Jack Jackman
About Author
Discover how a journey to Antarctica inspired Jack Jackman's debut novel, Maisie Vs Antarctica, an adventure-packed story of survival!
Jack is a father of three who works as a teacher in Scotland. Before settling in Scotland, he spent his time wandering the world, including a time in Argentina where he was the most southerly English teacher in the world, and even became a waiter in Antarctica (penguins do not tip well!) While there, he visited the Halley Research Station (as one of very few members of the public to ever do so). As well as writing for children, Jack writes plays which have been performed in Buenos Aires, London and Edinburgh.
Find Jack Jackman on X @jackjackman_
Interview
Jack Jackman introduces Maisie Vs Antarctica (Nosy Crow)
October 2024
Drawing on his own journey to Antarctica and a visit to the Halley Research Station, Jack Jackman's Maisie Vs Antarctica is an adventure-packed journey that takes Maisie and her father to the icy landscapes of Antarctica and a fight for survival against the elements. It's a story about plane crashes, survival and accidental heroes, told by 11-year-old Maisie.
Read a chapter from Maisie Vs Antarctica.
Find out how Jack Jackman's own travels inspired the story, how his daughter helped inspire the character Maisie, why he wrote it in the first person - and what other adventures Jack has planned for Maisie and her father!
Topics featured in the book: Antarctica, The Endurance, Igloos, Mapping, Adventure, Writing in the First Person. Plus check out the author's Creative Challenge, below!
Creative Challenges themed around Antarctica
1) Plot Maisie's journey on a map and compare it to Shackleton's journey on the Endurance in 1914.
2) Create a landscape or wall display using only different shades of blue. You could populate it with origami penguins.
3) Create a 'survival box' of all the things you'd need to survive in Antarctica. Bring in items to create the actual box or just make drawings of the items. The class can vote on which things to include, especially if you restrict it to just six items. Maths bonus: write the weight on each item, and calculate what you can put in if there's a weight limit.
4) Build igloos in class using ice cubes. (I did this with a class once, so much fun!) Calculate how many ice cubes you'll need before you start. Write instructions for the stages of building an igloo.
5) Make graphs to show how the temperature changes over the year in Antarctica and how the hours of sunlight change over the year. Work out the mean, median and mode.
6) Write the beginning of a story that starts with the main character realising they're lost.
Q&A with Jack Jackman
"I was plotting a new adventure story and it occurred to me that my own experience in Antarctica was exactly what I should be
writing about. Honestly, it took me way longer to realise that than it should have done.
1. Hello Jack, and thank you for joining us on ReadingZone this month. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your travels?
Hello ReadingZone! Originally I'm from England, but when I was 18 I threw myself at the world to see what would happen. I ended up living in some fascinating places: a tiny Greek village where everyone was waiting; a Polish town frozen in its Communist past; an Italian city with a secret river. And I had some pretty weird jobs: a computer games tester; a pianist in a punk rock band; a photographer's assistant in a war; a tour guide in a defunct prison.
Eventually I followed my girlfriend - now my wife - to Ushuaia. That's the southern-most city in the world and is also known as El Fin Del Mundo, the End of the World. I've heard people say they'd follow their partner to the end of the world but I don't know anyone else who's actually done it! Then an ice-breaker pulled into port and whisked me away, and that's how I ended up being a waiter in Antarctica.
Now I live a less dramatic life in Scotland with my Argentinian wife, three children and a family of starlings that point-blank refuse to leave my eaves.
2. What happens in your new book, Maisie vs Antarctica, and what inspired this story about frozen land, airplane crashes and a secret power?
I love subverting stereotypes. Most people with special powers end up fighting crime and/or saving the world, so I went the other way: a man who hides his power away, even from - no, especially from - his own daughter. Then I thought, what if you take a boring father and his daughter and leave them stranded in Antarctica? I wasn't allowed to do it with real people so I wrote a story instead.
Also, powers notwithstanding, I like my adventures to be realistic. The adults aren't useless. Professionals know what they're doing. Antarctica is a formidable adversary.
3. When you visited the Halley Research Station in Antarctica, did you always plan to write a book about it? Why did you decide to go ahead now?
We were lucky to get to the Halley Research Station. It was the very first time that a passenger ship had made it there (a side-effect of climate change, which is reducing the amount of ice in the Weddell Sea every year). At the time I was writing fantasy so it didn't register as a possible setting.
Years later, I was plotting a new adventure story and it occurred to me that my own experience in Antarctica was exactly what I should be writing about. Honestly, it took me way longer to realise that than it should have done.
4. What surprised you the most when you visited Antarctica? How would you have coped with being a scientist at the Halley Research Station?
I can't stand the heat so Antarctica suits me well! But the thing I remember best is the light. You can look at all the photos you want but they don't compare to standing in that endless desert swamped in blue light. It's utterly peaceful, as long as you don't think about how quickly Antarctica can kill you.
And then there's reading your book in daylight and suddenly realising it's midnight. But I struggle to get up in the dark, so maybe I could only cope with summers in Antarctica.
5. What kinds of things will readers learn through Maisie's adventures about Antarctica?
As a teacher, I'm always slipping Dad Facts into conversations with everyone which can be annoying (sorry, everyone) so I tried to avoid making my novel read like a textbook. But some facts have sneaked their way in - I just can't help myself. They're mostly about survival and penguins. I'm dying to tell you some fascinating facts about emperor penguins here but I'm restraining myself.
6. How did the characters at the heart of this story - excitable Maisie and her 'very boring' dad - develop? Would your children say you're anything like Maisie's dad, or any of the other characters?
I started writing the book with one of my daughters, who was Maisie's age at the time. She's a fantastic writer and writes with a wonderfully engaging voice, so we wrote some sample chapters together and Maisie's voice grew from that. Maisie and her boring dad are not based on my daughter and me, so there are no similarities. None at all. Not the dad's stash of emergency chocolate nor his constant stream of random information. If my daughter tells you different, don't believe her.
However, the pilot in the book, Guillermo, is named after a friend of mine, a retired pilot who lives in Ushuaia. He is utterly professional and will be horrified when he learns that I've named the most irresponsible pilot possible after him. And no, I haven't told him yet. He doesn't speak English so I'm fine for a while.
7. Why did you decide to make Maisie the narrator and to follow their adventure in the present tense? What gave you the idea for the chapter headings, too?
Writing in the present tense and from inside Maisie's head makes the action so much more intense and personal. I love describing not how things are but how Maisie sees things. We see an orange sunset, but Maisie sees dragon flame. It's so much fun to see the world through this lens.
The chapter headings start with Maisie trying to mimic her dad's style but also making fun of his books. He's written loads of How To books and Maisie thinks she can do that too. As the story develops Maisie comes to realise that Dad's job isn't as easy as it looks. There might be a subliminal message there.
8. How do you make Maisie's adventures so funny?
Thank you for saying that! Funny is so subjective. To be honest - and this sounds weird, I know - it all comes from Maisie. I'll think of things in my normal mundane way, but when I read it back I can hear Maisie's voice telling it her way and I just write down what she says. And she loves animal metaphors. So while for everyone else the plane drops like a stone, for Maisie it drops like a squirrel that thinks it's a flying squirrel but isn't.
9. What secret superpower would you choose, given that you would have to share it with your children?
Oooh, that's a good question. My children are not ready for anything stronger than the power of speech. I ascribe to the King Midas theory; no power without consequence. You want super-strength? Then you'll never be able to pick up an egg without crushing it. You want to be invisible? Get used to being ignored.
Actually, that'd be a good one for my kids to have: the power to foresee the consequences of your actions. And that's perfect because I could really do with that one too.
10. There are some unanswered questions at the end of the story - what else do you have planned for Maisie and her 'very boring' dad?
Oh, I've got plans. Big plans. Maisie's dad hasn't told her the whole truth. There's a lot more for her to find out and literally the whole world to find it out in! Next stop - the Himalayas!