» Michael Rosen interview
Children’s laureate Michael Rosen talks about making his job work and bedtime stories with his son
Michael Rosen by Laurence Cendrowicz
Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen – creator of such phantasmagoria as Centrally-Heated Knickers and Super Boring Man, cheerfully describes himself as an egomaniac.
Should I curtsy, you being the children’s laureate?
No, just say hi! There’s no protocol.
How did you get the job – a phone call from the Queen?
A phone call, yes; not from The Queen, though: Shami Chakrabarti (Liberty director). I was on a train – I thought she was ringing me about a benefit gig and the signal kept cutting out. I could hardly hear her at all – it took me a while to realise what she was offering me.
What do you have to do to fulfil that role?
You’re a kind of spokesperson – a lightning conductor. The moment an issue comes up the media get onto you for a reply on behalf of children’s literature. On top of that you’re expected to come up with a ‘big idea’. Me being an egomaniacal character I came up with nine!
Have you done them all?
Not doing bad: there‘s the Roald Dahl Funny Prize – for the funniest children’s book. Dara O’Briain headed the judging panel; he‘s hilarious, can’t stop being funny. Another one is a kind of kids’ poetry ‘You Tube‘ – to come online late January – my son’s idea, actually. There’s a British Library exhibition on the history of children’s poetry starting in April, with performances, videos, ancient manuscripts. I’m the kind of person who gets a buzz out of seeing an original Christina Rossetti manuscript alongside (John) Hegley’s latest book, My Dog is a Carrot.
When you’re writing do you try to include things that are culturally relevant?
I think we’ve always had to do that. There’s a world you can inhabit in children’s books, which is mythic, but if you want to be tangling with children’s lives as they’re lived there are everyday elements you have to incorporate.
Do you test out writing on your children?
It’s my job. I put my three-year-old son Emil to bed – then I lie on the floor and he shouts ’story!’, ’poem!’, ‘song!’ and for the next hour he’s on this diet of story, poem and song, it’s lovely. Super Boring Man came of that. Roald Dahl used to take his kids and their friends on midnight rambles in Great Missenden and tell all these grotesque, fibbing, lying stories to scare the pants off them – The BFG came out of some of that, in fact.
You’re doing a biog aren’t you?
I’m down to write a biography for children – not a straight life and times. It’s on the branch line. I’ve been in the little brick shed at the end of his garden where he wrote – it’s quite moving, actually.
What environments do you work in?
Trains and buses, mostly – quite seriously; I do most of my writing on the 4.32 from Victoria then I come home and work on the computer. I’ve got my equivalent of the brick shed – a bit more palatial, though; it’s a converted coach house.
Did you have a ‘ping!’ moment – when you realised you were a poet?
Miss Grant, possibly the most glamorous teacher ever to walk inside of a secondary school, read Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue, Ferrara, or My Last Duchess – a disgusting poem, really clever and brilliant. For homework we wrote a dramatic monologue – mine was about a man pleading for his life. I thought, “I’d like to do this“.
Michael Rosen was interviewed by Briggy Smale at The Space,
Brighton’s monthly media
and arts networking event.
The next Space event has appearances from comedian Josie Long and photojournalist Edmond Terakopian.
It will be held at Latest Musicbar, Tuesday 2 December, 7pm for 7.30pm start, £5/3. www.thespace.me.uk
