I grew up in Dalkey. My mum was a primary schoolteacher and my dad was a quantity surveyor. It was a lovely place to grow up. There were parks we used to walk down to. There was a little local shop a few minutes up the road, and we used to be sent out to buy milk. It was a really nice, friendly place. I went to the library a lot. There wasn’t a children’s department in the library, but once a week they rolled out children’s shelves in the town hall. My mum, being a primary schoolteacher, was always big into books and reading.
As a teenager, the biggest part of my life was the Exchange Bookshop. A lovely man called Michael ran it. You could get second-hand books, and you could bring back books that you’d read and he’d swap them for other books. I’d say I was about 11 or 12 and he would let me read Stephen King and Amityville and all kinds of dodgy horror books. I think he was just thrilled that I was such a reader.
I’ve never actually lived anywhere else [but Ireland]. I come from a Church of Ireland background. My grandfather [William Bedell Stanford] was a senator, and he was a big nationalist. He was very into using the Irish language, and he was a professor of classics, so he used to read us Irish fairytales and legends. He loved the Sinéad de Valera fairytales, but he also read Greek myths and legends. We grew up with Oisín Tír na nÓg and Pandora’s box. So, I suppose for me Ireland is steeped a lot in literary culture and myths.
As I got older, I was quite political. The first time I voted was in the presidential election in 1990, so of course, I voted for Mary Robinson. I [published] a book a few years ago called Blazing a Trail, which is about amazing Irish women, and she was the first person I thought of.
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I’ve worked all my life, on and off, as a children’s bookseller, festival programmer, children’s writer, and I also teach creative writing. Two years ago, I was looking at the children’s bestseller list, and I saw there were no Irish writers on it. I thought: hang on, have there been any Irish books in the children’s charts this year? I can get a little obsessive sometimes, so I went back over the year, and I realised that there were so few popping up. It really worried me.
It’s got to a critical level where if you go into a primary school, some of those children, if you ask them, will not be able to name one Irish children’s writer. But the problem is also that very young teachers can’t name Irish children’s writers. I found that quite shocking. [Whereas] if you ask a taxi driver, or someone working in a shop, or a journalist, everyone will be able to reel off at least three or four adult writers.
I’ll never forget the first time I read a book that had Dublin in it – it was The Bookshop on the Quay by Patricia Lynch. I was like, oh my God, this is a real place, this is where I live. And children should have that – it’s really important. Also, children need to know that they can be writers, that they can be illustrators. So, we set up a campaign called Discover Irish Children’s Books – 20 of us: teachers, librarians, booksellers, writers, illustrators, publishers, bloggers, reviewers. We’re trying to make a difference.
[ From the archive: In praise of Patricia LynchOpens in new window ]
I’m also an ambassador for Ireland Reads, a campaign led by Libraries Ireland. I’ve been going to the library since I was a child, and the library plays a huge daily role in my working life. I’m currently researching a children’s book set in 1956 in Dublin, and I could not research without the library.
We don’t have good statistics in Ireland yet on children’s reading but in the UK, the National Literacy Trust did a big survey last year, and found the lowest reading for pleasure they had ever recorded.
I think what we forget is that reading is an act of creativity. You’re creating the world of the book in your head. It’s really important for children’s development. But the good news is there is a lot parents, teachers, aunts, uncles, everyone can do to help. The most important thing, I think, is to start young, and to make books part of your children’s everyday lives from when they’re very little – [reading] board books, talking to them, telling them stories, not relying on a phone or iPad to entertain them. It’s also important for children to see adults reading and to see adults really valuing books in their own lives.
And children really love books. They really love comic books in particular at the moment, and there are some amazing Irish and international comic books out there, so it’s really important to let them read what they want to read. I think we can be a bit sniffy sometimes about comics, but I love comics and graphic novels.
And even as teenagers, they can come back to reading. It’s just about finding things that they enjoy. Luckily, there’s brilliant librarians out there, so you can go in and ask them.
In conversation with Niamh Donnelly. This interview, part of a series, was edited for clarity and length. Ireland Reads, led by Libraries Ireland, is the national campaign to encourage people to embrace the joy and benefits of reading. Ireland Reads Day takes place on February 22nd. For more, see irelandreads.ie
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