Our Christmas production, Inkheart is a thrilling family adventure. We caught up with the author, Cornelia Funke about her work, and as part of our World Duty Free storywriting competition, a quartet of Year Seven pupils of Newall Green High School in Wythenshawe – Keira Bragg, Kayleigh Howarth, Shane Bukke and Scott Lucas – also got in on the act…
Keira Bragg: How did you come up with the idea for the book?
CF: I was always a book eater and wanted to write about the feeling that characters from a book often feel as real and close as friends, because the writer tells us so much about them (more than we usually know about real people). And then there is of course the question we all have from time to time of whether we are in a story.
Kayleigh Howarth: How do you become an author?
CF: By writing and reading. By being curious about the world and about yourself. No other training needed in my opinion.
Shane Bukke and Scott Lucas: How did you come up with the name Dustfinger?
CF: He brought the name himself – there was never a doubt about what he would be called and who he would be. The idea that he would be a fire-eater came about when I was watching some fire-eaters in a medieval market in Germany.
HOME: When you were writing the novel, did you do so with at the back of your mind an idea that one day it would find its way on to a stage and/or screen?
CF: I think that would ruin every book. Writers who try to tailor for another medium betray the one they work in! It is a wonderful thing when my stories are adapted by other artists for screen and stage, but I like them to tailor my stories for the medium they work with. I have the greatest respect for professional skills and I believe that theatre and film people should approach the story distinctly differently from novelists. So, in short, thoughts about how something looks on a stage or screen should come afterwards and not while writing.
HOME: What was the inspiration for the story? Is there a real life Meggie, for example, or was the idea of the characters jumping from the page something that you imagined when you were a child?
CF: Meggie was inspired by my daughter Anna, myself as a child, and by many book-eating girls I met as an author. As for the characters coming out of books, I think all book addicts know about the feeling, that characters from books can be become more real than real people because we know so much about their inner lives. I didn’t have the idea to write about someone coming out of a book as a child, though; in fact I never planned to be a writer. I thought them to be either very old or very dead and for sure not as normal human beings like me. I dreamt of being an astronaut – probably because of an overdose of Star Trek!
HOME: When you were a child and reading and being read to, did you have a character that you wanted to meet, or even a character you would have never wanted to meet?
CF: I was very much in love with Huckleberry Finn and many heroes of adventure stories, science fiction, westerns, history, whatever. Lancelot would have been a candidate too, for sure. As for not meeting – I was terrified of Injun’ Joe, so I definitely didn’t want to ever meet him! Same for Long John Silver. I still think those two are the most brilliant literary villains.
HOME: Have you spent the past few weeks when the actors were working with the director wondering what the director Walter Meierjohann will do with your characters and the story? Are you a writer who finds it easy to let go of your characters and storylines?
CF: The dramatic means of theatre are often so poetic and much more unconventional than in film, where most changes are triggered by a lack of time and the wish to earn back multi-million dollar budgets. I used to be very open to changes and different views of my stories and characters. I do find it harder the older I get – maybe because I have sat through a few very unpleasant screen adaptations by now. The stage though usually makes it much easier to embrace a free approach to my stories, as theatre often uses such poetic and unconventional means whereas film mostly changes things because of a lack of money or a wish for a wider audience. So, yes, I am very much looking forward to see what Walter will do with my story! And I hope he’ll show me things about Inkworld that I didn’t know yet. That’s always the most wonderful thing when it happens!
HOME: As technology advances in ways we might have thought unimaginable 20 years ago, how important is it that children discover the magic and enjoyment of reading via a book, as opposed to on iPads, laptops, Kindles, and so on?
CF: I don’t believe in this opposition! I think there are many many ways to tell a story and they can inspire and enrich each other! For me, it’s not book or TV or theatre or movie; it should be all of them! And first of all it should be good storytelling, in whatever medium. Of course the book has the advantage that it is a very private experience and readers can create their own movie or stage adaptations in their heads while reading. But not everyone has visual imagination! So sometimes a movie or a stage adaptation can enhance what we see in our heads while reading.
HOME: You have two (now grown-up) children. When they were younger, did you ‘road-test’ draft versions of Inkheart, or any of your other work, on your children?
CF: Always! Ben and Anna were my best and most inspiring listeners and editors! Anna still is. She is brilliant at giving notes – she just gave me a very inspiring list for a new book! Ben meanwhile prefers to play the muse and inspire a character!
HOME: You now live in California. Are you inspired by different things since you moved to near Los Angeles?
CF: Los Angeles turned out to be an extremely inspiring place for me – for several reasons. First of all, it is so vastly different from everything I grew up with that it makes me very aware of my European background and influences. In fact, I think I became European here, because, let’s be honest, we are English, German, or French, or whatever nationality, when living in Europe, but we would never embrace the whole continent as our home. Living in the United States as I do, another very inspiring thing are the artists living in Los Angeles. The range of talent is so immense and unusual, that one feels like swimming in creative oceans swarming with the wildest sea creatures of all kinds and from all kinds of destinations. I especially love to work with Latino and Asian artists here and with those who are a bit of everything!
Inkheart runs from Fri 4 Dec 2015 – Sat 9 Jan 2016. Book tickets and find out more here. And why not join us for our Big Family Day on Sunday 13 Dec, which features creative workshops, family friendly theatre, films, and Cornelia Funke signing copies of Inkheart.