Jeremy Williams
About Author
Jeremy Williams's new children's book, Max Counts to a Million, takes us back to lockdown and follows Max who sets himself a huge challenge.
Jeremy grew up in Madagascar where he lived with his parents, two brothers, two sisters, a dog, three pigeons, sixteen chickens, four ducks, four tortoises, two cats that liked him and one that did not. There was no TV or computer games, so he read every children's book in the house, then Dad's history books and Mum's classic novels... then he started on the encyclopaedia. Unsurprisingly, Jeremy has only ever wanted to be a writer and today he writes serious books for adults and less serious books for children.
Interview
Max Counts to a Million (Nosy Crow Books)
March 2022
Max Counts to a Million, takes us back to lockdown and gives us a glimpse into family life during the Covid pandemic as we follow Max and his challenge to count to one million.
Read a Chapter from Max Counts to a Million
Author Jeremy Williams - helped by his daughter Eden - tells us why he wanted to take on the challenge of writing a book set during lockdown, and what inspired the story.
Q&A with Jeremy Williams
1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your writing? What kinds of books do you enjoy writing?
I have a restless imagination and on a normal day I'll have ten ideas before breakfast. Naturally most of them never come to anything, so the books that I end up writing are the ideas that won't go away! Most of what I've written has been non-fiction for adults, usually on serious topics like climate change or inequality, so Max Counts to a Million has been fun to work on.
2. What is Max Counts to a Million about?
If you summarise the plot, it sounds like not a lot happens: a boy called Max counts to a million during lockdown. But of course it's about more than that - it's about a boy with the determination to do something huge, and the community that helps him along the way. It's about school closing and the strange experience of lockdown. And it's about the adventure and the wonder you can find without even leaving your own house.
3. Many people are keen to put lockdown behind us; why did you decide to write a book about it?
There are a couple of reasons why I wanted to write about the pandemic. One was that there were books coming out about vaccines or healthcare, or the politics of the pandemic. Who was going to write a child's view of it? Children lived through it too! It felt to me like their perspective on this bit of history should be captured, and children in the future can read about it and know a little bit about what it was like.
The second reason is that a lot of us haven't really had a chance to stop and think about the last couple of years, and how it has changed us or the world. I wanted children to be able to read a story that reflected their experiences of lockdown, so they could see that they weren't alone, that other people had similar thoughts and feelings.
4. How did you remember so many details about it?
The book was written in the summer of 2020, while the lockdown was very fresh in my mind. And because I keep a journal, I had notes on lots of little incidents and impressions that I could draw on for the book, and re-imagine through Max's eyes.
Most of it was written in my loft, where I have a desk made out of scrap wood and surrounded by boxes and stacks of old books that I will never read again but can't quite bring myself to give away…
5. What gave you the idea of the challenge for Max to count to a million?
I figured that a book about lockdown needed something big and bold at the heart of it to make it worth reading. It needed a quest or an adventure of some kind, but of course it would need to be one that could be done without leaving the house! Counting to a million is a heroic quest that you can do at home.
I did quite a lot of counting of different kinds. To pace the book correctly I needed to know how long it would take, and where Max would be up to at different points in the story. I also counted things like the number of pasta shells or baked beans in a serving, so that when Max mentions them in the book, those are real numbers.
6. Did you draw on your own family's experiences of lockdown for the novel?
My own children are about the same age as Max, and part of the motivation for the book was to document what they had been through. Most of that is quite general, and shared by many families across the country, though a couple of things are quite directly lifted from our own lockdown.
I got my children a trampoline and it was the best money I ever spent, so I gave Max a trampoline halfway through the book too. There's also a chapter where Max goes to a half-empty supermarket with his Mum, and I included one thing that I'd seen myself. On a similar trip I had noticed a lost-looking man with a shopping basket who was buying ready-made pancakes and a jar of marmite. It really stuck with me, and so I made Max notice him too.
7. What did you and your family find most challenging about that period?
Living in each other's pockets for weeks on end was difficult, something that so many of us struggled with! There was just nowhere to go. As a writer who needs peace and quiet to concentrate, that was difficult. At the same time, I'm aware of how lucky we were. We were healthy. We had a garden we could escape into. We had good neighbours, and jobs that didn't put us in harm's way. So I think of that time with gratitude as well as remembering the challenges.
8. It was a difficult period for many families - how do you still bring humour into your story?
It's hard to write jokes about a global pandemic, so the humour in the book all comes from Max and the first person perspective. What I like about it is that Max isn't usually trying to be funny. He's being indignant at the English language, or talking about the 'correct' way to eat Smarties. I find it hilarious reading the book with children. Some of them are laughing, and others are going "well, he's right. That is the correct way to eat Smarties.”
9. What would you like other families and young readers to take from Max Counts to a Million?
I'd like children to feel seen. If they can hear some of their thoughts and worries about the pandemic acknowledged through Max, hopefully that will encourage them to express them. I hope that families of key workers feel celebrated in the book too, because Max's Dad is a doctor and that's an important part of the story. Of course I also hope that the book is entertaining, that it will make them laugh, and punch the air at the end!
10. Why is it important that we reflect on this period, through stories like Max's?
We don't really know the full effects of the pandemic yet, on our mental health, or on relationships, or the health service. There's something valuable about making a safe space to talk about this with children, and help them to find language to express how they feel.
Maybe the book has historical value, too. There are classic children's books that capture the experience of, for example, child evacuees during the Second World War. I have no idea if anyone will want to read Max Counts to a Million in years to come, but I hope I've done justice to my children's generation and their experience of a historical event.
11. Where and when do you do your best writing?
I used to have an office at home where I did most of my writing. Then my daughter inconveniently grew up and needed her own bedroom, so I had to give it up and I work in that loft I mentioned earlier. It's too cold in the winter, so I have to free-range around the house with my laptop. If I sell enough copies of Max Counts to a Million though, I'll build myself a cabin in the garden - so help me out and tell all your friends.
12. What kinds of things do you enjoy doing when you're not working?
Like most writers, my first answer is reading. I read all the time - fiction and non-fiction, literary fiction, YA, children's books. I love cooking and music and photography and architecture. I like computer games too. Not all grown-ups have noticed yet, but a lot of great storytelling happens in games these days. I'm also an activist, and I'm involved in all kinds of local environmental action, social enterprise, and community gardening.
Max Counts to a Million: A funny, heart-warming story about one boy's experience of lockdown
