An Evening with Neil Gaiman

Thanks to a very busy day at work and not being able to check my twitter-feed at all, I had no idea that Philip Pullman had fallen ill until I arrived at the Cambridge Theatre and saw the note on the door.  I cannot say that I was not disappointed to learn that Mr Pullman would not be there to be in conversation with the great Neil Gaiman but I'm guessing not half as disappointed as he was.  I really hope he's feeling better. 

They were joking on stage about how the 2 writers have been trying to get together for over 10 years - they have never met.

But - the show must go on..................................

The stage was perfect. The Cambridge Theatre is currently showing Matilda so the stage was decorated with lots and lots of books.

Meg Rosoff played the part of Philip Pullman for the evening. I have not read anything by her but I am definitely going to look her up. If her books are even half as witty and ascerbic as she was, I can see myself really enjoying her writing. I was interested to learn that she was not published until she was in her forties and is now one of the most celebrated children's authors around.

There was a surprise appearance by Audrey Niffeneger who wrote 'The Time Travellers Wife' which was an unexpected treat. She read out a story called The Three Snake Leaves from Philip Pullman's new book - Grimm Tales - it was a proper fairytale - fantastic and really quite dark. I did get a copy of Grimm Tales from the Theatre - it's a beautiful book and I can't wait to read all the short stories / fairytales. I'm saving that pleasure for my Christmas break.

It was wonderful to hear Neil Gaiman discussing books, fairytales, the differences between England and America. One of my favourite moments was when he talked about promoting Coraline on this and that side of the pond. Of course, his UK audience loved the fact that 'here is a children's book which is not just scary but trying to scare the bejeebers out of you. In the States, this was something they just could not understand - why would you want to scare children?

Neil blamed / gave credit to the culture of 'scaring children' over here to Doctor Who saying that if you were not watching it from behind the sofa then it was just not good enough. I think he's right but then my parents let me watch the 'Hammer House of Horrors' when I was growing up, which is probably why nothing scares me now but that's a whole other blog.

Meg and Neil discussed the 'dark roots' of fairytales - how originally, a lot of them were about parents being horrible to their children.  The story of Hansel and Gretel was discussed, 2 kids sent out into the woods due to not being able to feed them for them to be taken in by a witch and basically fattened up for the stew-pot.  They also talked about the effect that Disney has had, softening up the stories and making them more 'palatable' to the masses.  The evil mother became the evil stepmother.   I'm happy to say that both writers were against the 'sanitisation' of children's literature. 

Neil ended the evening by reading our Click Clack Rattlebag, a dark short story that you can download for free here:

http://www.audible.co.uk/pd?asin=B009VHO11W&source_code=TITDisc1Bk79034SoMe041612

It's a fantastic story and hearing Neil Gaiman tell it in person was an absolute treat.

I hung around for the book signing afterwards which was very rushed but a nice touch none the less.  There were a lot of people waiting to get their books signed but we were waiting for about half an hour before anything happened and it's a shame the signing was not personalised but this was a bonus to the evening and I now have a signed copy of American Gods.

All in all a fantastic evening with Neil and his friends.  My first audience with an author.  I really appreciate Twitter for letting me know about these events and giving me any kind of link to the people I admire.