Fleur Hitchcock joins Ian Eagleton in The Reading Realm to talk about her new book, KIDNAP AT MIDNIGHT, which is illustrated by Hannah Peck…
Before we settle down in The Reading Realm for a chat, what’s your drink and snack of choice?
Coffee. A nice milky coffee and a bowl of cherries.
Tell us about your book in three sentences and then three words!
It’s five years on from Darrell River’s first term at Malory Towers, and there are new girls, Emma, Marie and Sheila. There are mysterious goings on, with fellow pupils behaving oddly, and strange folk around the school. They discover that people are not who they pretend to be and they form a mystery club – finally foiling a kidnapping.
Three words: Midnight-feasts, camaraderie, adventure.
If one of your characters could come to dinner, who would you invite and what would you cook them? What do you think you’d talk about?
I’d invite cheery Emma, who adores a good mystery, but is an empathetic child who sees everything from more than one direction. I happen to know she likes a nice shepherd’s pie (made with the leftovers of a roast dinner) and rhubarb crumble and custard. I think we’d talk about the other girls and the staff and loving ponies as a child and what it’s like to be at boarding school back in the day.
What’s the funniest word you know that always makes you laugh?
Squirrel. Look at people’s mouths when they say it. It’s the only word that means you actually look like the animal when you try and say the word.
What’s the silliest or strangest thing you’ve ever researched for a story?
I’ve written a lot of murder stories, and my google searches are shocking, but currently researching the recipe for fig rolls.
Do your characters ever surprise you?
Yes, sometimes they make me laugh. Other times, cry. I’m really not in control of them.
If your writing desk could speak, what would it say about you?
Chaotic. Uncontrolled. Drinks a lot of coffee. A life paved with good intentions. Likes art.
Did you like reading when you were a child? If so, what?
Anything and everything. I was led by librarians. School and mobile library, so limited to what there was there. I read all the Chalet books. My brother and sister are much older than me so I was on my own much of the time, reading was my company. That, and radio.
What’s your favourite book that isn’t yours?
So tough. Right now, I’d say I’m torn between Abena Eyeson’s Running My Own Race and Jenny Pearson’s Shrapnel Boys.
What book do you wish you could read for the first time again?
Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis.
What’s the funniest thing a child has said to you?
At a prize ceremony, in Hull, in a room full of authors and children, a child asked if I had written Dear Scarlett. I told her I had. She replied: ‘Oh – right, cos it were really boring.’ Never forgotten it.
If you weren’t an author, what would you be?
A bookseller.
What BAD advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?
You can do it on your own.
SPEED ROUND:
Cake or biscuits? Cake.
Dinosaurs or unicorns? Unicorns.
Pirates or astronauts? Pirates.
Museums or theme parks? Museums.
Cats or dogs? Cats.
Summer or winter? Love both. Can’t choose!
Aliens or robots? Aren’t they the same thing?
THANK YOU Fleur for joining us in The Reading Realm today!
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