Some thoughts on 'Midnight Blue'

Within the next few months, the e-book version of ‘Midnight Blue’ will be coming out, celebrating twenty years since [to my total astonishment and dumbstruck disbelief] it beat Roald Dahl to pick up the Smarties Book Prize.  I can’t believe I wrote it so long ago, yet when I pick up the book and my eyes scan its pages the words read back as if I wrote them yesterday.  

I was living out in the beautiful Rea Valley at the time, in an old farmhouse which had been our family home for many years.   Of my five children, the youngest was old enough for playgroup and the others were all at school.  On playgroup mornings I’d be free to write, but on non-playgroup days I’d have to get up before anybody else was awake.   This meant setting my alarm for the disgustingly early wake-up call of 5.00 am, but it seemed important to keep the writing going on a daily basis, even if I only managed small amounts at a time. I was training the creativity to come to order, I suppose.  But then, with a family as big as mine I couldn’t afford the luxury of writing only when inspiration struck.  

When I go into schools to talk to children, I often say that writing a book is a bit like making a snowball.  You start with a small, scrunched-up handful of ideas, then roll it about in the snow of your mind and eventually it gets big enough to chuck at something and create an impact. 

But where to get those first few ideas?  Back in those days when I didn’t drive and internet research was still a thing of the future, I had to use as material whatever lay close to hand.   This, I realised, was my knowledge of children and of family interactions, my experience of Shropshire country life and the myths and legends of the hills, woods and rivers amongst which I lived.  Added to this I had a long-standing interest in hot-air ballooning, something I’d never done - nor particularly wanted to - but had always reckoned could be used to great effect in a children’s book. 

When I won the Smarties Book Prize for the finished novel, I hadn’t yet got over the shock of finishing my first book, let alone getting it published.   The Smarties Prize was all well and good, as was the Whitbread Children's Book Award for which I was a runner up.  Better by far, however, was my deep sense of having made something of lasting value by pulling together in harmony the many facets of my life and personality. 

I’ve written many books since ‘Midnight Blue’, but that book was my firstborn, so it'll always be special.  It showed me not only what could be achieved, but who and what I really was.   I can't wait for it to be brought out in e-book and for a whole new generation of young people to have access to it, and I look forward to writing more about it over the next few weeks.