many of
his shipmates were killed.
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Who is your favourite character in the book?
Stephen Allbright (known as
‘Dimbo’) the class genius/nerd.
I always admire people who
don’t worry about what other
people think of them.
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What is your favourite
moment in the book?
I like the bit where Sam first
falls for Abby.
She offers him Turkish delight,
which is supposed to be a distant echo
of a scene between Edmund and
The White Witch
in The Lion, The Witch and
the Wardrobe.
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