PAM SMY
WE LOVE TO TALK TO CREATIVE PEOPLE
FROM AROUND THE WORLD AND WERE LUCKY
ENOUGH TO chat to award winning
author / illustrator Pam smy
about her wonderful book
'thornhill'
Hello pam and welcome to whippoorwill lane,
please could you tell us a bit about yourself
My name is Pam, and I am 48, and I live in Cambridge.
I have been in love with children’s book illustration all my adult life, and I teach illustration at Cambridge School of Art.
My husband also writes and illustrates children’s books and comics, so my whole life evolves around books and illustration.
could you tell us a little bit about your wonderful book thornhill
It is a story that is about two different girls, in two different times, told in two different ways.
We see Ella’s story unfold in 2017, and that is told through illustrations. Mary, on the other hand, we only read about through her diary entries in 1982.
The lives of the two girls are very different, but they are both very lonely, and their stories evolve around an imposing house called Thornhill.
where did the idea for thornhill come from?
I wanted to come up with an idea to show the publisher, David Fickling, but was really stuck. I just couldn’t think of anything.
But while out walking I passed a house that was boarded up with ‘Keep Out’ signs on the walls, and I began to think about what the grounds of that house would look like behind the walls and what it would be like to live there.
As I walked home I began to think about someone being there in that house, and why they would be there, and what their story was, and then a contrasting situation.
I also thought about stories that deal with bullying in one way and another – Cat’s Eye by Margaret Attwood, I’m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill and The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine.
I also thought about books that have a mystery evolving around a big house – Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
By the time I got home I had the idea for Thornhill, and knew what Ella and Mary’s circumstances would be.
when you begin a new book, where do you start?
Most of my ideas come from places I actually see. Then I do a lot of drawing in by sketchbooks, trying to work out what characters would look like or what those places would feel like. Stories play like films in my head, and I try and draw them or write what I see in my mind’s eye.
WHat were the main challenges in writing and illustrating thornhill?
It was hard to space out the different episodes of the two story-telling methods, so that there was a momentum building in both the illustrated sequences and the written diary entries, and to get the stories to merge in some way towards the end.
And time – I teach by day, so I was working on Thornhill over a long period of time in the early mornings, after work and at weekends. It was a long and tiring commitment to make that book.
Thornhill weaves a wonderfully mysterious
and dark atmosphere,
are you drawn to
the macabre?
I love atmosphere more than the macabre, I think. I love a ghost story, and folk tales, and I want to combine this with some of the darker aspects of human nature that we may face in real life – in the case of Thornhill this was bullying and loneliness. I think it is easier to package some of these issues in a gothic type of story.
What inspires your writing?
I think I am inspired by places, nature, and human relationships. Mostly I write because I want to illustrate something.
What inspires your beautiful illustrations?
Similar to the above, I love illustrating nature and particular places. I love watching people and drawing from life in my sketchbook, and trying to guess about people’s lives from the small clues they give by their clothes or posture or demeanour.
How did you choose the style of the illustrations for Thornhill?
I worked in emulsion paint (the same stuff you paint on walls in your house) and tried to recreate the feeling of screen-prints with the flat areas of tone. I really love working in black and white (and grey) and depicting light and atmosphere, so these were my main considerations when trying to find a working method for Thornhill.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers and illustrators?
I don’t really consider myself a writer (even though I have written a few books now) and feel a bit uneasy giving advice on that subject – other than to suggest reading all sorts of books for all ages, and to work out what you like about them and how the writer has made you feel when you read it.
I also watch some movies over and over so I can learn about how stories can be told.
For illustrators I would suggest spending as much time as possible doing observational drawing, and spending a lot of time in your local independent bookshop looking at as much illustration as possible and again reading as much as you can.
Go to conferences, author and illustrator talks, workshops and classes – whatever you can to learn more and more about your craft.
thank you pam, Where can people find out more about your work?
I am on Instagram @pamsmyillustrator (although I am very bad at posting!) and I have a neglected website www.pamsmy.com