Garth Jennings

Garth Jennings

About Author

GARTH JENNINGS has directed many music videos and commercials with his production company Hammer and Tongs. His work includes videos for Blur, Radiohead, Fatboy Slim and Vampire Weekend.

Garth directed the most recent adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, starring Martin Freeman, wrote and directed indie movie Son of Rambow, starring Ed Westwick, and is currently directing a top-secret animated film with the producers of Despicable Me.

With illustrations throughout by Garth, The Deadly 7 is his first fantastic foray in to children's books.

Author link

www.garthjennings.com; @GarthJennings

Interview

THE DEADLY 7

PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS

JANUARY 2015


Garth Jennings, the director of films including The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has now turned to writing books for children with THE DEADLY 7, his debut, published by Macmillan Children's Books this month.

We asked Garth to tell us more about his book in which the seven sins are 'extracted' from a boy, Nelson, by an ancient machine created by none other than Christopher Wren. Now presenting as some rather endearing monsters, Nelson's 'sins' set about helping the boy to find his missing sister. It's an imaginative, anarchic story that has plenty of appeal to children aged eight years plus.


Q: You're an established film director, was that something you dreamed of doing as a child? What were your favourite films and books then?

A: When I was Nelson's age - 11 years old - I just wanted to do everything. I wanted to make films and music and tell stories and put on plays and radio shows and lots of other things, but films were the most exciting of all because you really could do a bit of everything. I started making home movies at 11 and haven't really stopped trying since.

I also loved books and loved nothing more than a fresh new book to get stuck into. Though I read a ton of marvellous books, 'The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar' made one of the biggest impressions on me. It's not really a great story in the traditional sense but all the ingredients set my brain on fire. I think the idea of magic being so real and achievable was just what I wanted more than anything. You just had to put your mind to it and you really could see without your eyes!

That really was wonderful stuff and it was the first time I had thought about turning the pictures in my head into a film. I even tried to make it into a film a few years ago but that's another story...

The Beatles Illustrated Song Book was filled with really strange illustrations that kept me coming back time and time again and I could not keep my eyes off Gerald Scarfe's drawings even though they completely freaked me out. His animated sequences of hammers marching and children being put through a meat mincer for the music video 'Another Brick In The Wall' by Pink Floyd gave me nightmares for weeks!

Star Wars and E.T had turned me into a sci-fi nut and I gathered up any books I could relating to the genre. My favourite was one called Space Wars Worlds and Weapons, which featured the extraordinary paintings of Boris Vallejo. My dad introduced me to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy in book form which I absolutely loved. Only after I finished reading it did I find out there was already a radio series and TV show was on the way - bingo!


Q: You already have a fantastically busy schedule making music videos, films etc - what has now taken you into writing?

A: I've been making children's books for 18 years, they just weren't good enough to take to a publisher. I've made a lot of little books for myself and for friends, and whenever I finished I would look at it and think, 'Hmmm. It's okay. But it's not great. Better try again'. Then a few years ago I had some simple picture book stories that seemed to work well. I took them to Macmillan Children's Book's and they liked them enough to work on them with me.

As I was doing this, I had the idea for The Deadly 7 and that's what I ended up doing first. It just so happened that I started working on my first animated film at the same time so it's been a very busy year! If I was sensible, I would have only worked on one thing at a time, but I'm not sensible so I did both.


Q: The Deadly 7 story begins at St Pauls Cathedral, why did you choose that as the setting?

A: I wanted to use a real historical figure as the inventor of the 'sin extractor' and it had to be someone who really had a big imagination and someone who really got things done. Christopher Wren was just the man I needed. An extraordinary character who I imagined was on a kind of creative roll having finally got construction of St. Paul's Cathedral under way.


Q: Your main character, Nelson, gets to meet his own 'seven deadly sins'. Where did that idea come from and how did you go about creating such child-friendly 'sins'?

A: I started with the question, "Where do monsters come from?" and realised that more often than not, they come from us. I mean, apart from the ones that just turn up in a nightmare or appear through some kind of portal, we usually make them don't we? Frankenstein, The Hulk, Godzilla, Dr. Jekyll...

Most of the time monsters are made when someone is trying to do the right thing, they just don't realise what a huge mistake they have made until it's running around eating buildings. I thought it might be interesting if a long, long time ago someone had tried to invent a device to make people good by extracting their sins, but then abandoned the project when they realised that instead of making people good, it would produce seven monsters instead.

What if that machine still existed? What if a kid like my 11 year old son Oscar found it and accidentally extracted his own sins? His monsters would be very different from mine or anyone else's for that matter. They would reflect his personality, maybe even his soul. These are the kind of monsters I would very much like to meet and certainly go on an adventure with!


Q: Were you keen on monsters as a child? Do you have a favourite among the monster 'sins' you've created?

A: I've always loved monsters and the more bizarre they were, the better. One of my favourites was the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. That was when I realised monsters didn't all have to be 'lizardy'. They could be anything you wanted!

My monsters certainly are an odd bunch. One of them is a lot like a walking bicycle horn, then you have one that looks like a cactus and another like a golden Dodo. Once I had the idea of how the monsters were created they really did appear very quickly. It sounds silly, but it was as if they had existed all this time and just waiting for me to find them. I am very fond of them all but Nosh is the most fun to write dialogue for.


Q: The relationship between Nelson and his missing sister, Celeste, is core to the story. Why did you decide to feature such close siblings?

A: My sister is one of the loveliest people I know and we have always been very close. She's younger than me but we always had the same interests and friends - probably because we shared the same stupid sense of humour. Siblings are often depicted as bickering rivals and for many families that's the case. We certainly had our moments but if my sister had gone missing I would have searched the earth for her.


Q: Uncle Pogo is a great character - did anyone you know inspire him?

A: Uncle Pogo was greatly inspired by the actor Brendan Gleeson. I just love everything he does and even though the character doesn't look like Mr. Gleeson, I have always imagined him underneath Pogo's skin.

I knew from the start that if Nelson was going to find something extraordinary, he would need someone extraordinary to take him there. Someone who remains positive even in the darkest times so it had to be someone who had experienced great loss and found ways to overcome it. I am very fond of Uncle Pogo, especially the enthusiasm he has for so many different subjects.


Q: Your story covers a range of ideas and places, from extracting sins in St Pauls to tracking down a missing sister in a jungle. Had you planned it all before you started writing, or did you decide to write and see where it would take you?

A: The story of a boy crossing the globe to find his big sister had been kicking around in my head for a long time and when the deadly seven came along it all just clicked together. After writing this up into a pitch for Macmillan, I began working out the story in more detail in my sketchbook.

I work everything out this way first and try to avoid writing on my computer until it feels like it's ready to go. This takes a while but I have to feel like it all works before I kick off. This is a habit I got from art school where we had so little time to use the facilities and so little money to make our films that we had to plan everything precisely beforehand.

The excitement of knowing where the story is going gives me a great deal of energy and enthusiasm, which I find very useful indeed, but there are always surprises plenty of along the way and one of them nearly ruined everything. I had just about reached the end of the first draft and I was feeling very good about it all when a new idea floated into my head. I could tell it was a good idea because it would not go away, even when I was asleep. But if I was to implement it into the story it would mean re-writing two thirds of the book.

For about a week I tried to convince myself that this new idea was not so great but in the end it won the fight. It was very hard to delete so much work with a deadline so close and so many other things needing my attention but as soon as I began to work the new idea into the story things really took off and my typing speed went up several gears. I'm not going to tell you what the idea was though!


Q: Do you plan follow-up books to The Deadly 7 and if so, what should we expect in the next book?

A: I have mapped out a trilogy for Nelson and his monsters. More than that, I cannot say!


Q: You have drawn the illustrations for this book; why did you feel the book needed illustrations and where did you train as an illustrator?

A: As I work in sketch books there are always lots of doodles next to what I am writing. Rachel Petty, the editor of the book, suggested I include drawings like these and she's really smart, so I did. I'm really not qualified to do what I do. But I never have been qualified for anything I've done.

I have a first class honours degree in graphic design even though I only made short films at art school. I didn't even have the grades I needed to get into art school - I just kept drawing and drawing and drawing until they finally let me in. It's been the same ever since really.

I cannot work a film camera or have any clue what the names of all those lights hanging from the rigging are but that's what other people take care of. I love writing stories and drawing pictures and I just keep noodling away until things either work out or fall apart and I have to go a different way.


Q: If your childhood self could see you as an adult, what would they be most impressed by?

A: My childhood self would probably be delighted to see I'm still doing exactly the same things - just on a bigger scale - but he would be way more impressed by my phone than anything I've made.


Q: Can you give us a couple of top tips for young writers?

A: I've only written one book so far and I'm not sure that really qualifies me to give advice on the subject. I can offer other kinds of advice that may be useful though:
1) Do everything you can to avoid sunburn - it's the worst.
2) Learn a musical instrument or join a choir.
3) Read as much as you can and finish everything you start - even the bad stuff will teach you something.
4) Learn how to bake at least one kind of cake.
5) If you ever try water skiing make sure your swimsuit is on tight or it will fall down when you stand up and there is no greater shame than water skiing in the nude.
6) Watch 'City Lights' by Charlie Chaplin.
7) Try to give yourself time to do absolutely nothing. No emails, texts - nothing. Those idle moments are often where real inspiration can be found.
8) Do your best and when work gets difficult just remember that it's perfectly normal to struggle and maybe it's just time to have a piece of chocolate or take a dog for a walk.


Q: Where do you write, and when is your best writing time?

A: I grab time whenever I can but I had to write this book in the wee small hours before starting my work at the animation studio and then at weekends.

I have a desk in my bedroom covered in models from the films I have worked on. Things like the bust of a Vogon and a babel fish from the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy sit beside old props and prototypes for robots and photos of the family.


Q: Do you have any bad habits as a writer?

A: I have lots of habits and I suppose eating chocolate and drinking tea isn't the best thing in the world for you but I will use things to trick my brain into working. Now I have children I am way more productive. The only trouble with writing in my bedroom is that when things are going badly (which is often) the desire to fall asleep on my bed is very hard to fight.


Q: You have a 'Bang Stone' in the story that can take your characters anywhere. If you owned a Bang Stone, how would you use it and where would you want it to take you?

A: I'm not a big fan of flying on planes. I hate it when they hit turbulence. I know it's normal and I shouldn't worry, but my body becomes rigid and my brain starts picturing the worst. For this reason alone I would love a Bang Stone but I would use it to take the family everywhere. One the first day of half term I would make a big packed lunch, gather up the family, hug them tightly and transport us all to Japan where we would see the sun coming up while sitting in an extremely hot spring surrounded by trees with snow falling on us.

Next stop would be on one of those tiny tropical islands you only ever see in suntan cream commercials. We'd probably eat our lunch there and no one would want to leave before night fell. Then we would all explode once more and find ourselves in Iceland where we would drink hot chocolate on a frozen lagoon that lies at the base of the world's biggest glacier while above us the sky would be lit with the cosmic ribbons of the aurora borealis. Then back home in time for bath and a story before bedtime.


Q: What's your favourite (real) escape from work?

A: Having a family forces me to forget about what I am doing and think about them instead, which can be tricky but is the best and often the most hilarious escape from work I can imagine.

Books and films take ages and can occupy way too much of my head so as an escape from all that I really like making lino cut prints. There is something deeply satisfying about carving out a simple image and then printing it. I even like the smell and the sound the roller makes on the sticky ink. You must give it a try if you can. But watch out for that cutter! I must have jabbed myself a hundred times with that thing.

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