On Monday 25th November, BGS was extremely lucky to have a visit
and a talk from this year’s Children’s Laureate and prolific author Malorie
Blackman. Ms Blackman covered lots of topics, including her novels, her love of writing, the joys of
reading and even made brief mention of the rapper, Tinie Tempah!
The first thing that came as a surprise to many was the fact that Blackman
has not always been a success. She explained how she received 82 rejection letters from various publishing houses before her
first novel, Hacker, was picked up. She went onto describe how she became more
determined after her rejections and the pure elation she then felt upon receiving her first offer of publication, even giving the audience an
impression of herself hearing the exciting news (it involved a fair bit of
screaming and dancing)!
From her popular Noughts and Crosses series to her latest novel Noble
Conflict, Blackman is not one to shy away from tackling important social issues. Whether the subject is racism, social justice or state secrets, Blackman’s writing is always thought-provoking.
She readily discussed her own experiences with racism and how it is still a
problem that is faced today. To emphasise her point Blackman showed news clips
of Little Rock,USA in the 1960's, the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the Holy Cross Primary
School in Northern Ireland (click on the individual event to find out more
information). She then showed clips from the Royal Shakespeare Company
production of Noughts and Crosses as well as the BBC radio play.
Blackman also explained that she wanted to play around with people’s
assumptions of the characters and as a result only defines characters as being 'Noughts' or 'Crosses' in the first book rather than mentioning their skin colour.
It’s only when you’re halfway through the book that you realise the impact of
this decision.
What also came to light through the talk and the subsequent Q&A session
was that Blackman liked to write for groups of people that are not normally the main characters in books.
From teenage dads in Boys Don’t Cry to people with peanut allergies in Cloud Busting,
Blackman takes her inspiration from every walk of life.
Her most recent novel, Noble Conflict, was written because she wanted to
explore how important truth is; whether the public should know state secrets
and if war is ever justified. The protagonist, Casper, is faced with this
dilemma after discovering that the government of his non-violent country is
torturing prisoners. Although the subject matter is quite mature, novels like Noble
Conflict provide a platform for discussion amongst younger readers about the
worldwide social issues that surround them.
Self-belief was a theme that was explored many times during her talk and,
using her rejections and subsequent illustrious career as a prime example, she
encouraged aspiring writers to believe in their abilities and to dare to be
different. She acknowledges the difficulties aspiring writers can face along
the way (such as 82 rejection letters!) and spoke of her fear of unemployment
and how writing can be a long and lonely process. She did, however offer
advice on how to deal with this - don't give up, join a writing workshop and be yourself. Blackman's joy
in what she does could be felt throughout the talk and it was clear that she
wants others to share in this. If the long queue for signatures after the event
was anything to go by, the audience felt the same way.
Oh, and the Tinie Tempah mention? Well, not every Children’s Laureate gets named-dropped in a rap song!
Miss Frude