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There was also this very telling comment in the Guardian article, from a teacher : 'Before I Die is apparently about a teenager who does lots of things like have sex with various people because she knows she is about to die.'

Apparently? So she's prepared to condemn a book without having read it?

Great post Gillian and I agree completely about 'manhood'. Will now never be able to read it without imagining the little cape.

Hear, hear! We're both prone to a little violence :-) I find there's more hostility to injury and death. Maybe because we don't have to see the suffering of the victim for long. (Latest editorial comment - 'why don't they just kill him'?) That's going the sanitisation route, I feel - and we justify the violence we write by NOT sanitising. It has to have nasty consequences which we confront head on.

It is horrendous that people will condemn books without reading them. Keren's example is rather chilling.

So shall we deduce that this whole sorry state of affairs is down to one person who has now written a couple of dubious 'quotation' articles for the Guardian? Or is there more?

I'm too busy blogging about it to complain to the Guardian. is anyone actually complaining officially?

Maybe we don't need to get worked up. Maybe no one said any of these things?

And then we can go into detail with what does happen, or not, in Before I Die. Like, yes she did have sex with more than one person, but on the list was simply to have sex. (Teachers don't read books, much, so will need to guess at what apparently happens in lots of them.)

Something I find most amusing is that sex is more taboo than violence and murder. You can have blood and guts galore in a book for 10 year olds, but sex is off limits. That says a lot about what's wrong with us as a society, or as a species - I'm not sure which.

In my first book, I had cruelty to animals, domestic violence, child imprisonment and vivisection, and murder (well, nearly), and my agent didn't flinch. In my second book I have an oblique reference to abortion, and my agent got uneasy. As they say in the US, 'Go figure...'

I find this astonishing. Before I Die is an exquisite book about humanity, heart-breaking and joyous, full of life in the shadow of death. Crossing the Line is an honest book about the devastating effects of violent crime - even the structure says 'this is a book about what happens when....' It must address the reasons why violence happens, and it does, with blunt honesty - anything less would be deceptive. It's like telling kids 'don't take drugs, they're bad for you'. The first question any astute kid will ask is 'why do people do it then' and you better be ready to answer because our kids aren't stupid.

It's all very well for people to take the moral high ground - meanwhile, in real life, our kids are having sex, drinking too much and brushing with violence ALL THE TIME. Wake up Guardian - writers aren't encouraging this - they are responding to it.

Completely agree, Gillian. A very common topic of conversation in school libraries - why we can or can't have a certian book on our shelves. But it's most often because they're very understandably worried about "what parents will say" because parents so often do. And I guess whether a librarian can face dealing with that will depend on how supportive management are. I had a librarian saying she couldn't have Monday are Red "because of the swearing" - there's PISS OFF (nothing worse!) but she happened to have opened it at that page and she thought parents would complain. God. Better keep kids out of the playground then.

And the idea that a story that features knife-crime/drugs/sex/murder is therefore going to encourage those activities is so absurd and utterly depends on the story and context. Gah.

But it's true! Books have a pernicious effect!

For instance, I read Lord of the Flies recently, and next thing I knew, I'd abandoned my children on a desert island with a fat kid and a boys' choir.

Then I read Oliver Twist, and found myself inspired to entice orphans off the street and train them into a gang of pickpockets.

And then I read A Clockwork Orange, and was gripped with an irresistible desire to listen to some classical music.

And you don't want to know what happened after I read Watership Down...

I suspect Alison Waller may have been quoted out of context. She has also said, 'In a society that worries about its own infantilism there is a general atmosphere of uncertainty surrounding the concept of adolescence. These anxieties are crucial to understanding modern subjectivity and they result in extreme - often nostalgic - attempts to fix adolescence as a separate state' (Constructing Adolescence In Fantastic Realism).

Alison Waller has been quoted out of context. As has Anne Fine. And yes, it is much too much to ask teachers and librarians to read books before they comment, because something like 20,000 YA books are published every year. I figure if we have the right to write what we like (which we do), librarians or parents have the right to disapprove with whatever prejudice they can bother to dredge up. It won't necessarily make a blind bit of difference in terms of what their kids read in any case.

I do sometimes wish YA authors (and I'm not particularly singling you out, Gillian, promise) would direct their outrage at something slightly more socially useful than so called restrictions on what they/we write.

It's an open marketplace -- as long as you can find someone to publish and read your books, you can do and say whatever you like. Which is more than you can say for the vast number of countries in which extreme censorship is the standard.

It's reasonable to expect thazt they won't comment on one particular book if they haven't read it, surely? No one's expecting them to comment on or read 20,000, just to limit their opinions to things they've read.

>I'd abandoned my children on a desert island with a fat kid and a boys' choir. ... Then I read Oliver Twist, and found myself inspired to entice orphans off the street and train them into a gang of pickpockets.


John, you'd better hope that the CRB haven't worked out how to surf the internet yet, or it's no more school visits for you.


And Meg's right I suppose - we can write more or less what we like. We have that right, in this country, and we can always get around so-called restrictions by a few cunning disguises. 'Piss off!' is in Watership Down, incidentally - but no-one notices because a seagull says it.

"John, you'd better hope that the CRB haven't worked out how to surf the internet yet, or it's no more school visits for you."

EEEEK! Ed, it's satire, honest! I didn't really!

And, Kehaar! Yes! I remember being taken aback by that 'Piss off!' because, I think, it had never occurred to me before that you could put a 'rude word' in a book. I suppose I'd always imagined that 'they' would stop you.

It didn't turn me into a foul-mouthed little urchin, though.

First off, chaps, nothing in my post is about Anne Fine - she was mentioned in passing in a quote I used. That quote may well be out of context (or indeed misreported - nothing in the Guardian would surprise me now), but if it IS accurate, the context is rather beside the point. Alison Waller, if she (a) said and (b) means what is reported in this quote, is being unfair and pretty insulting.

Meg, I hope you noticed that I used the word 'denounce', not 'ban'. Everybody's shelf space is limited and everybody can choose what they put on it. What I have a right (indeed an obligation) to complain about is being accused of 'encouraging knife crime'. It's absurd, it's untrue, and it's based, presumably, on looking at a book cover. No teacher or librarian has a right to accuse me of that, any more than anyone would have a right to accuse you of encouraging incestuous underage sex. Seriously, do these people understand the meaning of fiction? And how are they defining it to children?

Besides, I can direct my anger and energies in many directions at once (I often do). It's like walking and chewing gum - not that hard. I must say I find it an odd argument that because there's censorship in other countries, we should be timidly grateful for whatever state of affairs exists here...

John, you shock me. You haven't started burrowing, have you? Overdoing the silflay?

Not yet, but I have lost the ability to count past four.

Gillian, well said that wummin. Fascinating what goes through your head. As for the wee cape...did you not know that we are issued with them at birth?

Good answer, G - I also felt that the main point of your indignation was being accused of encouraging knife crime just because your novel told a story in which it featured. I still haven't read C the L (on my pile ...) so I'm only ASUMMING (slap on wrist) but I'm assuming you didn't say your readers should go and knife people. If you did, you're a very bad person indeed.

I too can get indignant about many things simultaneously.

Out of interest I wonder how one WOULD glamorise knife crime in a work of fiction?

I suppose 'A Clockwork Orange' comes closest. But the weird thing is, no matter how much we sympathise with Alex, we still instinctively know that what he does is wrong.

I don't think anyone sensitive or empathic enough to get involved in a work of fiction would seriously start to think that knives were a Good Thing just because a sympathetic character uses them. We're capable of that doublethink, of liking the character while deploring them - the 'Magnificent Bastard' type. (Am I allowed to write that?).

Excellent post Gillian and I'm with Nick on this. I get the same weirdness in complaints from parents about the youth theatre I produce. We once wanted to feature a paedophile. Complaints, complaints. But when we turned the character into a murderer that was OK. ??? And then in 'Fur' my editor got very worried because my female lead's dad noticed that she wasn't a little girl any more when she was wearing her swimsuit - she thought he was having incestuous thoughts!!! But in 'Piper' my male lead set fire to someone and small children were enslaved - no problem! It's all bonkers!

Really interesting post, Gillian, and I am in awe of people who have soundtracks to their writing or to a specific book. I'm one of those writers (surely there must be more then me?) who don't have a sound track to any book, other than sound effects. Writing comes to me visually. For me, if there's any music, it messes up the rhythm of the words for me, tries to control the emotions and the pace, and furthermore I can't hear what my characters are saying. I do like music, and it annoys me that I can't manage the two together. Now, if I was an illustrator . . .

I don't have a theme tune and I can't write at all if there is music playing because I just concentrate on the music. Nor does writing come to me visually. I hear the words narrated in my head, as I am writing. I can't imagine doing it any other way.

Glad you posted early Gillian... my entire family is out golfing and I'm beginning to feel what a sad life I lead if I'm in front of my laptop on a Sunday afternoon writing!!!

Great post.Yes, wasn't Bill Bailey tremendous. I seem to write all my books to The Mission soundtrack - Gabriel's Oboe etc. But if you look at some of the other titles on the CD... Remorse, Penance, Refusal, Alone... I begin to wonder about myself! Maybe there's a reason why I'm closeted away!

So that's why you were singing that annoying Kaiser Chiefs song! But Kenny Rogers "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" is sooo wonderful and evocative...yes, and I'm not too cool to say that, either! But that song is like a novel in itself, so doesn't slot in easily with other themes.

As well as casting actors for my characters, I too have tunes in my head that go with my stories, but there's no one song, more a series of them...can give you playlist for Toonhead, after you've read it!

I don't have a soundtrack either but I do see scenes visually as I write, at least most of the time.

I have tried, once or twice, to listen to music but that was more to create a specific atmosphere, spooky or crashing waves type of music, but I can't write while listening to anything with words (or that I know the words to) otherwise the words to the music are in my head and I find it very distracting.

Really interesting to find how everybody else does it! I don't have the music playing as I write - yep, that would be distracting, and you're right Penny, it would interfere with the rhythm of the words. It really is more like a trailer that I play over and over in my head when I'm thinking about the book (and ignoring my poor kids) - little scenes cut together (I'm a frustrated movie director). I do play music while I'm editing, if it's quite straightforward editing. And if I'm out for a walk because I'm putting off writing, I'll play the playlist on my iPod and hope I get some inspiration.
Fiona, I would LOVE to know the playlist for Toonhead when I've read it! I was hoping it would come today but nae luck...

Yes, Gillian, I'm exactly that way too! I look for soundtrack fodder all the time - on many occasions, a song has even shown me the way in the plot. Perhaps I'll think: with a song like this, something tragic has to happen... what??

I even went to the extent of getting a guitarist friend of mine to compose music for my Cat Kin website. The result, with crashing chords, miaowing guitars and hissing hi-hats, definitely powered the writing of the second Cat Kin book, kicked it up the tail and made it more exciting.

I have to have silence when I write. Well. Maybe birdsong.

My tunes are ONLY in my head; like you, Kath, I must have silence.

Nick, you have a personally composed soundtrack? I am SOOOO jealous!!
Yes, I get hints from songs too - even when I don't know what they are. I have practically had shop assistants by the lapels, going, 'WHAT was that SONG? WHAT!'

I listen to loud music while writing fiction but need total silence for non-fiction. And the music has to be just right - when I get the right album I will play it over and over and OVER. So, The Passionflower Massacre was written almost entirely to REM's Around the Sun. Deathwatch was written to the Kaiser Chiefs (including quite a lot of Ruby ...). And what I'm writing now is mostly Cold Play's Vida le Vida.

We're a weird lot, aren't we?