Catherine Johnson
About Author
Catherine Johnson was brought up in North London and is of Welsh/Jamaican descent. She studied film at St Martin's School of Art where her final piece was a remake of Rapunzel. Catherine has worked as a horse wrangler, as writer-in-residence at Holloway Prison, and was reader-in-residence at the Royal Festival Hall. She also writes for film and television. She lives in London Fields and has two children.
Author link
Interview
What made you write Face Value?
Lots of things coming together at the same time. I was working in Holloway and the stories I was hearing were so much more unbelievable than anything I could make up. One of the most important things to the girls inside was the value of friendship. In a chaotic life your friends often take the place of family. And Nessa and Paula end up relying on each other more than anyone else. I hope the story asks what would you do for a friend, how far would you go?
Then there was the mixed race thing again. I wanted to write a piece about someone who was different in a lot of ways, and mixed race people can be so many different colours and shades (think Ryan Giggs or Oona King). Lauren is extremely pale, and that makes her own identification harder. I think it must be very hard growing up somewhere relatively rural. I can only imagine that.
There's also modelling which is so on the verge of being very exploitative. When people are selling your image is that all it is? Models get used to being 'things' - is that good for so many young girls to aspire to? And being a 'thing' can seem very attractive on the surface, that obviously, and the money.
Oh and wanting to write a really fast moving story where lots of bad and good things happen.
Do you have a fashion background yourself?
No. My Dad was a tailor, he made suits for Billy Fury and Colin McInnes in the 50's. I was a student at St Martins in the 80s although on a film course - and my best friend and I worked videoing the fashion shows including John Galliano's. We moved on to other shows too it was one of our millions of jobs, and the models were always so incredibly thin that it hurt.
As a film maker I was also aware of how it is to be looked at and to be used. I think we all have that feeling as adolescents look at me/don't look at me you want attention but on your own terms and it is important not to compromise that.
Are the characters of Paula, Ness and Lauren based on any real people? Are you in the books for instance?
No, there are bits of me in Lauren and Nessa I didn't fit in at school, but I was short not tall. And Luke's parents rowing over lunch about politics is quite close to my parents. My parents had very involved conversations about the British Empire, race, socialism,, imperialism and a lot more. The character of Ed McKay isn't anyone real but he got into the book like this. My son was at primary school with the grandson of an old school big time east end gangster. He'd come along to school concerts and I would look at him and think how could you do those things? Writing is great because it's like playing pretend and you can step into those people's shoes.
I have met a few Paulas too, those charismatic bad girls, but none ever wanted to be friends with me. And I had been to some of those parties in the eighties, I had (relatively) glamorous boyfriends and I found it all a bit terrifying and exciting at the time.
Did the book need a lot of research?
I read some eighties issues of The Face, but apart from that it was talking to some of the Young Offenders in Holloway, but as I said, the stories were more outrageous and far, far sadder than anything I could make up. I think it's important to get into the world of the story and to let the story spool itself out.
Why do you write for children?
Because that's what I like reading. I think there are some fantastic novels for young people, and they never shut readers out. The best young fiction tells difficult stories in the most direct ways. Think of Holes, or anything by Philip Pullman, or It's Not the End of the World.
