I wrote The Bookshop Girl at my desk in Oxford, with my red anglepoise lamp. Now I’ve moved to London, but the desk and the lamp have come with me, so when I sit down to write it’s as though I never left.
That’s how I like to write best – at my desk, first thing in the morning or last thing at night. But sometimes Life gets in the way, and the wonderful thing about writing is that you can do it anywhere, anytime. I wrote a lot of Erica’s Elephant on buses. It was less comfy, but it got the job done.
What do you think happened next for Property and her family?
I don’t know, and I think it’s very important that I don’t know. You, reading this book, have invented a whole new version of Property and Netty and Michael and the White Hart and the Great Montgomery Book Emporium. The version of this story that now lives inside your head is uniquely yours, and not quite like mine or anyone else’s. So if you want to know what happens next, you have as much right to dream up an answer as I do. That is the wonderful thing about stories.
You’ve written some amazing characters – which is your favourite so far?
Thank you! Oh, that is so difficult. Obviously Erica and her Elephant, and Property and her brother, are all very special to me. Perhaps less obviously, there is a policeman who appears in both Erica’s Elephant and The Bookshop Girl. He’s never really necessary, but he makes me laugh, so I keep finding ways to sneak him in.
Is it more fun writing goodies or baddies?
I think I like best the challenge of trying to write people who aren’t quite one or the other, or aren’t what they seem. In this book, Montgomery did the right thing in the end, but he messed up at first – oh, but for good reasons, poor man! I think readers will disagree about how well we should think of Montgomery. And I enjoy that. That’s how real people are – confusing! – and it’s fun to try and capture that in writing.
Sylvia Bishop has recently graduated from Oxford. She is one half of the brilliant improvised comedy duo Peablossom Cabaret. She is also the author of Erica’s Elephant.
Follow Sylvia on Twitter @sylviabishop
Ashley King is a passionate illustrator who hand draws, paints, creates, doodles, scribbles and loves coffee and cake. He is also the illustrator of Erica’s Elephant.
Follow Ashley on Twitter @Ashillustrates
ANOTHER FANTASTIC ADVENTURE TO ENJOY!
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First published in the UK by Scholastic Ltd, 2017
This electronic edition published by Scholastic Ltd, 2017
Text copyright © Sylvia Bishop, 2017
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eISBN 978 1407 17917 9
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