Jenny McLachlan is the author of a series of four books called Ladybirds. Her latest is a standalone. Stargazing for Beginners presents a girl passionate about astronomy and wanting to be an astronaut – as well as managing her life as a teenager with a problem or two. Susan Elkin spoke to her.
How did it all start? I read English at university and became an English teacher because reading and talking abut books is my passion and sharing them with young people must be one of the best jobs in the world. But I found that my students weren’t finding enough funny but well written books to keep them reading keenly. Yes, there was Louise Rennison and Adrian Mole but comedy for teens seemed generally to be thin on the ground.
So you took on the challenge? I did. I’d already tried and failed to write adult historical fiction set in the early 20th century. Then thinking about writing for teenagers, suddenly I had a head full of characters and situations and I realised that I’d found a voice. I’ve always liked the way Jacqueline Wilson handles “issues” in her books and there are some pretty serious ones in mine too but the key thing, I think, is to manage them with a light touch.
Do you always write in the first person? Yes. I remember very clearly how it felt to be a teenager. I understand rhythm in speech partly because of reading aloud in school and to my own daughters who are now six and nine. Fourteen years as a teacher and now, after many school visits (which I love doing) ensures that I can tune into the way teenagers speak. I’ve always tried very hard to avoid sounding like a dull, unconvincing adult pretending to be a teenager!
Did you teach and write simultaneously for a while? Well, I hung on to the day job until 2014. I got my book deal with Bloomsbury, to write four titles while I was still teaching. And I was Head of English by then. I had to write the first one in six months alongside all the teaching and management work at school. My children didn’t see much of me for a bit!
How do you juggle the children and the work? I find it very difficult to write while they’re in the house. They accept that I’m busy if I’m vacuum cleaning but not if I’m at the computer typing. So in term time I take them to school and then run home – sometimes literally – and do four or five hours writing before it’s time to pick them up.
Where do you like to work? In the kitchen at home in Eastbourne. I’ve got an office but the kitchen is sunnier and brighter and I’m happiest there.
What happens in school holidays? I often go to my mum and dad’s house which is just round the corner. They treat me like an honoured guest and tiptoe in and out with cups of coffee, although my Dad loves to joke about my not being Dickens or Austen. My husband meanwhile, a teacher with the same holidays as them, looks after the girls at home so it works out well.
What sort of reactions do you get from readers? When I was still teaching, I had an email from a student, a reluctant reader, to say “I can’t stop reading your book, Miss”. It was her first experience of reading for pleasure rather than being told what she should read – and rebelling against it. So much of the joy or reading and learning is being sucked out of education in the present climate. As far as I’m concerned, I just want young people to enjoy my books. And it seems that a lot of them are.
Well, funny as Stargazing for Beginners is, there’s nothing dumbed down about it. I hope that’s the case, yes. As an English teacher, I feel very strongly about the quality of the writing and, although my books are accessible, they are – I hope – also properly written. I also wanted passionately – an idea which began with my Dad, actually – to present a girl who loves science, partly as a way of asserting that STEM subjects are for everyone.
And what’s next? A tangential novel about Annie, a character in Stargazing for Beginners. It moves on a few years and we find her in sixth form college. Although she’s not the central character she was the one in Stargazing who was clearest in my mind from the outset. That will be published, like all my titles, by Bloomsbury next year.