Matthew Skelton
About Author
Matthew Skelton's debut novel Endymion Spring was plucked from the slush pile of the Felicity Bryan Agency in Oxford, for its outstanding originality of style. Matthew's only other previously published work is a short story, The Man Who Did Not Dream, which was selected for Richard and Judy's Winning Stories published by Chrysalis in 2003. His story was one of 25, out of 10,000 entries, chosen by Richard and Judy to appear in the anthology. The furious bidding war for Endymion Spring between five UK children's publishers, resulted in a life-changing publishing deal from Puffin in December 2004. Endymion Spring has since been sold for a six-figure sum to Delacorte in the US with film rights sold to Warner Bros. Matthew was born in England in 1971 and brought up in Canada. He completed his PhD in English Literature at the University of Oxford in 2000, after which he worked as a visiting lecturer in Book History at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet in Mainz, Germany, and as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Modern History Faculty at Oxford.
Interview
Damian Kelleher interviews Matthew Skelton
Where were you brought up?
I was born in England and raised in Canada. We moved there when I was about three. I always longed for the history of England: it was always a magical place for me as a child, a place for summer holidays, a place of castles and escape. But I've become much prouder of Canada now that I live over here.
How did you come to write your book?
Back in 1997 when I was studying for my PhD at Oxford, I took a week out to read some of the children's literature that was appearing at the time.
I read JK Rowling and Phillip Pullman - The Subtle Knife was a huge influence on me. I was living in north Oxford at the time and I was reading it just after midnight when one of the characters, Will, walks up one of the streets in north Oxford towards the parallel universe and I felt that the character could be outside my window. I didn't want to return to the serious world of academia and my thesis. I wanted to stay in this world of children's literature.
Are you a Harry Potter fan then?
I think JK Rowling has done a fantastic job staying true to her character. From book one, as soon as you go to Hogwarts, you know you're in a magical place.
Any other children's writers who particularly inspired you?
Susan Cooper is a very crucial figure from my past and The Dark is Rising sequence in particular. I was in Canada and it was the start of the summer holiday. This wonderful woman who ran a bookshop near where we lived said "I think you have graduated to Susan Cooper" and she placed the first book in my hands, Over Sea Under Stone. That summer I lived in Susan Cooper's world. She turned me into an avid reader. It was the JK Rowling effect for me.
Where did you begin writing Endymion Spring?
My first job after a PhD was dusting books in a college in Oxford. Then I went to Germany for a brief period- it was a temporary position teaching Victorian publishing at the Guttenberg University in Mainz - and when a friend let me live in an empty flat in Berlin rent free. I was living on a very modest budget about 12 a week and that's where I started writing the novel.
It sounds tough.
I was incredibly isolated. I didn't have much money so I didn't leave the flat except to buy food, and my only entertainment was an English speaking cinema in the middle of Berlin. The characters were my only companions. I actually spent three months working on the book and spoke to two people in that time.
There are two strands to the book, a modern day story set in Oxford and a historical tale that takes place in Germany about 500 years ago. How come?
I wrote the contemporary Oxford scenes first but I sat on it. It wasn't the book I wanted it to be, it hadn't quite achieved the magical dimension it should have. A friend of mine read it and said, 'who is Endymion Spring? If you can answer that, you'll have a much better book. I went away and I started researching into medieval printing and I that's how I uncovered the historical dimension to the story,
What's so wonderful about children's books?
Anything can happen in a children's book, it can't necessarily in adult fiction. Adults won't suspend their disbelief quite so much.
Is it a book just for children?
I did wonder as I wrote it, will children like this? I wrote it purely for myself, to keep myself company. And then I continued because the characters were so important to me. I really do care about Duck and Blake and I had to finish it because of them. I think it's a book as much for adults as for children, though.
Do you have any little quirks when you're writing?
I have a huge amount of pacing to do! I pace a lot when I write. It's happening with my next book right now, I'm pacing back and forth and trying to work out how things fit together.
It's a very necessary part. I sometimes worry what it would look like to someone looking through the window!
Do you write your books out in longhand or type them on a pc?
I work at the computer. I hate my handwriting and I like seeing neat words on screen. I'm much faster as a typist, too. I'm constantly deleting and changing things as I go.
Any other tips?
I really need to go for long walks. That's when I start to plot things in my head, get clear ideas. Often I'll run back and scrawl down everything very quickly on paper. Then I write that up on the computer.
Is this the last we've heard of Endymion Spring?
There is room for a sequel and if I do write one, it's going to be unpredictable. But my next book will be completely different - more fantasy combined with historical events, but a different period, with different charcters. And there are no books or libraries in the next one!
