Gillian Cross

Where I Belong
Gillian Cross

About Author

Gillian Cross was born on the edge of London and, for as long as she can remember, has loved books and stories. Before she could read her mother would make up stories for her, and she can still remember the tale of How Silvia and her Little Sister Danced the Wedding of the Painted Doll. Later, at school and University, she specialised in English Literature, finally writing a thesis on G.K. Chesterton.

She has had various jobs including working in a village bakery and being an assistant to a Member of Parliament but she always wanted to write books. When she was at school, she used to while away the long train journey home by telling her friends an interminable serial all about themselves; and she was constantly beginning books that she never had time to finish. One particularly terrible one, she remembers, was a historical novel all about Henry VIII's wives, called Six Gold Rings. Because her children were interested in books, she joined the Lewes Children's Book Group, and as a result of this involvement she began to write seriously for children.

She has now published many children's books with Oxford University Press, has been translated into nine languages worldwide, and has established herself as a master of the novel for older children/young adults. Her overall best-selling title is The Demon Headmaster with paperback sales into six figures. Her popular Demon Headmaster books have been turned into a play, a musical and a very successful television series.

Her novel The Great Elephant Chase won The Smarties Book Prize 1992, The Whitbread Award - Children's Novel 1993, and she won the Carnegie Medal for Wolf.

Gillian is now known all over the world as a major children's author and she has been invited by many different countries to travel and speak about her books. She now lives in Dorset and her hobbies include orienteering and playing the piano.

Author link

www.gillian-cross.co.uk

Interview

THE DEMON HEADMASTER: TOTAL CONTROL

OUP CHILDREN'S BOOKS

JULY 2017


Author GILLIAN CROSS has returned to her popular THE DEMON HEADMASTER series (9-11 years) to bring us a new adventure, TOTAL CONTROL, featuring the shadowy headmaster....

In Total Control, strange changes have taken place at Lizzie's school since the arrival of the new head teacher. Suddenly, everyone is really good at something. Ethan hated football but has become an amazing player and now her little brother is making world-class robots. As for Lizzie, she has got really good at being very bad, but doesn't remember any of the bad things she is supposed to have done. Could the new headmaster be behind the changes...?

We asked author GILLIAN CROSS to tell us more about THE DEMON HEADMASTER: TOTAL CONTROL!


Q: What inspired you to write the first The Demon Headmaster book?

A: One of my daughters (who was about ten at the time) read a book of mine where one of the characters writes a story about a wicked headmaster. My daughter loved that story. "That's much better than your books," she said. "Why don't you write a book about a wicked headmaster?"

She kept on and on asking, so, in the end, I agreed. But when I sat down to write, I realised I had a problem. How could a Head get away with being wicked? Why wouldn't all the children go home and tell their families? I can't write this, I thought, unless I can think of a way he sends them home saying, 'I think the Headmaster is a marvellous man'.

And that's when I had the idea....


Q: Why did you want to return to The Demon Headmaster series to write a new book?

A: I was talking to David Fickling, who edited the original book - and who started the wonderful Phoenix comic. He said, half-joking, that I ought to write another Demon Headmaster book. I said that, if I did, the Headmaster should be in his comic. I was joking too, but that conversation started me thinking.

Then someone said, "But there should be a new group of children and a new school" and suddenly I really wanted to know what the Headmaster would be doing today. And I started to get excited.


Q: How well do you know the Demon Headmaster as he is such a shadowy character in the books?

A: I have a very clear idea of who he is and what he would and would not do and say. But I don't want people to start identifying with him and trying to understand why he behaves as he does, as if he were a real person.

It's important, of course, to understand other people and empathise with them - and that inspires us to tell certain kinds of story. But it's also important to confront our fears and learn that we can face darkness and evil and stand up for what we know to be good. That's why we tell stories about dragons and monsters - and wicked headmasters.


Q: What drives the headmaster?

A: He would never be interested in helping children to discover things for themselves, or understand the world better. What he wants is to control his pupils and impose his ideas on as many people as possible. To him, the children in the school are simply the raw material which will help him to obtain his objectives and he sees all other schools as competitors. That attitude has no place in education.


Q: Do you have a favourite Demon Headmaster moment?

A: It's really hard to choose just one. I loved writing the Eddie Hair Show, in the first book. And I like the moment, in The Demon Headmaster Strikes Back, when the egg cracks open and the lizard-Dinah emerges.

But I think my absolute favourite is the moment in The Demon Headmaster when Dinah tells Harvey she can do his impossibly difficult sums. She does lots of brave and risky things afterwards, but that's her bravest moment.


Q: He's quite a scary head teacher - is he based on memories of any of your past head teachers?

A: Not memories of real head teachers. But maybe something of my feelings about being at school and having to fit in.


Q: What are the challenges when you're writign a story with a school as your setting?

A: Schools are very complicated places and most of what goes on in lessons is probably not part of the story. That can make it complicated to work out the plot. It's important to include enough of the ordinary school activities to make the setting credible, without letting them dominate the story.

Most schools are also large buildings and it's easy to get muddled about which rooms are where in an invented school. Drawing a plan can help with that.

I visit lots of schools and they all have different atmospheres and settings. There's no such thing as 'an average school'. They're all unique. It's better to imagine a special, particular school and help the reader to imagine it, too.


Q: These stories looks at power and control, and conformity - do you think today's children have less freedom than previous generations?

A: It's impossible to generalize, of course, but I think that most often it's a mixture. In some ways, children are freer today. It's easier for them to stay in touch with their friends and easier to discover information. Parents and schools are more aware of diversity and different ways of learning too, so that, in some ways, there is less pressure to conform.

In other ways, of course, there is a lot more pressure, especially from social media, and the emphasis on testing, all the way through school, implies that there are uniform ways of developing and standards to be achieved.

Above all, it's much harder for most children to go off on their own, or with friends, and spend time exploring and roaming around. And the reduction in the number of libraries, and in their opening hours, makes it harder for children - and all of us - to explore ideas and stories freely.


Q: In this story, the headmaster's powers and control are developed through digital platforms and surveillance - is this something that troubles you about today's society?

A: I have always known that the Headmaster would use every available way of watching people and controlling their behaviour. Naturally he would exploit new digital possibilities.

I'm not paranoid about being watched online, but I think we should all be careful about what we post and share and where we get our information from.


Q: Many children's writers find a way to take away mobile phones from their characters so they can't simply call for help. Was it hard keeping the digital devices in your story?

A: Digital devices are so much a part of modern life that they can't simply be ignored, unless stories are set in the past or in fantasy worlds, and that's often a problem.

But in books like Total Control, where they are an important part of the plot, they can help to build up the tension and provide new ways of dealing with things. (Sally Nicholls' book, An Island of Our Own, is a great example of this.)


Q: What digital devices would you be happy to live without and which are your must-haves?

A: I could easily live without television and I wouldn't miss my mobile phone too much - because we have hardly any signal in the village where we live.

But I'd find it hard to do without email, because that's how I keep in touch with my friends and work colleagues. And although I like writing stories on paper I would HATE to have to edit them like that.


Q: The original The Demon Headmaster books were televised - were you involved in the process at all?

A: Yes, I was involved. Although I didn't write any of the scripts, I took part in discussions with the producer and director and I read and commented on all the drafts of the scripts.

I was able to go and watch some of the filming too, and I went to one of the sound editing sessions, which was fascinating. It was a thoroughly good experience.


Q: Are you planning to write more stories about The Demon Headmaster?

A: Yes, there's another one in the pipeline. I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about it, though. I never talk about any of my books until they're finished.


Q: What are you writing now and where do you do most of your writing?

A: I'm just about to start on the next Demon Headmaster book. I'll probably write most of the first draft on paper, until I get stuck. Then I'll transfer it to my computer and do the rest of the writing and editing on that.

I usually work in my office, which is a converted garage with windows at both ends and a beautiful view of hills and sheep. (Luckily, I can't see those from my desk - much too distracting!) My worst writing habit is wasting time. I sit down first thing in the morning, meaning to finish a whole chapter, and by lunchtime I've only written three pages.


Q: What are your favourite escapes from writing?

A: Drinking coffee and playing spider solitaire. I tell myself I'm giving my brain a rest, but I think I'm probably just skiving.

Author's Titles