Rachel Chivers Khoo
About Author
Rachel Chivers Khoo introduces her magical new story, The Magician Next Door, and tells ReadingZone about writing, inspiration and adventures!
Rachel and was born in Belfast and spent most of her childhood sheltering in her local library from the endless Northern Irish rain. She studied English literature at Oxford before working in book publishing.
Rachel now lives in London and writes stories in her tiny loft study. You can say hello to Rachel online (Twitter: @Rach_Khoo; Instagram: @RachelChiversKhoo).
Interview
The Magician Next Door (Walker Books)
March 2024
Imagine finding that a house has crash-landed into your garden... and that a magician needs your help! This is just the start of an adventure for Callie in this magical story, The Magician Next Door.
Review: "Who doesn't love a beautiful story, brimming with magic?"
Callie desperately misses her home in London after a move to Ireland with her father. When the magician and her invisible house unexpectedly arrive in her back garden, it opens up a new world to Callie, helping her find unexpected friends, and discover the true meaning of home.
Author Rachel Chivers Khoo on magical dust, fantastical maps and The Magician Next Door!
Q&A with Rachel Chivers Khoo
"Growing up my favourite stories were always magical. I loved the sense of endless possibility.
As a writer, I love creating magical worlds and thinking through how the magic might work."
1. What brought you into writing for children and what kinds of stories do you most enjoy writing?
While studying English Literature at university, I chose to write a dissertation on Children's Literature and rediscovered lots of my favourite childhood books. I've been reading and writing children's books ever since.
Growing up my favourite stories were always magical. I loved the sense of endless possibility. As a writer, I love creating magical worlds and thinking through how the magic might work.
2. What is your new book, The Magician Next Door, about? Is it connected at all with your debut, The Wishkeeper's Apprentice?
The Magician Next Door is a brand-new story, but it has a similar cosy, magical feel to The Wishkeeper's Apprentice. Nine-year-old Callie has recently moved from London to a tiny cottage in the middle of the Mourne Mountains. She is very homesick and has spent the school holidays wallowing in her bedroom. Until one night a magician's house crash lands upside-down in her garden and sets her off on an adventure.
3. What inspired this story of a magical house, a magician and homesickness?
Being a homebird through and through, I've always felt the downside of adventures is having to leave home behind. The magician in my story, Winnifred Potts, doesn't face this dilemma. She brings her flying home with her wherever she goes. To me, that is adventure perfection!
'Callie discovers what we all discover when we leave home; that home is much more than a place.
And that moving always opens up new adventures and friendships'
4. Why did you want to explore grief and homesickness in a story for children, and how do you keep the tone of the story light when exploring difficult emotions?
Like Callie, I've moved across the Irish Sea, from Northern Ireland to London. Callie has made the reverse journey, and so instead of having to adjust to the traffic and noise of a city, she must instead get used to the quiet and wildness of mountain life. An equally challenging adjustment.
Ultimately, Callie discovers what we all discover when we leave home; that home is much more than a place. And that moving always opens up new adventures and friendships, if only we allow ourselves to embrace them.
Callie's story has some deeply emotional threads, including grief. As a writer, I'm always trying to balance those very real and overwhelming emotions with a sense of hope. There is always light in the darkness. For Callie, her new friendships give her the security she needs to work through her sadness and homesickness.
5. Is the setting of the story based on a real place in Ireland? Did you draw a map of the setting to help you write the story?
Yes, the story is rooted in an area of the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland. I've incorporated bits and piece of local folklore about giants and fairies. I know the area quite well since it's not too far from where I grew up in Northern Ireland. Alice McKinley, the book's illustrator, has drawn an incredible map of the Mournes (including the homes of a few magical creatures).
6. What did you think of the illustrations by Alice McKinley - any favourite characters? (including the magician's house!)
I loved how Alice captured Winnifred. I love her madcap, otherworldly fashion sense. Winnifred's house is so detailed and quirky. I can't imagine it's easy to draw an upside-down house… bravo Alice!
7. If you visited the Magician's house, where would you want the magic dust to whisk you and the house away to?
I would choose the Mourne Mountains. It's such a beauty spot. We often go there as a family and my sons love roaming the hills and gazing out to sea.
'For me the handiest spell would have been the packing spell.... I'd have given anything for my
mugs and plates to bubble wrap themselves and jump into boxes.'
8. Which of the house's magical spells would you want to bring into your own home?
For me the handiest spell would have been the packing spell. I've recently moved house, from London to Oxford, and the packing was painstaking. Meanwhile Winnifred's house can pack up its breakables and fly through the sky. I'd have given anything for my mugs and plates to bubble wrap themselves and jump into boxes.
9. If the Magician's house were also a writer's shed, what would you want it to magic up for you? How would it help you keep writing, and what books would you have on the shelves?
I'd mainly wish for snacks. A kettle that makes hot chocolate and an oven that produces baked goods. Perhaps a writing pen that would prod me if I was being unproductive. I'd have shelves on every wall for books, including some of my childhood favourites from E Nesbit and Mary Norton, but also brilliant new books from Katherine Rundell or Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
'I write as much as I can, whenever possible. Usually at least a little bit every single day.'
10. Are you writing more magical stories? Where and when are your favourite times to write?
I've just finished a first draft of something new. It's the first book in a series about magical creatures who live in a small patch of woodland, and a boy who is looking for something of great sentimental value.
I write as much as I can, whenever possible. Usually at least a little bit every single day. I have two young children at home, so it can be quite a challenge to find a quiet moment. If I'm on a deadline I tend to set my alarm very early and get up while everyone else in the house is still asleep. It's not easy getting out of bed but I'm always so happy to be at my desk - with a large cup of coffee and a magical story to write!
Find out about Rachel Chivers Khoo's debut, The Wishkeeper's Apprentice
The Magician Next Door
The Wishkeeper's Apprentice
