Philip Reeve

Railhead: shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017
Philip Reeve

About Author

Philip Reeve was born and raised in Brighton, worked in a bookshop and produced and directed a number of no-budget theatre projects.  Then he began illustrating children's books including the best-selling Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths and Dead Famous series. 

Reeve had been writing stories since he was five years old but Mortal Engines was the first to be published and went on to win the Blue Peter Book of the Year. He has also written Here Lies Arthur, the Larklight trilogy and his Fever Crumb series. Since 2013 he has worked with author and illustrator Sarah McIntyre, and their books together include Pugs of the Frozen North and The Legend of Kevin.  

Philip lives on Dartmoor with his wife and son, and his interests are walking, drawing, writing and reading.

Author link

www.philipreeve.co.uk;

Interview

RAILHEAD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

OCTOBER 2015


In Railhead, Philip Reeve's takes us into space - on trains - for an adventure that is as sophisticated and wondrous as the railroads we are travelling!

With his huge talent for world-building, Reeve transports us into the Great Network, a world of androids and drones, station angels and sentient trains with distinct characters.

Zen, a common thief who is also a 'railhead' - someone who is hooked on riding the rails, soon finds himself at the centre of an audacious plot to steal from the Emperor's train itself. But who has sent him to carry out the theft, and what exactly will he be stealing?

We asked Philip Reeve to tell us more about his latest novel, Railhead.


Q: Can you tell us how long Railhead has been in the development?

A: I started thinking about writing a space opera about ten years ago, after I'd finished the Mortal Engines quartet, but I couldn't get it going so it lay abandoned for a long time. Then I picked it up again three or four years ago and did some more work on it, until eventually I hit on the idea of using trains instead of spaceships, which led me to the final version.

Q: In Railhead, your trains are living, breathing beings - is that driven by a fondness for the old steam-driven trains?

A: I was trying to avoid nostalgia in this one; it's much more hi-tech and futuristic than previous things I've written, and the trains are sentient bullet trains, not steam trains...

But I think the great steam locomotives were seen as beautiful and impressive machines; they had names, and distinctive characteristics, which isn't really the case with modern diesel electric locos - I know some of them have names, but who cares, really? Not me - I'm not that interested in trains.

But I like train travel, I think there's something rather strange and romantic about it, and also something very ordinary - that's a good combination in a story.


Q: The futuristic world you conceive is really intriguing with space and time travel and different worlds, watched over by the 'guardians' who control all the data. Do you feel the idea of humans being 'managed' by technology is a possible future for us?

A: There have been a lot of dystopias in YA literature lately, so I was trying to create a future world which would be a good place to live. Part of that involved the Guardians, these almost god-like Artificial Intelligences who have constructed the interstellar railway system and keep watch over human affairs. But they're very hands-off, they seldom intervene.

They're probably more benign than the entities which control our information landscapes - governments and vast corporations. Whether we're being 'managed' by technology or not I couldn't say, but it's impossible to write about a hi-tech future now without touching on AIs and the internet.

There is an idea in the book that the Guardians are keeping certain important things from human beings for our own good, or for some reason of their own, and there's a character who is determined to reveal these secrets. But maybe he's wrong - maybe it would be better if we didn't know. That's something I'll be trying to find out in the sequel, which I'm writing at the moment.

Q: Zen is quite a selfish character who is quite clear about putting himself first - he changes during the course of the story, but how do you keep the reader engaged with a character who isn't that likeable?

A: I prefer anti-heroes to 'likeable' characters. Zen does some very selfish things and some quite un-selfish things in the course of the story, so you can never really be sure which way he'll jump.

I hope that makes him more interesting than someone with a more accurate moral compass.

Q: Can you tell us about the very human 'robots', the Motos, that you've created in Railhead?

A: I know cybernetics is advancing very quickly at the moment. Whether it will ever produce genuinely human-like androids I don't know, and that's not really what the Motorik are about.

A lot of the characters in the book are machine intelligences - the Guardians, the trains - and the Motos are the ones which are most like actual human beings.

Nova, who becomes the heroine as the story progresses, is an android who likes to act as human as she can, and she's a way to explore what it means to be human, and to be an outsider, looking in.


Q: The hive monks are fascinating beings. Could tell us a little about the inspiration for these creatures and the mythology they create for themselves?

A: The Hive Monks are colonies of insects which have a sort of group intelligence. They build skeletons for themselves out of junk and cling to them in a roughly human shape. The 'monks' name comes from the sackcloth robes they wear, and they shamble on and off of the interstellar trains on some endless, obscure pilgrimage.

In fact they've sensed a truth about the nature of things which the Guardians have been trying to keep secret, but they don't fully understand it - or if they do, they can't communicate it very well, and most people don't want them to anyway, because who wants to have a conversation with a big heap of insects?


Q: The trains visit different worlds via 'K gates', which world would you choose to visit if you could?

A: I'm very drawn to Desdemor, the abandoned beach resort world in the story.

Q: Would you like to see Railhead made into a film, and is there any discussion ongoing?

A: The rights were sold at Bologna last year, long before the book was actually finished! I'm not sure what the current state of play is.

Q: Will you be doing many school events for Railhead and what will be your focus for the events?

A: I'll be doing some events next month, mainly in the West Country. I've been rather spoilt for events by working with Sarah McIntyre, because when we present our joint books like Pugs of the Frozen North we like to do something quite theatrical, with costumes, songs, and sketches.

So I'm not really that interested in sitting on stage answering questions about where I get my ideas from any more! I think there will be a lot of reading in the Railhead events, a lot of visuals, and maybe some incidental music.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I've just returned from a week-long tour with Sarah, promoting Pugs... Now we're starting on the fourth Reeve and McIntyre book, and I'm getting down to work on a follow-up to Railhead.

 

 

 

OLIVER AND THE SEAWIGS

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

SEPTEMBER 2013


Award-winning author Philip Reeve, best known for his masterful Mortal Engines series, is now creating a series of books for younger readers, in collaboration with author and illustrator Sarah McIntyre.

Oliver and the Seawigs, the first of four planned titles for readers aged eight years plus, is a quirky, adventuresome tale about a young boy who sets out to find his explorer parents who have disappeared. Along the way are mermaids, talking (and walking) islands, and lots of wigs. The illustrations, perfect in tone and detail, are one of the many highlights of the package.

We caught up with Philip Reeve and asked him about the new collaboration, what inspired a story about wig-wearing talking islands, and what we can expect from the duo next?


Q: Is this your first time you have worked so closely with another author / illustrator on a book?

A: I have not worked this way before although I used to do a lot of comedy writing with other people so it seems natural to work like this.

I met Sarah McIntyre (www.jabberworks.co.uk) at the Edinburgh Festival three years ago and I started to read her blog in which she does a drawing a day and I thought that was a good idea, so we exchanged drawings and got to know each other that way, although I never thought we'd end up working together because our work is so different.

But we enjoyed throwing stories and ideas around and we decided to do something together. We started with a cartoon for the Phoenix comic, which I illustrated and she coloured in. Then we came up with the idea of Oliver and the Seawigs which developed through conversations between us, so it is very much a joint creation rather than me writing the text and Sarah illustrating it.


Q: What got you writing about talking islands?

A: There is a children's writers' and illustrators' group called CWIG, an acronym for Children's Writers and Illustrators' Group, and Sarah said it made her want to draw lots of rocks out at sea with wigs on, 'sea wigs', and within five minutes we had the story of islands that moved around and wore wigs plotted out between us.

The novel started with that idea, islands with wigs, and I wove the story around that. It wasn't until I typed up the synopsis for our agent that I realised it sounded a bit mad but I hope that that is what makes the story so appealing.


Q: Did any of your own experiences as a child creep into the story?

A: The character Oliver stemmed from my childhood when my parents used to drag me around during the holidays exploring in their camper van, and the mermaid character was Sarah, who had always wanted to be a mermaid. Iris the mermaid gets more and more Sarah McIntyre'sh as the story progresses....


Q: How did the collaboration work, who did what?

A: We didn't meet up much in person during the writing process but we would Skype and email and each time I completed a section, I would email it to Sarah and if I got stuck on a section, we would Skype and discuss it. That is how the monkey element in the story developed, for example. It was very much a collaborative project.

Usually I am very much on my own when I work. I have an 80,000 word novel to complete and I don't share it with anyone, I'm quite secretive about my work and I keep it hidden until it's ready to go to an editor, so that's about six to 12 months of work on my own. With this project, I've been working with an openness and flow of ideas that I've never had before.

Sarah, in turn, hadn't written a chapter book before but she contributed on the flow of ideas and how the novel would be presented. We had quite similar ideas about how the text and illustration would work. I think I got the easy part; I wrote and then Sarah spent months and months doing the illustration.


Q: Were there any stand-out illustrations for you?

I love the sea monkeys If I had known what they would look like after Sarah had illustrated them, I would have done more with them. In this story they are just 'henchmen' who do other people's bidding. That idea came from a blog Sarah wrote a while back about a swimmer being mobbed by monkeys and we thought it would be good to include it in the story.

The sea monkeys are Stacey's henchmen. Stacey is the baddie in Oliver and the Seawigs, he's been driven to badness by everyone telling him he's got a girl's name. Writing baddies is good fun, you do need the baddies in stories, and they need to have a motivation. But he gets hoist by his own petard as hes swamped by the monkeys he trained to obey him....

I love all the monkey spreads and the big landscape spreads at the beginning and at the end where we see the house in the bay. There is a huge amount of detail in the drawings and yet it is a very simple composition. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it's the most beautiful book I've been involved with.


Q: Will you write other stories about Oliver and the islands?

A: We've agreed to write four stand-alone books that will all be in the same style, a highly illustrated 'Reeve and McIntyre' library that will keep going forever, but I don't want to get locked in to writing another series.

There are advantages and disadvantages in writing about the same characters but there's a freedom I like if you start with a new story and fresh characters, although all the books we write together will have the same tone.

We will try to make the subsequent books as different as possible, so we won't have the same characters. The second book is called Cakes in Space [publishing September next year]. A girl called Astra is off on a space journey with her family. They are all supposed to sleep for 200 years but Astra wakes up mid journey. There's a machine on the ship that makes the food you want but it's gone wrong and it's turning out evil cakes it's a bit like 'Alien with cakes' for seven year olds.

So I write quite tough sci fi that's full of machinery and Sarah gets to work on it in her much more cheery style. Its 'Seawigs' in tone but the story is quite different. I enjoyed writing it hugely and it's nice to be doing something for younger readers while everyone else is off writing dark teen novels....


Q: Do you plan your stories before you start writing them?

A: When I am writing something like my Goblins books, I don't know the story but I know the world and characters quite well. I start writing in longhand and write the story as an ABC process, but at the moment I'm working on an older novel where I don't know how the world of it works so I would write that one on a computer, write chunks and throw bits around like musicians when they make do with multiple tracks. It's quite nice to go from one technique to another, from the linear Goblins process to one where there are lots of bits and pieces to bring together and to shape.


Q: What will we see from you next?

The third Goblins story will be published next spring. It picks up from Goblins versus Dwarfs and catches up with the same characters. The goblins should go on a quest this time everyone else does in fairy stories except goblins so it will be smelly and messy - and there'll be dragons!


Q: How does your writing day go?

A: How I write varies from book to book and also where in the book I am. There comes a point where you need ideas and you have to stop and think, so I'll go and do gardening or something, and then at other times I'll be writing nine to five and editing nine to five.

 


GOBLINS

PUBLISHED BY SCHOLASTIC

APRIL 2012

Enter a world of goblins, giants, wizards, princesses and heroes. But don't expect the princesses to need rescuing, the wizards to be very good at magic or the hero to be terribly good at being heroic. Do expect to be thoroughly entertained by this masterful storyteller!

Author Philip Reeve tells us more about Goblins.


Q: Why did you choose goblins as the subject of these books?

A: I've been reading some Tolkien with my son, Sam, recently and it reminded me how much I used to love fantasy when I was his age.

I have written many books now, I have 14 in print, and I hope there are many more to come and I can try my hand at many genres - fantasy, horror, etc.

This world is made out of bits of fairy tales and myths.


Q: But didn't you once say that fantasy wasn't your thing? You'd never write about dragons, magic - goblins?

A: I wouldn't want to do a fantasy novel that takes itself seriously, and hopefully the jokes throughout the book stop Goblins from being a serious fantasy.


Q: So how did you start to write this book?

A: I began by writing bedtime stories for Sam. These characters appeared and started wandering around aimlessly having adventures and then they all decided they were heading for Clovenstone, where most of the action happens in Goblins.

Clovenstone is based on some of the ruins we have here where I live, in Dartmoor, and its rivers and industrial ruins. Making up a world is what I like doing best.


Q: This book is unusual in starting 100 years after the 'big event', which was when the Lych Lord was defeated. Why is that?

A: I didn't want this story to be a 'dark lord takes over the world' kind of plot. That seems so 'done', so I set it after that story was done and dusted.

There seems to be a lot of other people writing about death, dystopia and illnesses and they seem to be doing a good job of it. But we also need to have books with poo jokes in them!


Q: So back to goblins - you seem to be quite fond of them, especially the main goblin character Skarper?

A: The goblins in Tolkien's stories are all bad but I could never believe that goblins were all bad. To me they were the underdogs and I felt sorry for them, so this seemed like an opportunity to do a story where goblins got to be characters in their own right.


Q: Who are your favourite characters in this story?

A: The characters all work quite well together although Skarper, the goblin, was a favourite.

The cloud maidens, who live on clouds and do some grumping about and then wander off, were quite fun.


Q: What about your three wizards who are important to the plot but who don't seem to be that good at magic?

A: At first I thought I couldn't have wizards in the story because they have been done but then I incorporated wizards as a reaction against those in books, like Gandalf. It seemed important that my wizards were idiots. They do some very foolish things.


Q: Did your son, who you wrote the original stories for, persuade you to make any changes to the book?

A: Yes, in my original version King Knobbler got killed but my son didn't like that, so I agreed to let him survive but he does so wearing frilly pink knickers!


Q: What is your favourite part of the book?

A: I'm quite pleased with the beginning, the opening scene when Skarper is falling and falling after being catapulted from the tower.... I wondered how far I could take it before he'd have to hit the ground.


Q: Will there be another Goblins book?

A: Yes, in the next adventure it's goblins versus dwarfs. At the end of the first book you see how the magic begins to pile up and so the goblins begin to mine slow silver, which is the cause of the magic, from the lava lake beneath the Keep. The goblins are always seen as evil so they have to sort themselves out a bit and you'll see some new characters, as well as those from this story.


Q: How does your writing day go?

A: After I've sent my son off to school at 9 o'clock, I sit down at my desk and write a lot, then I go for a walk and get some fresh air, and some thinking time. That's when I realise that everything I wrote in the morning is rubbish and, in the afternoon, I re-write it - so that's when all the hard work gets done!

 


NO SUCH THING AS DRAGONS

PUBLISHED BY SCHOLASTIC

October 2009

Philip Reeve's latest title, No Such Thing as Dragons, explores the myth of the dragon and asks, could they have existed? This is a great adventure story that manages to explore the mythology of dragons while remaining firmly rooted in reality.

Q: This isn't your average fantasy story about dragons, is it?

A: No, I've occasionally tried to write about elves, dragons and pixies but it felt silly so I had to find a more rational way into the subject. I used to love reading fantasy like Tolkien when I was younger, though.

Q: How did you decide to approach writing about dragons?

A: The story had to be realistic and, as I thought about it, the idea of a dragon hunt began to take hold. The book is set in the Middle Ages in a mountainous area at a time when it was assumed that dragons really did exist. In this story, I have a character called Brock who describes himself as a 'dragon slayer'. He is sent by the villagers to kill the dragon that they believe is threatening them. He takes Ansel, a mute boy, with him. All the action takes place very quickly, over just a couple of days.

Q: So do they find a dragon?

A: You'll have to read it to find out. I wanted the story to be realistic so I thought, if we have this world and people believed there were dragons in the mountain, what would be the grain of truth in that? I thought a surviving dinosaur would do the trick, some kind of creature that had survived from long ago, with a link to dinosaurs but that had evolved further than any of us would know. It could have had feathers and be able to fly, and lived in the mountains.

Q: Have you ever daydreamed that perhaps dragons did once exist?

A: No, not really, they seem like such unlikely contraptions.

Q: Why did you revisit the Middle Ages for this story?

A: It just seems like such a rich period for stories. I'm quite interested in doing another story based in this period, perhaps around the story of Robin Hood.

Q: Have you ever made any dangerous journeys yourself?

A: To be honest, I don't like travelling very much and if I had my way, I'd never leave the borders of Dartmoor where I live! Although I have taken up riding recently and galloping across the moors carries certain dangers with it - and yes, I have taken a tumble or two!

Q: Your last book was Fever Crumb, a prequel to the Infernal Devices series. Will you be writing another?

A: Yes, I've almost finished the sequel to Fever Crumb. It's called A Web of Air and will be out in the spring. In this book, Fever is on her own and she runs into someone who is trying to reinvent flying machines. The moving cities are very much in the background in this story. I've got four Fever Crumb books planned altogether.

Q: What is your writing day like?

A: I start writing after my son leaves for school. Depending on where I am with a story, I can write until 5.30pm or I'll spend the day thinking up ideas if I'm just starting a story.

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