Adèle Geras |
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Adèle Geras married in 1967 and moved to Manchester, where she still lives with her husband and two daughters. She taught French at a girls' grammar school and started writing in 1973.
Her first book Tea at Mrs. Manderby's was published by Hamish Hamilton Children's Books in 1976.
Adèle particularly enjoys writing for young adults — her books explore relationships between people and strong emotions without losing sight of the need for a strong narrative line. For younger children she often injects an element of fantasy. Ozzy, the cat who narrates the Fantora Family Files has become one of Adèle's favourite characters and she says "he is seriously thinking of writing another book soon."
Adèle also writes poetry which has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. She is a voracious reader, a "fanatical" knitter and a lifelong movie-goer.
PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH:
Jerusalem, 15 March, 1944
FAVOURITE BOOK:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
FAVOURITE SONG:
'Good Vibrations' by the Beach Boys, 'Hotel California' by the Eagles
MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
All my family photographs
FAVOURITE FILM:
Psycho and Singing in the Rain
When did you start writing?
I wrote my first children's novel in 1966. My second, The Ghosts, written two years later, was a best-seller and was filmed as The Amazing Mr Blunden in 1972. Now a new film version is planned, as well as a stage musical version. My picture books for younger children include The Mousehole Cat about a fisherman and a cat who live in my Cornish cottage (see Favourite Place). Most recently I wrote Tales from the Ballet and then, for Puffin, the Dancing Shoes series about Lucy Lambert who wants to be a ballerina.
Where do you get your ideas?
Very often from real places, especially when I'm writing something spooky. Sometimes from objects, like dolls (I'm very fond of Russian dolls that unpack to reveal a smaller doll and then another) or photographs. Sometimes I write about what has happened to me, or my children, but I change things... put them into a sort of disguise. I often write about cats, because I love them, and a few of my characters are based on women who used to teach me at school.
Can you give your top three tips to becoming a successful author?
1. Read all the time. That's the first and most important.
2. Second, be very nosey and pay attention to everything that's going on all around you. Eavesdrop on busses. Look carefully at things. Jot things down in a notebook.
3. Third and also very important, if you want to be a writer you must write...try a diary, letters, poems, anything, but keep going. Writing is that sort of muscle that you need to keep exercised. And learn how to word process (I'm being greedy again - that's 4 tips!)
Favourite memory?
Seeing each of my daughters for the very first time.
Favourite place in the world and why?
Two once more. Home, because that's where I'm safe and loved and have all my things around me OR any sort of theatre (for either plays, operas or a movie) because I love watching a performance more than anything.
What are your hobbies?
I read all the time; I'm a mad-keen knitter, and I love cooking, but I don't know if that's a hobby as I've had to do it almost every day for the last 32 years.
If you hadn't been a writer, what do you think you would have been?
I'd like to have been a singer, preferably Country and Western, but I'd probably have been a French teacher.
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