1 00:00:11,250 --> 00:00:15,810 Hello, welcome to Hertford's literary podcast. I'm Emma Smith, 2 00:00:15,810 --> 00:00:20,880 I teach English at Hertford and I'm Fellow Librarian and that, in some ways gives me the 3 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:25,770 great privilege of connecting with Hertford writers in all different genres. 4 00:00:25,770 --> 00:00:32,530 And I'm so excited today that we're going to be talking to Anya Glazer, illustrator and author of children's books. 5 00:00:32,530 --> 00:00:41,670 We're going to be talking about her most recent book, 'Thesaurus has a secret', a really charming book about a wordy dinosaur. 6 00:00:41,670 --> 00:00:48,690 If you can think of anything that's more designed to appeal to young readers, we'd love to hear about it. 7 00:00:48,690 --> 00:00:56,130 But this is a fantastic book and we're going to be chatting with Anya about how she went from Hertford to this and what's coming next. 8 00:00:56,130 --> 00:01:00,660 So, Anya, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. 9 00:01:00,660 --> 00:01:05,130 Tell us about you and Hertford. You read History and French, didn't you? 10 00:01:05,130 --> 00:01:16,890 Yeah, so I read History and French at Hertford and I, I started in 2009 and then I, because I was studying French, 11 00:01:16,890 --> 00:01:19,320 I had a year abroad in Paris, 12 00:01:19,320 --> 00:01:28,080 which was, sort of, where I started getting back into children's books or thinking about that as a possible avenue to pursue. 13 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:37,440 And then after I graduated, I did a Master's in children's book illustration and then it sort of went on from there. 14 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:43,290 Fantastic. And just sticking with Hertford for a minute, what what are your memories of college now, 15 00:01:43,290 --> 00:01:50,460 looking back? I guess for most people that they're a little bit mixed, but how about for you? 16 00:01:50,460 --> 00:01:53,280 I think for me, largely positive. I would say. 17 00:01:53,280 --> 00:02:02,070 I think the main thing that I think about when I think back to my time at Hertford was, was the people there and the friends that I made. 18 00:02:02,070 --> 00:02:08,700 And I just think of it as sort of a very warm, friendly, open, welcoming college. 19 00:02:08,700 --> 00:02:13,890 And a lot of the people there are still very good friends. 20 00:02:13,890 --> 00:02:19,650 And I think it was a lot of hard work and a lot of stress doing that work. 21 00:02:19,650 --> 00:02:25,020 But I think looking back on it now, I've probably, with a bit of hindsight, 22 00:02:25,020 --> 00:02:34,140 have sort of forgotten about quite how stressful some of the late night essay writing and revision sessions were. 23 00:02:34,140 --> 00:02:40,140 And and just think about, sort of, a great three years in Oxford, 24 00:02:40,140 --> 00:02:49,800 going to lectures and tutorials and lots of time spent in cafes and coffee shops working and libraries also. 25 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:54,720 Yeah, well, where were your haunts and what was your coffee shop haunt? 26 00:02:54,720 --> 00:03:01,320 I think my main coffee shop haunt was actually it was the Cafe Nero in Blackwells on Broad Street, 27 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:07,680 because it was, it just had a very nice, it had the right kind of energy to be able to actually do a bit 28 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:15,000 of work with, sort of, some buzzing background noise and then sort of have a look at the books afterwards. 29 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:20,070 And also it was just sort of a few minutes away from Hertford. So that was, sort of, my main place. 30 00:03:20,070 --> 00:03:26,010 And then, yeah, I remember when that cafe first opened and it seemed so glamorous, so American, 31 00:03:26,010 --> 00:03:32,850 I suppose, to have a coffee shop in a bookshop, which I had never, I'd never encountered before. 32 00:03:32,850 --> 00:03:38,260 Yeah. It was an amazing landmark in Oxford history, I think! 33 00:03:38,260 --> 00:03:42,510 Yeah. Yeah. Have you been back? Are you based now in London? 34 00:03:42,510 --> 00:03:50,460 I'm based in London now, yes. Although I have been back to Oxford a few times and actually, having not been back in several years, 35 00:03:50,460 --> 00:03:58,980 I was back there just visiting some friends about a month ago and it was really lovely to to go back and to sort of visit some old haunts, 36 00:03:58,980 --> 00:04:02,700 and especially after so long of not being able to travel at all 37 00:04:02,700 --> 00:04:08,970 it was a very nice place to to meet up with people again and to go back to some old favourite Hertford spots. 38 00:04:08,970 --> 00:04:15,360 That's brilliant. You'll have seen our marquee which is over front quad as a covid safe space, 39 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:21,630 I think we all thought when it arrived and, well, God knows when, when did when did all this start?! 40 00:04:21,630 --> 00:04:26,910 Well, whenever it arrived! I think we thought, you know, it would be there for a few months. 41 00:04:26,910 --> 00:04:31,500 We're about to just turn into the new academic year. And it's still there. 42 00:04:31,500 --> 00:04:36,750 Perhaps it will, perhaps we'll put some stone cladding around it. It will be there forever. 43 00:04:36,750 --> 00:04:49,890 So you just said then that you obviously had a sort of long term interest in children's writing or illustrating children's books. 44 00:04:49,890 --> 00:04:59,340 Maybe we could start with what were your, what were your influences? What are the children's books which were really formative for you? 45 00:04:59,340 --> 00:05:09,180 Sure, I'd say, I mean, we had a lot of children's books in the house growing up, and, so my family is American, but we grew up in Europe. 46 00:05:09,180 --> 00:05:16,470 So I feel like we had sort of mixture of classic American picture books and also some of the British ones and even some French ones, 47 00:05:16,470 --> 00:05:23,250 because we lived in Brussels and some of the big ones that stand out to me are things like Where The Wild Things Are by 48 00:05:23,250 --> 00:05:32,130 Maurice Sendak, who has just this amazing kind of wildness and darkness to his books, 49 00:05:32,130 --> 00:05:39,000 and he was the first person that I remember sort of, aged about probably not much more than four or five 50 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:46,020 that I remember being aware of as being a person who wrote and illustrated children's books as a job. 51 00:05:46,020 --> 00:05:52,830 And that was a thing that you could grow up to do and I just remember being very excited by that as an idea! 52 00:05:52,830 --> 00:06:00,540 Some of the other sort of classic books that we had when I was little were, we loved Posy Simmonds, 53 00:06:00,540 --> 00:06:09,180 Lulu and The Flying Babies, which is another very wonderful, silly, slightly offbeat story. 54 00:06:09,180 --> 00:06:16,410 And then we had a lot of the sort of Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake collaborations, which I think had a big influence. 55 00:06:16,410 --> 00:06:26,700 Yeah, that's I'm just sort of rifling through those in my, in my head and the visuals of that, because I've got your, one of your books here, 56 00:06:26,700 --> 00:06:34,650 which is the book that I'd really like to talk to about 'Thesaurus, has a secret' about this absolutely lovely dinosaur. 57 00:06:34,650 --> 00:06:39,240 And I'm just looking at the style of your drawing and thinking, 58 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,870 I mean, it's softer, isn't it, than the Quentin Blake. 59 00:06:42,870 --> 00:06:46,750 It's not pen, do you use pencils? 60 00:06:46,750 --> 00:06:52,500 Well, tell us about the sort of the actual practicalities of the drawings. 61 00:06:52,500 --> 00:06:55,200 Yeah, I work mostly mostly in pencil. 62 00:06:55,200 --> 00:07:02,700 I sort of, that's very much where my drawings start and where it's kind of all based in and I'm sort of happiest with a 63 00:07:02,700 --> 00:07:08,310 coloured pencil or a 2B pencil just sort of sketching away in a sketchbook and then all of my final art and everything, 64 00:07:08,310 --> 00:07:16,920 it will all start with that pencil line. And then I, I work in, sort of, traditional colour as well. 65 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:22,260 So, sort of, working with wash paints and acrylics and coloured pencil. 66 00:07:22,260 --> 00:07:32,550 But I'll work all of that, sort of, on a separate layer. So, sort of, using a light box to trace over the line on a separate piece of paper. 67 00:07:32,550 --> 00:07:43,920 And then afterwards I, sort of, scan in the original pencil line and the colour layers and I assemble it all in Photoshop. 68 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:50,460 So that it ends up being a kind of a digital collage, but very much based originally around the freshness of that pencil line. 69 00:07:50,460 --> 00:07:54,660 Wow, that's so interesting. I realised I had absolutely no idea how that would work. 70 00:07:54,660 --> 00:08:01,380 I'm obviously quite familiar with how you send a Word document to a publishers, but you do all that. 71 00:08:01,380 --> 00:08:06,220 Are you preparing, effectively, the page layout then as well, 72 00:08:06,220 --> 00:08:14,940 or the illustrations that then the designer, the book designer, sort of makes into book pages? 73 00:08:14,940 --> 00:08:20,070 More I would say, I guess, the page that the book designer will turn into book pages, 74 00:08:20,070 --> 00:08:25,720 but I'll work, sort of, within a layout which is the size of the finished book. 75 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:35,550 So that the idea is that by the time I'm working on the final artwork, the, the layout and the format has all been agreed. 76 00:08:35,550 --> 00:08:44,330 And I'm not, and because I'm working in Photoshop rather than, sort of, just sending pieces of paper over to the designer. 77 00:08:44,330 --> 00:08:51,300 But then I think they do a lot of wizardry at their end to make it all into the final book as well. 78 00:08:51,300 --> 00:08:59,920 Yeah, that's really fascinating. Do you ever sell any of the drawings? I think the original drawings must be absolutely glorious. 79 00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:03,090 I haven't done, but maybe it's something I should look into! 80 00:09:03,090 --> 00:09:12,210 It's sort of funny because I have, I end up with them with folders full of lots of pieces of paper, some of which have just all of the lines, 81 00:09:12,210 --> 00:09:18,960 some have layers of colour, but because it's assembled on Photoshop, it means that what's sort of a shame is that 82 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:30,240 I don't have, sort of, one piece of paper, which is the original artwork in the end, because it's, sort of, in four or five different places. 83 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:33,390 Yeah, I can imagine that. But that would probably make the drawings, 84 00:09:33,390 --> 00:09:41,280 I mean, I don't want to, I don't know why I've taken on me to to be your commercial agent and vulgarise 85 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:47,070 this is beautiful work, but since I've started, maybe I'll just, I'll just carry on. 86 00:09:47,070 --> 00:09:53,700 I was just thinking about those, you know, black and white sketches you can get of Mickey Mouse, which don't correspond to any of the cartoon 87 00:09:53,700 --> 00:10:00,370 Mickey Mouses is but are such a fascinating insight into how that 88 00:10:00,370 --> 00:10:01,450 gets put together. 89 00:10:01,450 --> 00:10:09,640 I just, I just thought the illustrations, I do get the illustrations and the words are absolutely, not least because you're responsible for them 90 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:15,580 both, are absolutely interconnected. But I thought that the, the drawings are so, so absolutely lovely. 91 00:10:15,580 --> 00:10:20,980 And I think a cuddly, cuddly toy Thesaurus is just just waiting to happen! 92 00:10:20,980 --> 00:10:24,730 Let's move from my terrible commercial ambitions. Oh, no. 93 00:10:24,730 --> 00:10:28,570 It's definitely something that I should probably be, sort of, exploiting more. 94 00:10:28,570 --> 00:10:32,350 And there are lots of those pieces of paper that are at the moment just kind of hidden away in a folder 95 00:10:32,350 --> 00:10:42,460 so I should be looking into what to do with those more. So tell us about how you came to this particular, this particular, story? 96 00:10:42,460 --> 00:10:51,040 Because I suppose I'm asking because I've seen a peep of what your next book is, about sisters. 97 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:59,440 Yeah, but, you know, that seems in some ways, one could speculate about how you came to that idea 98 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:03,590 but that's not quite so available to think about, about this one. 99 00:11:03,590 --> 00:11:10,150 So I wondered if this, is this, is this autobiographical? Are you Thesaurus? 100 00:11:10,150 --> 00:11:16,330 I think what I tend to find is that there is more autobiographical elements 101 00:11:16,330 --> 00:11:21,100 that sneak into my stories that I'm then I'm aware of when I'm making them, 102 00:11:21,100 --> 00:11:28,990 which I think probably happened with this one. I think I probably am Thesaurus in that I love reading, 103 00:11:28,990 --> 00:11:38,740 I'm quite shy and I'm quite happy just, sort of, sitting away with my book and kind of ignoring the rest of the world. 104 00:11:38,740 --> 00:11:44,530 But I don't know if that, sort of, if that was my intention going, going into it, 105 00:11:44,530 --> 00:11:52,060 but I think you probably end up putting a lot more of yourself into, into your stories and your characters than ends up happening. 106 00:11:52,060 --> 00:11:56,560 I've definitely done that in several books in a row now, which is which is interesting. 107 00:11:56,560 --> 00:12:02,140 But the origins of this, of this story, it sort of developed actually over quite a long period of time. 108 00:12:02,140 --> 00:12:05,290 It was the grains of an idea I'd had for years and years 109 00:12:05,290 --> 00:12:11,920 This one actually, I had just always thought that the word thesaurus always sounded like it should be a dinosaur, 110 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:16,120 just even when, you know, I was opening my synonym dictionary. And I would just always think like that. 111 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:19,930 A thesaurus should probably be a dinosaur rather than a dictionary, 112 00:12:19,930 --> 00:12:21,370 I don't know how they came up with that. 113 00:12:21,370 --> 00:12:28,600 And actually, I'm still not really sure where the word came from, which is probably something I should have researched at this point. 114 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:41,800 So then the source character, kind of a bookish literary dinosaur, kind of evolved from that and then, sort of, became a story when I was on 115 00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:49,690 My Masters studying children's book illustration and putting together, my sort, MA final project, 116 00:12:49,690 --> 00:12:54,190 which was essentially making a picture book. 117 00:12:54,190 --> 00:12:59,890 And so I sort of took this idea of literary dinosaur who loves to read. 118 00:12:59,890 --> 00:13:02,680 And then it sort of emerged into this story. 119 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:08,410 While maybe reading isn't something that dinosaurs typically do or that you would think that the other dinosaurs typically do, 120 00:13:08,410 --> 00:13:15,880 therefore it's something that he hides from the other dinosaurs and then one day, not to spoil anything too much. 121 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:23,500 But the other dinosaurs will discover his secret and then we'll find out what they really think. 122 00:13:23,500 --> 00:13:28,780 And it turns out that everybody loves to listen to him read because reading is a wonderful thing. 123 00:13:28,780 --> 00:13:39,880 I love that. And I love the fact that Thesaurus is this lover of words and a lover of reading, and that this enables you, with quite a lot of confidence 124 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:49,960 I guess, in your young readers or the people who are being read to from this book, to enjoy various synonyms. 125 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:59,300 'What a beautiful sunset, so magnificent, resplendent, awe inspiring' and I was thinking about how children. 126 00:13:59,300 --> 00:14:04,610 Can really love the sounds of words and actually really love unfamiliar words, 127 00:14:04,610 --> 00:14:12,290 we sometimes assume they're going to be put off by them, but actually that's less the case. 128 00:14:12,290 --> 00:14:19,850 So although I think this is a book, what age of a child do you anticipate for this? about five or six? 129 00:14:19,850 --> 00:14:26,390 Yeah, probably about five or six. I think officially the age guidelines are about four to eight. 130 00:14:26,390 --> 00:14:33,230 But I think I agree. I think what's nice about this book in particular, because it is quite wordy for a picture book, 131 00:14:33,230 --> 00:14:36,800 which is quite conscious because that's sort of what it's all about. 132 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:44,600 But then I think you can enjoy it, hopefully both as a child and an adult sort of on different levels, 133 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:48,860 because I think you can just appreciate that it's a nice story about dinosaurs. 134 00:14:48,860 --> 00:14:53,150 And then the more, the older you get, or the more you're sort of taking in from it, 135 00:14:53,150 --> 00:14:59,060 hopefully with all of the wordplay and hope then the more sophisticated vocabulary, 136 00:14:59,060 --> 00:15:04,040 which may be a, sort of a, a safe place or an interesting place to encounter slightly bigger 137 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:08,300 words for the first time and then to get excited about the possibilities of language, 138 00:15:08,300 --> 00:15:09,360 I hope. Yeah. 139 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:18,800 And I could imagine some of the, I could imagine some of those phrases actually really being adopted by families, you know, 'keep going, persevere. 140 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:22,100 You can do it', that just seemed really nice, a nice thing. 141 00:15:22,100 --> 00:15:26,900 And I love one of the things you've you've got for for the adults. 142 00:15:26,900 --> 00:15:35,030 Reading is a lovely, lovely spread. I'm just flicking to it, which is Thesaurus' secret stash of books. 143 00:15:35,030 --> 00:15:42,230 Oh, yes. And these are these are an amazingly funny, witty set of spines. 144 00:15:42,230 --> 00:15:49,340 Jurassic Mansfield Park, for instance, One Flew Over The Pterodactyls Nest. 145 00:15:49,340 --> 00:15:54,870 This is my favourite, I think, T. Rex of the d'Urbervilles. I mean, these are fabulous like that. 146 00:15:54,870 --> 00:15:59,210 You've also got some some books which I guess, you know, 147 00:15:59,210 --> 00:16:07,400 going back to the question I asked you about your influences, classic American kids book, The Phantom Tollbooth. 148 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:13,430 Yes. One of my favourite. A little peep of the Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman. 149 00:16:13,430 --> 00:16:17,420 That's a lovely, lovely, lovely spread. Oh, thank you very much. 150 00:16:17,420 --> 00:16:19,670 That was definitely one of one of the most fun. 151 00:16:19,670 --> 00:16:26,990 to do and I had a lot of fun coming up with, basically as many dinosaur literary puns as I could possibly think of! 152 00:16:26,990 --> 00:16:29,270 And so then I think that's exactly right, 153 00:16:29,270 --> 00:16:37,760 The book pile is sort of compiled of the best puns I could come up with and then also I tried to sneak in some of my favourite books, 154 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:43,430 whether or not they were exactly connected to the theme and then also managed to get a little bit of my French degree in there, 155 00:16:43,430 --> 00:16:48,020 too, because I discovered there is an actual real dinosaur called Alberto Saurus! 156 00:16:48,020 --> 00:16:55,880 So then I have Alberto Saurus Camus' The Stranger, in there as a nod to to my studying French at Hertford. 157 00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:59,690 That's that's such that's so excellent. That's such a lovely, lovely spread. 158 00:16:59,690 --> 00:17:08,850 Thank you very much. Yeah. It's it's a really wonderful book. I would really recommend it, especially for parents and godparents and aunts and uncles, 159 00:17:08,850 --> 00:17:12,140 grandparents who are looking for Christmas presents for young people. 160 00:17:12,140 --> 00:17:20,840 It's a it's a book that I think anybody has to read aloud would also enjoy as well as the recipients of that. 161 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:24,320 So tell us a bit about what's coming next. Anya, you've got another book. 162 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:27,590 is that already in more or less in press? The Sisters book? 163 00:17:27,590 --> 00:17:32,540 Yes. So so my next picture book is called What are Sisters For? 164 00:17:32,540 --> 00:17:39,560 And that's with the same publisher, which is an imprint of HarperCollins in the US called Katherine Tegen Books. 165 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:48,380 And so this next one is actually coming out at the end of this month in America and then in the UK at the end of October. 166 00:17:48,380 --> 00:17:56,060 And it's basically a story about sisters, but also sibling relationships in general. 167 00:17:56,060 --> 00:18:05,510 And it's also sort of exploring the idea of curiosity and having lots of questions and what to do when you don't really have all the answers. 168 00:18:05,510 --> 00:18:11,630 So and it started with me sort of wanting to explore those ideas of curiosity and asking questions. 169 00:18:11,630 --> 00:18:16,280 And then it, this sibling dynamic sort of emerged more out of that. 170 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:21,710 And it's about a little sister there, a little koala, 171 00:18:21,710 --> 00:18:33,140 I should also mention, they're all koala characters, called Bea, who asks lots of questions, and her older sister, Ada, who always has all the answers. 172 00:18:33,140 --> 00:18:37,970 But Bea keeps asking more and more questions, which gets harder and harder. 173 00:18:37,970 --> 00:18:40,310 And her sister sort of struggling to keep up, 174 00:18:40,310 --> 00:18:47,570 which kind of reaches this breaking point and leads them off on this adventure to try to find some answers. 175 00:18:47,570 --> 00:18:53,780 And it's yeah, it was, I had a lot of fun working on this one, actually. 176 00:18:53,780 --> 00:18:58,710 And whereas Thesaurus was, sort of, several years in development, in different stages, this one, 177 00:18:58,710 --> 00:19:05,370 sort of came together quite quickly, actually, and I was actually working on the artwork for this one in March 2020, 178 00:19:05,370 --> 00:19:09,180 which was an interesting time to be working on the book. 179 00:19:09,180 --> 00:19:16,440 But actually it was a really wonderful, solid thing to be focussing on during that time. 180 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:21,750 So, yeah, I'm very proud of this one. And I hope that people like it, too. 181 00:19:21,750 --> 00:19:25,020 That's fabulous, there are two things I really want to ask you about. 182 00:19:25,020 --> 00:19:35,040 One is about whether you feel there are differences in the US and the UK children's book market? 183 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:41,460 So maybe I'll just plant that. But the other thing I was thinking, just as you as you were talking, is, oh, 184 00:19:41,460 --> 00:19:54,480 are you drawing on children who are around you and part of your life or do you think you're drawing on your own, 185 00:19:54,480 --> 00:20:01,260 sounds a bit, kind of hooky, but are you drawing on your own, kind of, inner child, is that is that where this comes from? 186 00:20:01,260 --> 00:20:12,120 Yeah, I think probably a lot of it is more drawing on my inner child in that I actually, I'm not that surrounded by small children on a regular basis, 187 00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:18,500 although I do not have a young nephew so I will be watching his reading carefully. 188 00:20:18,500 --> 00:20:28,440 But but I think yeah, I think a lot of it is, sort of being in tune to your, sort of remembering your own 189 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:34,410 sort of reading and feelings as a child and just sort of not losing track of that. 190 00:20:34,410 --> 00:20:37,200 And I think that sort of the best, 191 00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:46,080 the best children's books, as any books, are books that anyone can appreciate and that can still be sort of excited by, 192 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:52,200 and remember those feelings of when you're an adult. So that's I think that's sort of where I'm coming at it from. 193 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:58,320 And with this one, again, I am the youngest sibling, so I think I probably put a lot of that in there, 194 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:02,850 again, more than I might have anticipated when I was actually writing it in the first place. 195 00:21:02,850 --> 00:21:07,620 And what about that trans-Atlantic experience? Are you how does that play out? 196 00:21:07,620 --> 00:21:12,330 Do you feel the American audience is a different one? It's hard to say. 197 00:21:12,330 --> 00:21:23,700 I think there are some differences in, in terms of what what does get published in the states versus here sometimes, 198 00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:29,010 although I may be not as attuned to it as as I could be, 199 00:21:29,010 --> 00:21:36,840 partially because I haven't, sort of, had as much opportunity to kind of spend over there in 200 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:41,700 the last couple of years and really immerse myself in sort of the American picture books, 201 00:21:41,700 --> 00:21:48,930 as I would like to. But one of the things I thought was interesting is that, so Thesaurus, for example, 202 00:21:48,930 --> 00:21:57,270 was a book that I had worked on originally on my MA and so I did get feedback from it, on 203 00:21:57,270 --> 00:22:04,320 it from UK publishers originally because I had sort of presented it as our final graduation show. 204 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:10,980 And one thing that kind of came up sometimes was that British publishers, I think, 205 00:22:10,980 --> 00:22:22,700 are often quite conscientious of international sales and having books that can work in co-editions so that you can produce, for example, 206 00:22:22,700 --> 00:22:30,660 a German edition or a Korean edition, et cetera, which sometimes means that there is less opportunity when you're starting out to maybe explore 207 00:22:30,660 --> 00:22:39,450 things like a book that's entirely all about word play and lots of different puns and rhymes. 208 00:22:39,450 --> 00:22:47,310 And a lot of these things that I've got into Thesaurus which, because the American market just has such a big home market in the first place, 209 00:22:47,310 --> 00:22:50,580 I think that was something they were a bit more receptive to. 210 00:22:50,580 --> 00:22:58,050 So I think it can, in some ways lead to more opportunities for playing around with language in that way, 211 00:22:58,050 --> 00:23:06,090 sort of when when you're starting out and kind of getting established, which is something that I think I have definitely tried to do. 212 00:23:06,090 --> 00:23:11,790 That's fascinating, though. It's really interesting to think about a picture book, as you say, which your picture book, 213 00:23:11,790 --> 00:23:23,580 which is consciously verbal and has more words perhaps than a standard in that genre and the difficulties that poses for international editions. 214 00:23:23,580 --> 00:23:30,090 I was wondering then whether you said earlier on that you're, I am perhaps paraphrasing, 215 00:23:30,090 --> 00:23:35,310 but that you're quite an introvert person, maybe a bit like Thesaurus. 216 00:23:35,310 --> 00:23:40,830 Do you find, are you going to find, do you think, that as an author for children, 217 00:23:40,830 --> 00:23:46,260 you're going to be called upon or involved in more, as it were, 218 00:23:46,260 --> 00:23:47,830 Hands on. Probably not Hands on. 219 00:23:47,830 --> 00:23:55,020 I'm sure that's probably illegal, but you know what I mean, face to face encounters with your, with your readers? I am conscious that, 220 00:23:55,020 --> 00:23:58,230 you know, that seems to be quite a big part of literary festivals 221 00:23:58,230 --> 00:24:09,750 now, as well as events for adult readers, they are increasingly junior events and children's authors often seem quite active in that sphere. 222 00:24:09,750 --> 00:24:21,360 Yeah, definitely. I think they're in more ordinary times that there's a lot of that in sort of book events and school visits and things like that. 223 00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:29,520 And it is something that, as an introvert is quite daunting as a prospect. 224 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:33,810 But I think it's something that I haven't really done much of yet. 225 00:24:33,810 --> 00:24:41,530 But it's something that I, I definitely hope will sort of become a part of my, sort of author, 226 00:24:41,530 --> 00:24:49,900 illustrator practise and more so as I have another book with a UK publisher coming out next year as well. 227 00:24:49,900 --> 00:24:55,570 And I think it's one of those things that, as an introvert, I find things can be quite sort of scary from the outset, 228 00:24:55,570 --> 00:25:02,110 but it won't necessarily stop me from trying it in the first place. And I suspect that after you do a first one, 229 00:25:02,110 --> 00:25:10,090 then that sort of helps you get over the nerves and then you find that it's actually just quite lovely, fun thing to do. 230 00:25:10,090 --> 00:25:14,230 So I think I'll just need to just get started and do it. 231 00:25:14,230 --> 00:25:17,740 Despite being quite scared of the idea of it. 232 00:25:17,740 --> 00:25:24,700 And then I think hopefully it will also be another sort of really inspiring part of the job, 233 00:25:24,700 --> 00:25:29,080 both to see the children who are your audience actually interacting with the books 234 00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,440 and then also the inspiration that you can get from them and seeing how they 235 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,640 respond to the stories and think about all of these things and then just make all 236 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:43,180 of these connections and ask all of these questions that you would never think of. So I think it's one of those things that I'm quite nervous about, 237 00:25:43,180 --> 00:25:48,310 but also really looking forward to at the same time when things like festivals and events are starting up again. 238 00:25:48,310 --> 00:25:53,460 Yeah, it's been such a, it's been such a sort of time of stasis, hasn't it? 239 00:25:53,460 --> 00:25:59,590 And and and I think lots of us have not, I mean, everybody's had such challenges to me during this period, 240 00:25:59,590 --> 00:26:05,050 but in some ways we haven't tested ourselves in some of these ways that you're describing 241 00:26:05,050 --> 00:26:12,010 and it would be great to have that that opportunity. So you've got a pipeline of these amazing books. 242 00:26:12,010 --> 00:26:16,030 I mean, I'm so pleased to have encountered your work. 243 00:26:16,030 --> 00:26:21,160 And it's certainly going to be one of my go-to gifts, I think. 244 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:27,160 I think now and I am going to look out with great interest for the next ones. 245 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:33,040 What's you? are you taking it as it comes? Do you have an ambition that you're willing to share with us? 246 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:38,830 Do you have a sense how how you would like your career to shape up? 247 00:26:38,830 --> 00:26:47,650 Are you are you looking at something else along alongside or are you able to do to devote a lot of your time to this? 248 00:26:47,650 --> 00:26:51,250 So at the moment, I'm devoting the majority of my time to this, 249 00:26:51,250 --> 00:27:01,270 I do also at the moment, I have, I work for a small independent publishing company a couple of days a week at the same time. 250 00:27:01,270 --> 00:27:04,060 And I think at the moment, in terms of my long term plans, 251 00:27:04,060 --> 00:27:13,360 I'd love to keep on being able to make picture books and hopefully other stories for children as well and other, 252 00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:22,660 sort of, illustrated children's projects and work in all kinds of ways that those things can intersect. 253 00:27:22,660 --> 00:27:32,020 I've got another book coming out with Oxford University Press Children's Books actually next year, which is called Otters versus Badgers. 254 00:27:32,020 --> 00:27:40,060 So that will be the next one after that. And then just kind of hope that I can keep on thinking up new fun ideas and be able 255 00:27:40,060 --> 00:27:45,190 to keep making them because it's, it's such a privilege to be able to do work, 256 00:27:45,190 --> 00:27:47,650 which is something that's also your passion. 257 00:27:47,650 --> 00:27:53,170 I was the kind of person who was also always just kind of coming up with story ideas and scribbling in notebooks. 258 00:27:53,170 --> 00:27:59,950 So I just want to be able to keep on doing that as my work it's just such a wonderful thing. 259 00:27:59,950 --> 00:28:05,110 Yeah, that's amazing. That's amazing to hear. I love the idea of Otters versus Badgers! 260 00:28:05,110 --> 00:28:11,470 That sounds like a sort of like the Marvel comic that we have been waiting for! 261 00:28:11,470 --> 00:28:22,390 I hope so. We are, partly the prompt for doing these podcasts has been thinking about Hertford's Library 262 00:28:22,390 --> 00:28:28,990 we're just on the brink of a big new project to develop study space and develop the facilities 263 00:28:28,990 --> 00:28:33,370 And us all being away from college has made us more conscious, 264 00:28:33,370 --> 00:28:41,860 I think of how important it is that we've got space on site where people can, can do their work and be 265 00:28:41,860 --> 00:28:48,970 together and be part of the college. Do you, were you were you a library dweller? 266 00:28:48,970 --> 00:28:58,720 was that the location of your of your essay crises, or were you more inclined to work somewhere else when you were when you're here? 267 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:04,270 I was a sometime library dweller. I will admit that I sort of hopped around between a few different ones. 268 00:29:04,270 --> 00:29:07,960 I definitely did do some good work sessions in Hertford Library, 269 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:15,370 especially if you could get a seat in sort of the upstairs area with the the nice table sort of overlooking OB quad. 270 00:29:15,370 --> 00:29:19,090 I think that was, sort of, my area of choice. 271 00:29:19,090 --> 00:29:28,780 And but it was usually not the site of my essay crises so much because those would take place, more late at night, the night before the deadline. 272 00:29:28,780 --> 00:29:33,240 So I did a fair amount of sort of essay writing back in my room as well. 273 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:43,350 But for the earlier, sort of gentle research note taking elements of my, of my work, 274 00:29:43,350 --> 00:29:48,990 then I did definitely appreciate Hertford Library as a lovely place to be based. 275 00:29:48,990 --> 00:29:55,230 I would sort of hop around between there and The Taylorian, The Languages Library and the Bod, 276 00:29:55,230 --> 00:29:59,670 which was, sort of a nice trio of libraries to me. Yeah, it's a wonderful part 277 00:29:59,670 --> 00:30:06,600 of Hertford's position, isn't it, that we are really in that great sort of library quarter 278 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:12,060 Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. 279 00:30:12,060 --> 00:30:16,860 Anya, it's been really lovely to talk to you. 280 00:30:16,860 --> 00:30:23,630 I'm strongly and highly recommending 'Thesaurus has a secret' from HarperCollins 281 00:30:23,630 --> 00:30:31,140 Children's and alerting people to look out for books forthcoming from you. 282 00:30:31,140 --> 00:30:38,550 Thanks so much for being willing to talk with us about your work and about your time at Hertford. 283 00:30:38,550 --> 00:30:42,720 It's been, it's been really inspiring and lovely. 284 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:47,220 Thank you so much for having me and it's an honour to be part of the Hertford literary community. 285 00:30:47,220 --> 00:30:50,850 We're proud to have you Anya. Thanks. Thanks so much. 286 00:30:50,850 --> 00:30:58,260 I'd also like to thank Hannah Bironzo, who is producing this podcast and you for listening. 287 00:30:58,260 --> 00:31:09,030 And next time we'll be staying with with secrets, but perhaps less benign ones when I'm going to be talking with a crime writer, Claire Mcgowan. 288 00:31:09,030 --> 00:31:35,080 So do join us again then. Thank you.