Bay Harbour: August 09, 2017

PAGE 10 BAY HARBOUR
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Wednesday August 9 2017
Our People
Ben Brown
From being bullied into reading books to
Lyttelton’s Ben Brown
has been a writer and
publisher since 1992.
In that time, he has
published 17 books for
children and in 2011
was awarded the Maori
Writers’ Residency
at the Michael King
Writers’ Centre. He
talks to Sarla Donovan
about life and writing
Were you always a writer or
did life make you into one?
It’s interesting. I grew up on
a farm in Motueka and didn’t
have much time for books as a
kid, but my dad was a voracious
reader. He’d bully me into
reading books, and when I
started, it was awesome. At the
same time, I developed a knack
for writing at school. That was
my favourite subject at school,
the bit where they’d let you go
and write stories. My dad used
to wander around the farm
muttering poetry to himself.
He was something special.
A tobacco farmer. He was a
labourer in his early 20s, then
got an offer for a block of land he
couldn’t refuse. He could turn
his hand to anything.
When your children were
young, did you tell them
stories?
We (former partner and illustrator
Helen Taylor) bounced
a lot of stories off them and read
a lot to both our children right
up until they were 12 or 13. We
got some good advice off the
two of them. My son is now into
computer software. He’s 20 and
finishes his degree this year. My
daughter is an extremely good
writer. When you look back
on it, they both have a creative
element and both kids value an
artistic approach to things. But
they’ve seen too much of the
struggle for artists. They want
salaries. My son told me a joke,
it’s the only poet joke I know.
‘What’s the difference between
a park bench and a poet? A park
bench can support a family. He
admires what we do, though.
What were your first jobs?
We did lots of things before
we had kids. I was a tobacco
worker straight out of school, a
forestry worker, and did labouring
over in Australia – a whole
bunch of different labouring and
hospitality jobs – and tutoring
in the 90s. And I wrote all the
way through it, but only really
started to knuckle down when
I was at Canterbury University
doing law. The first manuscript
I ever submitted I wrote in a law
lecture. I wasn’t disciplined when
it came to study. Couldn’t see the
point of being an average lawyer,
and looking down the barrel of a
four-year degree, I sort of knew I
wasn’t up to it. Then I met Helen.
That first book I wrote was The
Penguin Who Wanted to Fly.
You’ve now published 17
books for children – do you
have a favourite?
That first one is my favourite
in a lot ways because it’s what
got us started. We self-published
for the first eight years. Literally
sitting at the table cutting and
pasting, getting bromides made,
trundling off down to the printers.
Independent publishing it’s
called now. But that was the first
manuscript we started submitting
and it kind of kept us going
because we got really nice rejection
letters, which made us stick
at it. We published four titles
ourselves and sold about 16,000
copies. They helped us tick over
financially. We had our kids over
that time. We were always looking
at the struggle and wondering
if it was worth it.
So what got you picked up by
a publisher?
About the time we stopped
self-publishing, we were noticed
by Reed, which at the time was
New Zealand’s oldest publisher.
They picked up an ABC wall
chart that Helen did, then took
The Thief of Colours. After that,
we did about two books a year
with them, including A Booming
in the Night, (Best Picture Book,
New Zealand Post Children’s
Book Awards 2006.) That’s probably
been our best seller.
Has it ever been lucrative?
It’s a struggle to be honest,
unless you write a best-seller. I
tend to write what I want rather
than what I should. I’ve done
mostly poetry and short fiction
writing for adults in the last few
years and there’s absolutely no
market for that, unless you get
out and perform and do things
like that.
Looking back on your work,
are there any themes that keep
cropping up?
Definitely in my poetry. I deal
ARTISTIC:
Writer Ben
Brown can
often be seen
walking on
Lyttelton’s hilly
streets.
PHOTO:
MARTIN
HUNTER
in reality, don’t really do pretty,
evocative language. I’m street
level – coming of age, dysfunction,
life struggles – I try to keep
it real. With kids books I try to
make it light and fun; mischief
and mayhem at a childhood
level. I don’t want to see blood on
the floor, not in a children’s book
anyway.
Helen illustrated many of
your children’s books – what’s
it like working with a family
member?
We’d have a lot of fun. I used
to giggle away to myself writing
some stories, thinking how is she
going to illustrate this. We had a
rule – I don’t interfere with your
work, and vice versa. That’s the
joy actually, is seeing how others
interpret your work. Helen’s an
easy person to work with. We
still sit down and come up with
ideas and I write introductions
to her books.
Tuesday, 22nd August 2017
Principal’s address 9:30am