Frank Cottrell Boyce came rushing up the steps to the altar of St James the Last church like a choir boy late for a service… his boyish charm and enthusiasm infectious. He reminded us at the CWIG Conference this past Saturday that the business we writers are in, is the business of enchantment. And that real creativity should feel like a game, not a career.
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By: Dianne Hofmeyr,
on 4/3/2011
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Dianne Hofmeyr,
on 4/3/2011
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Tove Jansson, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Dianne Hofmeyr, Danny Boyle, the Moomins, Pookie stories, Add a tag
A huge relief… as prior to this it was ‘gloom and doom’ mood and the need for bells, drums and whistles on school visits. So not only was his ebullience reaffirming but it was also reassuring to be reminded that ‘story’ itself is sufficiently mysterious to make the simple act of reading to children enough to feed their imagination. ‘I’ve got a story to tell…’ is all that’s needed.
One of the debts Frank Cottrell Boyce owes his favourite children's authors is the way they alerted him – at an impressionable age – to various small pleasures. He’s still able to give himself a sense of freedom and carelessness by setting out on a walk with a couple of hard-boiled eggs in his pocket, thanks to reading Milly Molly Mandy as a child.
Tove Jansson writing about the mystery of others in her Moomin family helped him choose his wife. Little My, small and determined with her energy and fiercely independent nature was the person he saw when his future wife rushed into the Library. (where else does a writer find a potential partner?) He said that Jansson showed him, how in a family it’s the small pleasures and idiosyncrasies that keep us together when we start to grow apart, and we can express love merely by sharing a meal, even if everyone's eating something quite different, or making sure the roof isn't leaking.
He finds it uplifting that Jansson could describe so precisely and positively the relationship between a family and one of its members who chooses to live a different life – how this difference somehow enriches the others, how they yearn to go off but know they can't, how they long for her return but need her to keep adventuring.
He urged us not to share writing skills… ‘there are already enough writers’… but to share reading. That true creativity comes from listening and from winnowing. (lovely word) He feels the world is so driven by immediate response that we’re already scanning the sentences as someone speaks to put our own view in place. And that teachers are bound by objectives and outcome... ‘Look out for the Wow words class!’ type of agendas. But that you can’t teach children to love reading, you have to share reading.
What he found reaffirming about working with film-maker and producer Danny Boyle, was that he had ‘a reading corner’ whenever he worked on a film, and everyone busy on the project was encouraged to browse and to leave books.
Books don’t have to be mainstream. They can be voices from the edge. We live by stories and we need all the voices.
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11 Comments on ENCHANTMENT - Dianne Hofmeyr, last added: 4/4/2011
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Fantastic post, Dianne. I, too, was moved by Frank's talk. Moreso because we had been stuck in the 'business' end of being a writer. Rightly so because these days it's important to see where the money is coming from. But to be drawn back to the real reason for writing was brilliant. I found myself skipping off at the end of the day feeling good, instead of grumpy.
I blogged about him too. Great bloke. The CWIG committee's idea of the day was to end on a high and it seems we achieved that. Does anyone know the title of the Elizabeth Jennings poem Frank read out?
Thankyou for sharing! And I really like the idea in the quote at the end.
Here here to everything Dianne has said. He was truly inspirational. And it was a fascinating day.
Thanks Cat. Anne I really liked your U-tube idea as a Marketing tool. Pity yours couldn't be shown. Hope we have a U-tube workshop at the next Conference... its another form of story-telling. And Helena your 'gloom and doom' was done with such panache and humour that I think you've another vocation... Michael McIntyre step aside!
Pookie! I remember Pookie and those wonderful illustrations!
Thanks for reminding me - Joan.
Lovely post, Diane. Great to hear about such a chirpy, positive speech. Thank you!
A lovely post about a lovely speech. Thanks
Really uplifting for a Monday morning. Thanks.
Thank you for helping me recapture that warm, uplifting & brilliant talk.
Great post, Diane. Wish I could have been at the talk. I've met Frank, though, and he is a true enthusiast - a worth its weight in gold quality.