Kevin Crossley-Holland
About Author
Kevin Crossley-Holland was born in 1941 and grew up in Buckinghamshire. He studied at Oxford University where he discovered a lifelong passion for myth and legend, and for Anglo-Saxon and medieval English. He worked in publishing for several years and has held a number of academic posts. Kevin has also produced and presented many radio programmes for the BBC and lectures widely.
Kevin Crossley-Holland is well-known for his retelling of traditional tales, most notably in British Folk Tales and The Penguin Book of Norse Myths, and his translations of Anglo Saxon poetry, including Beowulf. He has written seven volumes of poetry, and has worked as a librettist, collaborating with composers such as Sir Arthur Bliss and Nicola Le Fanu. In the world of children's books he is best known for his retellings, and in 1985 he won the Carnegie Medal for his novella, Storm. The Seeing Stone, the first in the Arthur trilogy merging medieval life and Arthurian magic, was published to universal acclaim in 2000, and won The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2001 and the Welsh Books Council Tir Na n-Og Award as well as the Smarties Prize Bronze Award. It was also shortlisted for The Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. At the Crossing-Places and King of the Middle March, published in 2001 and 2003, respectively, completed the Arthur trilogy and King Arthur's World was published in 2004 as an ideal accompaniment to the series.
Kevin now lives in a Norfolk village, close to the sea and where he spent time with his grandparents as a child.
Interview
'At the bottom of our garden, there was a disused shed. My father and I cleared it out, and in it I displayed my treasures: fossils, crystals, coins, pots, old keys and a Saracen shield! I called it my Museum, and I still have the register in which all the visitors signed their names.
That museum! It was a magic place and I spent hours in it. Who hid this Roman coin? Who dropped this pot? Who and why and when and where and how? Slowly, I began to understand that who I am, and who you are, is determined not only by our own choices but by all we cannot choose (our history, our genes).
All my childhood, I lived in both the present and the past. And come to think of it, I still do.'
What is your favourite book?
My favourite children's book is Fattypuffs and Thinifers by Andre Maurois, and I love the poems of WB Yeats.
Where do you get your ideas from?
From watching people the way they think, feel, talk, behave; from the landscape, from history; and from traditional tales.
How long does it take you to write a book?
The Seeing Stone took me about a year. Planning takes a long time; and revision takes even longer. But I write the first draft very quickly.
What advise would you give aspiring young writers?
Begin! Cover ground each day an entry in a diary, a poem or story. Play games with words. Make pictures with words. Make music with words. Get to grips with the basic skills and read other writers to see how they do it.
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
When I was young I wanted to be an archaeologist or a priest.
What makes you laugh?
The unexpected. Clever wordplay.
