'A good book for children should simply be a good
book in its own right.' These are the words of Mollie Hunter, a
well known author of books for youngsters. Born and bred near Edinburgh,
Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people.
She firmly believes that there is always and should always be a
wider audience for any good book whatever its main market. In Mollie's
opinion it is essential to make full use of language and she enjoys
telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing: 'If
you aren't telling a story,you're a very dead writer indeed,' she
says.
With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Molly is indeed
an entertainer. 'I have this great love of not only the meaning
of language but of the music of language,' she says. This love goes
back to early childhood. 'I've told stories all my life. I had a
school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when
we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very
good at handling them, I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the
teacher always said "Nonsense Mollie dear, you'll be a writer."
So eventually I thought that this woman must have something, since
she was a good teacher - and I decided when I was nine that I would
be a writer.
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of
Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly
autobiographical and gives a picture both of Mollie's ambition and
her struggle towards its achievement.
Thoughts of her childhood inevitably brought thoughts of the time
when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry
fields - sadly now covered with modern houses. 'I was once taken
back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all
over my childhood. I'll never go back,' she said. 'Never.' 'When
I set one of my books in Scotland,' she said, 'I can recapture my
romantic feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching
the village blacksmith at work. And that's important, because children
now know so much so early that romance can't exist for them, as
it did for us.'
To this day, Mollie has a lively affection for children, which is
reflected in the love she has for her writing. 'When we have visitors
with children the adults always say, "If you go to visit Mollie,
she'll spend more time with the children." They don't realise
that children are much more interesting company. I've heard all
the adults have to say before. The children have something new.' |
|