Scottish Book Trust Project Name



Date: Wednesday 26 May 2010

Author/Interview subject: Julia Donaldson (JD)

Interviewed by: Janice Forsyth (JF)

Other speakers: Audience (Aud), Boy in audience (Boy #), Girl in audience (Girl#)

JF Hello there, a very warm welcome. My name is Janice Forsyth and we’re here broadcasting to you live from the BBC in Glasgow. This is a wonderful virtual author event, one of a series of events just like this organised by the Scottish Book Trust in association with the BBC. Now, if you’re watching us live online, you’re part of a huge audience of thousands of children watching us on their computers in schools right across Scotland, and indeed, across the UK. So, a very, very warm welcome to you, and just a word of warning. You know how sometimes if you’re watching something online at school, or maybe at home, sometimes the computer can present a little bit of a problem. So, don’t panic. If the image, during anything that happens today, suddenly freezes – like that – or judders, don’t panic, don’t go switching any buttons – if you just relax and wait a few moments, everything will be normal again.

Now, you’re not the only people watching this. We have some real live school children in the audience here with us today. They are from Torphichen Primary School in West Lothian. So why don’t you say hello to each other: children here from Torphichen Primary School, wave to that camera there; say hello to your new friends in the schools across the UK, and wherever you’re watching in the schools UK, wave back and say hello; and say hello together: yay!

Aud Hello.

JF Oh, lots and lots of new friendships: how marvellous. Now, today we’re so excited. We’re really, really thrilled, aren’t we? We are delighted that one of the most popular best-selling children’s authors in the country, in the world is with us today. She’s written lots of books and sold millions of copies, and perhaps one of her most favourite characters and best-loved ones is the Gruffalo. She is enormously busy, as you can imagine, so we are totally thrilled that she has made some time for us here this morning. So, boys and girls – and before I tell you this, actually I’ve had a quick look, and she’s brought lots of things with her: props and a great big bag that I think’s full of interesting stuff, too – so look out for that. But boys and girls here and wherever you are watching, here’s cheering and clapping for Julia Donaldson!

JD Well, thank you for that, Janice. Lovely to meet you all, and very nice to meet everyone – all of you out there, all over the country. Yeah, Janice is right; I’ve brought my case of props which I tend to trundle around everywhere with me. I’ve also brought some books, and I’m going to start off by telling you a story. This book is called What the Ladybird heard. I wrote the story, but there’s wonderful pictures by an illustrator called Lydia Monks. Now, I do need your help telling the story, but first of all, I’m just going to tell you how I came to write it.

Well, I think the audience here are a bit…you’re about eight and nine years old, aren’t you?

Aud Yeah.

JD Well, so I’m sure you’re all really good at reading. But when my youngest son was a bit younger than you – he was about five – he hadn’t yet learnt to read, but the teacher got him to do this exercise where across one side of the page were names of animals like horse, dog, pig, goose. Across the other side of the page were noises like miaow, baah, woof, etc. And he was supposed to draw a line linking the animal to the right noise, like a cat miaows, a dog barks. But because my little boy couldn’t read, he got it all wrong; so we had a hen hisses, a horse squeaks, and all the wrong noises; and at the time I couldn’t help laughing, although I tried not to let him see that. But many, many years later when he was about 20, we were going for a walk together and I said, Jerry, I’d really like to write a story where the animals make the wrong noises. And that was because of that little mistake he’d made when he was really little.

So, this is the story of what the ladybird heard. It’s a kind of farmyard thriller – a crime set on the farm. Now, I need not just you lot here, but everyone to join in with the noises. So, we have a very quick practice. I’ve got some signs here, so when I hold up a sign, if everyone could make the noise on that sign: let’s have a practice with this one.

Aud Moo!

JD Good. One more.

Aud Cluck.

JD Okay. And the first time round you’re all quite happy – can you all do a happy sort of moo.

Aud Moo.

JD Good. But then, when the animals are a bit upset about something later on in the story, they sound really cross and really sad, so can you do a, sort of, cross or a sad moo.

Aud Moo.

JD Very good. All right, so off we go. What the Ladybird heard. Once upon a farm lived a fat red hen, a duck on a pond, and a goose in a pen. A woolly sheep, a hairy hog, a handsome horse and a dainty dog. A cat that miaowed, a cat that purred, a fine prize cow and a ladybird. And the cow said:

Aud Moo.

JD And the hen said:

Aud Cluck. Hiss,

JD said the goose, and

Aud Quack,

JD said the duck.

Aud Neigh,

JD said the horse.

Aud Oink,

JD said the hog.

Aud Baah,

JD said the sheep, and

Aud Woof,

JD said the dog. And one cat miaowed…

Aud Miaow.

JD …while the other cat purred.

Aud Purr.

JD But the ladybird said never a word. But the ladybird saw and the ladybird heard – she saw two men in a big black van with a map and a key and a cunning plan. And she heard them whisper, ‘This is how we’re going to steal the fine prize cow. We’ll open the gate at dead of night, past the sheep and then turn right, round the duck pond, past the hog, being careful not to wake the dog. Left past the sheep, then straight ahead and in through the door of the prize cow’s shed.’ Then the little spotty ladybird, who never before had said a word, told the animals, ‘This is how two thieves are planning to steal the cow: they’ll open the gate at dead of night, pass the horse and then turn right, round the duck pond, past the hog, being careful not to wake the dog. Left past the sheep, then straight ahead and in through the door of the prize cow’s shed.’

Then the cow said,

Aud Moo.

JD Remember you’re upset this time. And the hen said,

Aud Cluck. Hiss,

JD said the goose, and

Aud Quack,

JD said the duck.

Aud Neigh,

JD said the horse,

Aud Oink,

JD said the hog;

Aud Baah,

JD said the sheep, and

Aud Woof,

JD said the dog. And both the cats began to

Aud Miaow.

JD ‘We can’t let them steal the fine prize cow.’ But the ladybird had a good idea, and she whispered it [whispers] into each animal’s ear [whispers]. At dead of night the two bad men, Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len, opened the gate while the farmer slept, and tiptoe into the farm they crept. Then the goose said

Aud Neigh,

JD with all her might, and Len said, ‘That’s the horse: turn right.’ The dainty dog began to

Aud Quack.

JD ‘The duck!’ said Hugh, ‘we’re right on track.’

Aud Oink,

JD said the cat. ‘There goes the hog: be careful not to wake the dog.’

Aud Baah, baah, baah,

JD said the fat red hen. ‘The sheep! We’re nearly there,’ said Len. Then the duck on the pond said,

Aud Moo, moo, moo.

JD ‘Just two more steps to go,’ said Hugh, and they both stepped into the duck pond, splosh, and the farmer woke and said, ‘Golly gosh!’ and he called the cops and they came: Nee-naw. And they threw the thieves in their panda car. Then the cow said,

Aud Moo.

JD Very happy again. And the hen said,

Aud Cluck. Hiss,

JD said the goose, and

Aud Quack,

JD said the duck.

Aud Neigh,

JD said the horse.

Aud Oink,

JD said the hog.

Aud Baah,

JD said the sheep, and

Aud Woof,

JD said the dog. And the farmer cheered:

Aud Hurray!

JD and both cats purred

Aud Purr.

JD But the ladybird said never a word. Thanks very much.

Aud [Applause]

JD Well done. Well done for joining in.

JF That was fantastic. Thank you, Julia. Wasn’t that great?

JD That was great.

JF And I hope wherever you were watching, you were doing it in your school, too, joining in all the actions led by our wonderful children here from Torphichen Primary School. Now, a chance to hear from you, wherever you are, actually, because many of you have already emailed in questions for Julia. Obviously, Julia, so many of them, we can’t get through them all, but we’ll see what we can do. We’ll try to get through as many as possible. And first of all, this one comes from, Julia, from Bishop Winnington Ingram Primary School in Southcote Rise and Ruislip. And the question is, what was the first book that you wrote?

JD The first book I wrote was this one here. It’s called A squash and a squeeze. But actually, it didn’t start off as a book; it started off as a song, because when I was very young – well, you probably don’t think it’s young – but when I was about 20 years old, I was living in France and I was very poor. I had just about no money, so to earn some money I used to go out in the streets with my guitar, which I brought along today; a big hat, as well. Can anyone guess what the hat was for? Yes.

Boy# [Inaudible 00:12:17].

JF Was it a Mexican hat?

JD It was a big Mexican hat, yeah. And do you know what it was for? Yes?

Girl# [Inaudible 00:12:25] hand people money?

JF Ah, she’s saying, was it to hand people…well, for people to put money in for you.

JD That’s right, it was for people to put money in. And so that’s how my career started, really, as a busker. And then I started writing songs. Then I started writing songs for the BBC television, where we are today. And one of my songs was called A squash and a squeeze, and that’s eventually, the words of that song got made into this book, and then I just thought, yes, I’m going to write some more. Actually, the words are also, the whole song is in this book, The Gruffalo Song and Other Songs, so that’s really a nice…now I’ve actually got some songbooks as well as the, sort of, books without music.

JF But how lovely. So, it started off from not having any money, and then needing to make some money with some songs – how great. Okay, the next question, Julia, comes from Kirn Primary School in Argyll; but this was a question asked by lots of different schools, including Milne’s Primary School, P4 – hullo, if you’re watching – Bishop Winnington Ingram, and Bluecoats School, Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucester. The question, Julia, is why do you have animals in most of your books, and do you ever write about people?

JD I do write about people. I’ve actually written quite a lot. I think here, over here, I’ve got some of my chapter books, so yeah; this one, Princess Mirabelle, this is about a really naughty girl who comes out of the mirror and gets a real-life girl into lots of trouble. I’ve got one about some children who get captured by giants – The Giants and the Joneses – and I’ve got a couple of books which are set in Glasgow. There’s this one; this is for older children – well, it’s for teenagers really – Running on the Cracks – that’s a, kind of, thriller. One animal only in this. I think it’s a dog – quite a fierce dog.

But one of the books I thought you might enjoy is this one, Fly, pigeon, fly. And actually, this isn’t really just by me. I got the idea from a lovely man called John Henderson, who told me his story, a true story about how he grew up in Glasgow, and he found this tiny little pigeon – so there is an animal in it, actually – but it’s mainly about people. And he brought this pigeon up, and it was really, really tame and lived in his bedroom; and there he is trying to teach the pigeon to fly. But his dad says, no, you must give this pigeon…you know, let it free; this isn’t fair. And it’s a true story about the boy and a pigeon, and it’s all got the background of Glasgow, like Glasgow probably was maybe when your grandparents were alive, with the tenement buildings, and people had bedrooms in, kind of, little cupboards and things. So that’s a book about people. I think why I write about animals is, sometimes you can get better pictures – you know, if someone is going to be lost, I think it’s more fun if it’s a little monkey who’s lost in the jungle, because then you can have lovely pictures of the jungle, and the jungle animals. If it’s just like a child being lost in a shop, I don’t think that would be so nice to look at, really.

JF And the drawings and the illustrations, clearly are a very important part of it.

JD More especially – well, I love all my illustrators – but Axel Scheffler, who did that one about the monkey, yeah, he’s brilliant.

JF Terrific. Now, I mentioned – obviously you all know this – that Julia sold so many books across the world. And we have a question from Fort William, Julia, from Banavie Primary School, P2 and 3: hullo if you’re watching. And the question is, as we have a Latvian child in the class, she was wondering if you’ve had any of your books translated into Russian, and have you had them translated into any other languages?

JD Yes, I think I have got, I know I have got some translated into Latvian, actually. I’ve brought along some of the translations. This one is Russian; that’s one of the languages you mentioned. I don’t if anyone – I can’t read this, I’m afraid – can you read Russian? Can you? Yes? Oh, it’s The Gruffalo’s Child – that’s, yeah, it’s The Gruffalo’s Child in English. But of course, the writing in Russian is different. Some of the letters are the same, but some of the letters are different. I’ve got…here I’ve got The Snail and the Whale. This is in Italian, and it’s called La chiocciolina e la balena. La chiocciolina – that’s the Italian for snail; and la balena – that’s the whale.

JF It sounds so much nicer, doesn’t it?

JD Yeah. Or in German, it’s Die Schnecke und der Buckelwal.

JF Oh, wow.

JD And then I think this is Stick Man in Finnish – this is my book The Stick Man with Finnish, right, and the writing’s the same, but I still can’t understand that one. I thought you might be interested in this one, because this is for boys and girls of Israel – the Hebrew version of Sharing a Shell – and can you see, as well as the writing being different, the book starts from what we would call the end. We would say this book is back to front. This is the beginning of the book, and then this is the end over here; but to them in Israel, they would think our books are back to front.

Oh, and this one: I must just quickly show you this one. This book – and maybe Janice, you’d like to feel one of the pages and tell everyone what you can feel on that book. Close your eyes, maybe…

JF Oh yes, I can feel raised dots.

JD Yeah. Little, sort of, bumps.

JF Yeah.

JD And that’s actually a book for blind children. They can read with their fingers, read this through dots. And if they, because they can’t see the pictures, they’ve got some lovely raised pictures, so the blind children can actually feel this is…I can feel this is a wiggly snake. So yes, lots of different languages.

JF It must still be a thrill to see all of those books translated.

JD A groaning bookshelf in my house.

JF How wonderful. And this question: this is a very popular question, which has come from loads of schools across the country: Moncrieff Primary School in Perth, Ceres Primary School, P2, Milne’s Primary School, P4 – I’m waving to all of you as I say this – Redmyre Primary, Calderwood Primary, Rutherglen, and on and on and on. Thank you all so much for your questions. This one: out of all the books you’ve written, which is your favourite?

JD I don’t know if I’m allowed to have two favourites. I am very proud of this, the one I told you about before, the chapter book Running on the Cracks. Of the picture books, at the moment – because it does keep changing – at the moment, my favourite one is this one, Tabby McTat, which is about a cat and a busker, just like I used to go busking in the streets of Paris. Here they are: there’s Tabby McTat and the busker singing in the street. And I’ve actually brought – would you like to meet Tabby McTat?

Aud Yeah.

JD Because I’ve brought, he’s one of the things I brought along; he’s in here somewhere; here he is.

JF Oh, that’s what going on in there.

JD Right, that’s one of the things going on. Actually, this isn’t Tabby McTat; this is his kitten, Samuel Sprat: hello everyone. Miaow! So when I put on shows for children, this is one of the puppets. Oh, he’s gone all shy now. Oh, I’ll put him back in the…I’ll put him down here, so he can watch what’s going on. Yeah, I think that’s my favourite picture book.

JF Yeah. We have another one. This comes from Morvin Pryde, who is at Milne’s Primary School, P4, Fochabers, which is a semi-rural community situated about ten miles from Elgin: hullo to all of you. And this question also came from St John the Baptist Primary School in Fauldhouse. I wonder if we could get a clue to this, because you said you went busking, earlier: the question is, if you were not a writer, what would you be?

JD Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, I do love singing. I don’t think I’m good enough at singing to be singer, but I did always used to want to go on the stage and be an actress, so that’s what I really wanted to do before I wanted to be a writer. Now I’m actually quite lucky. Because I put on these shows for children, I, kind of, get to do a bit of acting, not just with puppets, but I’ve got here – oh now, this is a troll – this is from…I think I brought the book along somewhere – here it is, The Troll.

JF Oh yes.

JD And so this was my troll’s head, so he, sort of, goes: ‘Who’s that trip-trapping over my bridge?’ So I can have fun and do a little bit of acting still. Yeah, that’s what I would have really liked to do, I think.

JF You obviously involve that in the readings, because earlier on we saw you drop to the floor. I was very impressed. It’s very physical, isn’t it? This one is from Yorkshire, from Rosita, from Mount Pleasant CE Junior School in Yorkshire; and Rosita says, I have read that you have written some musicals. Do you play any musical instruments? Well, we know that Julia plays the guitar; she’s already done this. I am learning the French horn, says Rosita.

JD French horn. Gosh, that’s good. Does anyone here play any instruments? Yes? How many of you can play instruments? Good, good, okay.

JF Quite a lot, yeah.

JD Quite a lot. They’re gradually appearing, coming out of the woodwork. Yeah, I just play…I do play the guitar, not very well, but I play the piano as well, and I do love to play the piano.

JF And we have a question from one of our audience here, from Torphichen Primary School, from Sophie, who I think has a microphone. On you go, Sophie?

Sophie Is it easy to write stories?

JF The question is, is it easy to write stories? Thank you, Sophie.

JD Is it easy to write stories? Not very. It’s not very easy. It’s easy to have a vague idea. I might think, oh, I’d like to do an underwater story about a little fish that gets lost. Then it’s very hard to think, why does he get lost? Does he get found again? How does he get found again? It’s hard to make up the story. And then, of course, you have to write it, and make it rhyme, in my case. I’ve actually got here – this is the book I wrote The Gruffalo in – and can you see, there’s pages and pages and pages before I got it the way I wanted it? And I’m very messy. There’s loads of, sort of, doodles and things. On this page I’ve actually got all the words I wrote down – because I didn’t know what the Gruffalo was going to look like, so I just wrote everything I could think of, like, oh, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, prickles, black back, thorns, horns, and anything that rhymes, like black and back, I kept in, and other things I didn’t keep in. I think I’ve actually got an early version. Here we are: this is what I wrote first of all.

A gruffalo? Don’t you know his eyes are small, his nose is long, his claws are sharp and his jaws are strong. You’ve never heard such a terrible growl, and his favourite food is roasted owl. But is that what the Gruffalo ended up being like?

Aud No.

JD No. Can you, do you know, some of you, what the actual words are? It goes: He has terrible…

Aud tusks.

JD …tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. He has knobbly…

Aud knees.

JD …knees, and turned out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end…why are you looking? What’s the matter, Janice?

JF Julia, look over here.

JD Oh hullo! My goodness, here he comes! It’s the Gruffalo…don’t worry, Janice, don’t worry. Is anyone scared, here?

Aud No.

JD You’re very brave. They’re very brave. Gruffalo, hello. Right, very nice you’re here. Now, Janice here is a little bit…

JF Hullo.

JD …scared of you. All right, you’re getting a bit braver.

JF Okay.

JD Well, Gruffalo, I was wondering, would you like us to sing your favourite song? Yes? All right. So what is your favourite song? Oh, I might have guessed. Do you know what he said?

Aud What?

JD The Gruffalo Song – all right?

Aud [laugh]

JD He would, wouldn’t he. Okay, well, the thing is, Gruffalo, I brought my guitar. I can sing with someone, but I can’t, sort of, do the actions at the same time, so would you be happy…would you be happy, Janice, if you helped…

JF Sure.

JD …with the actions.

JF Yeah.

JD So maybe if the Gruffalo comes over here with Janice.

JF Hullo, Gruffalo.

JD I’ll just check if my guitar is in tune for the Gruffalo Song. Let’s have a see: one, two, three, four...okay. Right, we’re going to have a little practice first of all, and in the chorus, let’s just have a little practice first, doing this action. Can we all do this? Everyone, all of you, wherever you are, that’s what we’re going to do in the chorus. Okay; now, the first verse is about his terrible tusks, terrible claws, and the terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. So let’s try that first.

[Sings] He has terrible tusks and terrible claws and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws; he’s the Gruffalo; Gruffalo; Gruffalo. He’s the Gruffalo.

Aud [Singing]

JD Very good, and very good actions; that’s lovely. And well-done, Janice…

JF Thank you.

JD …considering you were so scared.

JF He’s very nice, really. He is nice, really.

JD Right, the second verse is about his knobbly…

Aud Knees.

JD Knees, turned out…

Aud Toes.

JD …and the poisonous wart – oh be careful, Janice…

JF Sorry.

JD …at the end of his nose. All right, let’s try that one. [Sings] He has knobbly knees…

Aud [Singing]

JD …and turned up toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose. He’s the Gruffalo, Gruffalo, Gruffalo, he’s the Gruffalo. Excellent. Now, there’s one more verse. It’s a tiny bit longer, this verse. Let’s have a try. It goes: [Sings] His eyes are orange, his tongue is black. He has purple prickles all over his back. He’s the Gruffalo, Gruffalo, Gruffalo…again, louder: he’s the Gruffalo, Gruffalo, Gruffalo… Can you all growl: he’s the Grrrrruffalo. Get ready to shout: he’s the…

Aud [Shouting] Gruffalo!

JD That was a wonderful practice. Oh, you enjoyed it, Gruffalo? Good. Well, I think that was such a good practice that we could probably now, everyone out there, do the whole song all the way through, all three verses. All right? Good. Oh, you’re pleased about that, Gruffalo. Good. Okay? Ready. I’ll maybe count to four: one, two, three, four. [Sings] He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. He’s the Gruffalo, Gruffalo, Gruffalo, he’s the Gruffalo.

He has knobbly knees and turned out toes and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose. He’s the Gruffalo, Gruffalo, Gruffalo, he’s the Gruffalo. His eyes are orange, his tongue is black, he has purple prickles all over his back. He’s the Gruffalo, Gruffalo, Gruffalo – again – he’s the Gruffalo, Gruffalo, Gruffalo – he’s the…growl: he’s the grrrrrruffalo. Get ready to shout: he’s the

Aud [Shouting] Gruffalo!

[Applause]

JD Well done, everyone.

[Applause]

JF Fantastic. Thank you very much, Mr Gruffalo. He’s not scary, really at all, is he?

Aud No.

JF Isn’t he rather handsome, actually?

Aud No.

JF No, not handsome. I think you shouldn’t say that; he’s hearing. He’s handsome, isn’t he?

Aud No.

JF Yes.

Boy# No.

JF What a wonderful…

JD You’d better say he is, or he might decide his favourite food is Primary 4 crumble.

JF No, I don’t think so. Thank you very much indeed, Gruffalo. I hope you’ve not been too hot here at the BBC in Glasgow; it’s such a lovely sunny day, taking part in this event. Thank you again.

[Applause]

JF Bye bye. Bye bye.

Aud Bye.

JF Off he goes. Well, I hope you weren’t too scared, wherever you were watching. Our children here from Torphichen Primary School who were with us, and who were very near to him, didn’t seem too frightened. You weren’t? You love him dearly, don’t you?

Aud Yeah.

JF Julia Donaldson, that was fantastic, thank you very much. How do you think they did?

JD Well, they were brilliant. I couldn’t see all the other ones, but I hope they enjoyed it as well.

JF Yeah. Well, it’s been absolutely great having you along. Thank you so much for giving us an insight into the whole act of writing stories. Do any of you want to write stories?

Aud [Inaudible 00:30:14].

JF Yeah, some of you probably do already. I’m sure you do. Well, Julia is a great example of how you can do that. Just make some notes and write your story and get it done. And even, you could start off by writing a song, converting that into a story. So I hope wherever you’ve been watching, you’ve really enjoyed our day today, the Scottish Book Trust in association with the BBC virtual author event, with real life author Julia Donaldson, who has been so great. We will be having another one on Thursday the seventeenth of June at eleven o’clock, and that’s with the writer Michael Morpurgo. I’m sure lots of you are great fans of his. So whatever you do, have a great day. Thank you so much for joining us with your new friends from Torphichen Primary School. And the main thing is, Julia, happy reading and continued reading: that’s the message from us. Big thanks and cheers and clapping for Julia Donaldson, please.

[Applause]

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