Paul Jennings |
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Paul Jennings was the first author to sell a million books in Australia. He is famed throughout the world for his accessible yet powerful short stories, which says fellow author Lesley Howarth "tread a fine line between the funny and the macabre. "Paul has also written picture books, novels and screenplays.
THE BASICS
Born: Middlesex, April 30th 1943
Jobs: Teacher, Speech Therapist, Lecturer in Special Education, Lecturer in Language and Literature
Lives: Melbourne
First Book for Young People: Unreal!, 1985
THE BOOKS
Paul Jennings is one of Australia's bestselling children's authors. He emigrated from England to Australia when he was six and grew up in Melbourne. He enjoyed writing at school and when he was sixteen sent a story to Women's Weekly magazine. It was rejected and Paul shelved his ambitions as a writer until his late thirties. When he returned to writing, he was particularly interested in crafting stories to encourage reluctant readers.
This ambition was in part fuelled by Paul's experiences as a teacher of disadvantaged children and as a speech therapist. More specifically, Paul was concerned at his own son's reluctance to read, and unimpressed by the material he was being offered at school. Paul's first collection of stories was Unreal!, published in 1985. Four years later, he became a full-time writer. The Gizmo was Paul's first novel. In 1992, he became the first author to sell a million books in Australia. In addition to his collections of short stories, Paul has also created stunning picture books, including The Fisherman and the Theefyspray. The TV series Round The Twist, based on collections of Paul Jennings' stories, has enjoyed success around the world and was the top-rated children's programme on British TV. Paul won the Australian Writers Guild Award for his screenplay. In 1998, Paul teamed up with Australia's other bestselling writer for children, Morris Gleitzman, to create Wicked! - a gripping serial, composed of six short novels.
WHAT HE SAYS...
"Ideas come from everywhere. Everyone has plenty of raw material in their lives to draw on and a lot of my stories are based on my own experiences or those of people around me. Other sources are emotions (such as embarrassment or fear) or things that I would like to happen (such as being able to fly). Thinking of ideas is always the hardest part of the writing process but it's also the most important."
"I am always the main character in my stories."
"The biggest sin in writing for children is to be boring."
"A reluctant reader is any child for whom no adult has yet found suitable books."
"I consume an enormous amount of short stories, (including those by
Ray Bradbury, John Wyndham, Somerset Maugham, O'Henry, Edgar Allen Poe, John Collier...) I like a plot and a good ending. That probably shows in my writing."
"It's through the story that you become a member of the culture, because all our beliefs and myths and values are laid down in stories and also because that's how people learn what's inside of other people's heads."
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT PAUL JENNINGS...
"His writing has a distinctive style. It is fast moving narrative, highly improbable, humorous, strongly plotted, peopled with very modern characters." Magpies
"One of the best writers of offbeat tales for the young; the name to recommend when Roald Dahl's oeuvre is completed or grown out of." School Librarian
"Endlessly inventive." Junior Education
"What shines through all the work, alongside the humour is a genuine affection and a generous respect for the individual." The Guardian
"His writing is immediate, fresh and, above all, it speaks directly to children, identifying with both their position in society and their complex emotions."
The Bookseller
"His linguistic expertise is evident in the highly accessible prose that he painstakingly constructs, but such is his skill as a storyteller, there is not a trace of condescension or of contrived simplification in his books." Books For Keeps
"Jennings' stories celebrate children's sense of limitless possibility, and their love of the absurd and the taboo." Books For Keeps
"Jennings' accessible but powerful stories... now have a worldwide reputation for creating pleasant hysteria in classrooms." TES
"He treads a fine line between the funny and the macabre. He's a true original."
Lesley Howarth, author of Maphead
AWARDS
Include:
Order of Australia, 1995
Australian Writers Guild Awards 1990 & 1993 for Round The Twist
Gold Puffin Award 1992 for achieving sales of 1 million books in Australia
Young Australians' Best Book Award (YABBA) 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995!!!
NAME:
Paul Jennings
PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH:
Middlesex, England; 30 April 1943
FAVOURITE BOOK:
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R.Tolkien
MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
My TVR Griffith sports car
FAVOURITE SONG:
'Danny Boy', 'Send in the Clowns', 'Imagine'
FAVOURITE FILM:
Shane, The Yearling (the version with Gregory Peck). These are both stories about boys trying to understand the adult world.
When did you start writing?
I have enjoyed writing ever since my school days. One of my early attempts to get published was sending a story in to the Women's Weekly when I was sixteen. They rejected the story and I was so upset by this that I didn't write again until I was thirty-nine. This time I wanted to write stories that would make reading interesting for children; Penguin liked my work and published Unreal! in 1985. I wish I hadn't waited so long.
Where do you get your ideas?
This is the question which I am asked the most. The truth is that ideas come from everywhere. Everyone has plenty of raw material in their lives to draw on and a lot of my
stories are based on my own experiences or those of people around me. Other sources are
emotions (such as embarrassment or fear) or things that I would like to happen (such as being able to fly). Thinking of ideas is always the hardest part of the writing process but it's also the most important. Once a girl told me that her tongue stuck to the freezing compartment on the refrigerator. I got a story called Ice Maiden from that idea.
Can you give your top three tips to becoming a successful author?
1. Perseverance. If you don't succeed at first, keep trying. This also applies to the writing process - writing can be a lonely and difficult occupation but you have to persist with it.
2. Read. To become a writer it's necessary to read constantly and widely.
3. Don't think that nothing interesting happens to you. It does. Value your own feelings and experiences.
Favourite memory?
Going skiing with my wife and all six of my kids. We had such a lot of fun. Now they are
grown up it's hard to get all of the family together and I miss it.
Favourite place in the world and why?
The Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. The cliffs and the pounding ocean here are just incredible. It is wild and beautiful and romantic. There are whales and wonderful wild spots. And a road which in the summer, in a sports car with the top down, is just magic.
What are your hobbies?
Racing historic cars (I love English cars - MGs, Rileys, Jaguars and TVRs); parties and
being with friends and family - a lot of my friends like Irish music so we like to get together to have a sing-along.
If you hadn't been a writer, what do you think you would have been?
A musician if I had the talent, or else an actor.
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