Peter
asked
Karen Maitland:
You are one of my favourite authors and I have all your books. At the moment I've just read the first 5 and I do have to admit I have a favourite. A tough question, but which book is your favourite and why?
Karen Maitland
Thank you so much! I love the fact that readers all seem to choose different favourite books by an author. It reminds me always that every story is a unique collaboration between the author and each individual reader. As an author, I find it impossible to choose a favourite of my own books, because I have favourite elements in the each of them. In THE PLAGUE CHARMER, I grew very fond of the character of Will, the fake dwarf, who is a rogue, but at the same time the cruelty that has been inflicted on him, makes him a very compassionate man, though he'd never admit it.
When I was writing THE VANISHING WITCH, I thoroughly enjoyed having one of the narrators as a ghost, who is being amorously pursued by the ghost of a lecherous old woman, because it enabled me to draw on the legends of the haunted streets of Lincoln that I knew so well.
THE RAVEN’S HEAD, well, I’d always wanted to write about alchemists ever since as a child I had read that wonderful description of an alchemist laboratory in Mary Norton’s children’s book BED-KNOB & BROOMSTICK.
COMPANY OF LIARS, that is a favourite too, because of the plot twists and the malicious characters of Narigorm and Zophiel. And of course, every parent has a soft spot for their newest baby, A GATHERING OF GHOSTS, in this case because it allowed me to give a voice to an unknown character who has haunted me ever since as a child I first ventured onto the wilderness of Dartmoor. But I equally I have favourite elements in the other books too. Ma Margot and the wicked little mandrake in THE GALLOWS CURSE; the volcanic cave I went down in Iceland which is lies at the heart of FALCONS OF FIRE AND ICE, and the beguines in THE OWL KILLERS who first inspired my interest in the Middle Ages.
Is that why authors go on writing, I wonder, in the hope that one day they will write the perfect book in which all their favourite elements come together? The trouble is, of course, then it wouldn’t be the perfect book for the reader, because the reader’s favourite elements in any book are bound to be different from the author’s.
I’d really love to know what your favourite is so far, Peter.
When I was writing THE VANISHING WITCH, I thoroughly enjoyed having one of the narrators as a ghost, who is being amorously pursued by the ghost of a lecherous old woman, because it enabled me to draw on the legends of the haunted streets of Lincoln that I knew so well.
THE RAVEN’S HEAD, well, I’d always wanted to write about alchemists ever since as a child I had read that wonderful description of an alchemist laboratory in Mary Norton’s children’s book BED-KNOB & BROOMSTICK.
COMPANY OF LIARS, that is a favourite too, because of the plot twists and the malicious characters of Narigorm and Zophiel. And of course, every parent has a soft spot for their newest baby, A GATHERING OF GHOSTS, in this case because it allowed me to give a voice to an unknown character who has haunted me ever since as a child I first ventured onto the wilderness of Dartmoor. But I equally I have favourite elements in the other books too. Ma Margot and the wicked little mandrake in THE GALLOWS CURSE; the volcanic cave I went down in Iceland which is lies at the heart of FALCONS OF FIRE AND ICE, and the beguines in THE OWL KILLERS who first inspired my interest in the Middle Ages.
Is that why authors go on writing, I wonder, in the hope that one day they will write the perfect book in which all their favourite elements come together? The trouble is, of course, then it wouldn’t be the perfect book for the reader, because the reader’s favourite elements in any book are bound to be different from the author’s.
I’d really love to know what your favourite is so far, Peter.
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