Ahead of the University of Reading’s Children’s Winter Lecture, CONNECTED spoke to English poet, performer, children’s author, and alumnus, A.F. Harrold, about all the tiny serendipitous moments that built up his career.
During the Children’s Winter Lecture on Wednesday 18 December, Ashley will be using fun activities to give insight into two of his favourites: The Imaginary and The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice and prove how he can make poets out of all of us!
Book your space for the Children’s Winter Lecture.
Read on to discover how Ashley went from handing out booklets of poetry about teenage angst, to becoming a bestselling poet and author, with a Netflix adaptation under his belt.
Turning points
Ashley never set out to become a children’s author, but the twists and turns of life – or the “tiny, serendipitous moments” ended up leading him there.
He said: “I started writing as a teenager and I used to go to my local library, in Horsham, and put coins into the photocopier to make booklets of my poems. It was awful poetry about teenage angst, with an occasional funny one thrown in.”
Coming to Reading to study philosophy was one of many turning points for Ashley as he was thrown into a melting pot of culture and different artistic scenes. He said:
“It was 30 odd years ago now that I wound my way around Reading’s one-way system, following the road signs until I found the campus. After I arrived in Reading, my life just unfolded here really.”
As the first person in his family to go to university Ashley wasn’t sure what to expect. He lived in St Andrew’s Hall – now the MERL – where he loved being part of the halls community. But he reflected that “philosophy kind of broke my brain. It taught me critical thinking and how to look at the world with an eye for what’s underneath things. But it can make it almost impossible to make decisions in everyday life because you’re trained to look at things from all angles!
“What really transformed me during my student years was becoming very involved in the arts, music and poetry scenes in Reading. I ran poetry cafes at South Street Art Centre, compèred Bohemian Night at the Town Hall, and ran an open mic night at the Reading Student’s Union called ‘And Other Poems’. If I hadn’t been in Reading then my life wouldn’t have gone in this direction – none of this cultural and artistic activity was happening in Horsham for sure.”
The poetry thing
It was open mic nights that opened Ashley’s eyes to the joys of making people laugh through funny and performative poetry, as well as competing in poetry slams.
He said: “I decided to try and take the poetry thing a bit more seriously, but it didn’t pay well. I then discovered poetry workshops, where you visited schools and ran workshops and poetry slams – and got paid for it. I found that I really enjoyed these, particularly in primary schools. There is creativity, positivity, enthusiasm and ideas leaking out of these children’s brains everywhere. Primary schools have such a positive energy.”
It was his time spent in primary schools that inspired Ashley to write children’s poetry, until one day a child asked – ‘these poems are all well and good but have you ever written a proper book?’
“I woke that night with an idea in my head and I jotted it down in the dark,” Ashley recalled. “It was the idea of a clown running away from the circus and joining the library. This turned into my story of Fizzlebert Stump.”
After submitting his book to several publishers, Ashley was taken on by Bloomsbury and suddenly he was a children’s author. He said:
“I never planned or expected it – I thought I’d be a serious, respected poet, a Seamus Heaney or something! Turns out I’m a silly man with a beard, spending my career writing books for children and I’m very happy with that.
“Being a children’s author is an important job. Whether the book you write is the only book a child has in the house, or is one of hundreds of books a child has – you have a duty to make it as good as possible. Your book could be responsible for turning a child off reading forever, or it can be the spark that hooks them and turns them into a reader at a young age.
“So I hope that my books have enough heart, empathy and spark in them to do a service to the children reading them.”
Watch Ashley read an excerpt from his book, The Imaginary:
Reaching the big screen
The next unexpected turn of events for Ashley turned out to be a phone call from a man in Japan asking if the film rights were available for his latest book, The Imaginary.
Ashley said: “Bloomsbury had brought me on as a comic writer and I was contracted to write three Fizzlebert Stump books and then an open book. I had a story in mind for this fourth book, but I wasn’t sure if my publishers would be willing to take a risk on me doing something different. Luckily they were.
“This story is about a girl, Amanda, and her imaginary friend Rudger. With Amanda injured and the sinister Mr Bunting hunting imaginaries, can a boy who isn’t there survive without a friend to dream him up? This is about loss and grief, memory and forgetting, deep emotions and adventure. It’s a lot darker and stranger than my previous comedies.
“Excitingly, I was teamed up with Emily Gravett, who is a really big name in illustration – she has won the Kate Greenaway Award twice.”
Ten years after publication of The Imaginary, it was adapted into a full-length, hand-drawn animated movie produced by Studio Ponoc which is now available to watch on Netflix. Watch the trailer:
Ashley was upfront from the beginning that he was happy to be hands-off with the film.
He said: “I fully understand that a film is a different shaped thing to a book, and the story in the book won’t unfold the same as it unfolds on screen. Although the details are different, the story I tell in the book is still really present throughout the film and I’m very happy with it.
“I hope that people will see the film and then they will find the book, opening up the story to a whole new readership.”
Children’s Winter Lecture
Don’t forget to book your tickets now to see A.F. Harrold speak at our Children’s Winter Lecture.
Wednesday 18 December 2024
16:30-17:30
G10, Palmer Building, Whiteknights Campus
Admission is free but advance booking is essential.
