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AN INTERVIEW WITH CONN AND HAL IGGULDEN: AUTHORS OF THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS
Conn, Hal, many thanks for this. I enjoyed DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS immensely, and was thrilled to give it BOOK OF THE MONTH status last month. (The questions are addressed toConn as he's the one with access to e-mail – at the moment! But the questions are for both of you, really!)
GM: You must have had great fun writing this – though both of you are too young to remember when this type of book was around. Do you come from a family where such books would still have been in the family collection, or did you just latch onto the 1940s/1950s publishing style?
There were books like this in the house – Boys Own annuals, old chemistry texts, stories of courage with the word ‘Boys’ in the title. Perhaps in part, the Dangerous Book for Boys came about because of those memories, but also because we realised there’s nothing out there aimed at boys at the moment – and there should be! We wanted to write one that had it all in – a sort of one-stop compendium with things to make and all the knowledge we wanted to know back then – and now, of course.
GM: I see books like this one every week at car boot sales – there used to be loads of them, like the Daily Mail Book for Boys (and one for Girls) - quite often they end up in my own collection! The style of your book mirrors those titles perfectly – was that your idea?
The idea did go out of fashion for a few decades, which is odd, because every generation of boys is as willing to build a go-cart, treehouse and plate of odd-looking crystals as the generations before them. Perhaps books like this are coming back because it’s a bit healthier than sitting in front of the TV – especially with a World Cup summer on the way.
GM: You say that friends and family kept chipping in with ideas for inclusion, so many that you had to turn some down. Does that mean you have enough material for a second volume? Do you think it would be nice to have a "DANGEROUS" Annual?
Conn is horrified at the thought of an annual! How would he ever find the time to write about Genghis Khan! In fact, we do have about another fifty chapter ideas, if a sequel is ever on the cards. The story of the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan is one we couldn’t fit in this time. Despite a life causing chaos on the high seas, he was knighted and became governor ofJamaica. It was difficult to stop adding chapters because every person we spoke to said ‘You know you have to do….” and they were almost always great ideas.
GM: Now to the thorny subject of girls, who you say (in the book) are different to us. What about a DANGEROUS BOOK for GIRLS? Bearing in mind that the vast majority of Girls' annuals back in the mid-20th century were written by men using female pseudonyms, would you feel confident about tackling a Girls' volume?
Conn has two daughters, so who knows for the future? In all seriousness, we followed the old advice – write about what you know. We were boys and as men, we still have a curiosity about a thousand different things. Girls are the wonderful mystery – as we said in the book ‘Without them, life would be one long rugby locker room, so treat them with respect.’
GM: Your illustrator, Richard Horne(?) has captured the essence of the period perfectly – how did you come to find him?
It was a strange thing working with an illustrator. Richard works with Bloomsbury mainly, but also freelances. We’d met him before and liked his style. I think he understood what we were trying to do and that helped a great deal.
GM: In your introduction, you say that you didn't have this book "when I was a boy". You're probably talking about the mid-to-late 1970s, and all of the great comics and annuals had sunk into the mire of post baby-boomer modernism as standards and morals started to decline and a period of "anything goes" got into gear. Now we're hearing that today's children seem to prefer surfing to reading books. Do you think it's the responsibility of parents to limit surfing time and to promote book-reading from an early age?
In a word, yes. I can’t think of a more valuable long-term activity than reading with a son and showing enjoyment. Boys copy their fathers, it’s as simple as that. The reading habit will open the whole world and it’s a sight healthier than sitting in front of the net or a home console. Both of us enjoyed computer games, but not until we were well into our teens. Seeing a ten year old with that pasty look from too much time staring at a screen is just wrong.
The seventies were a strange period – in some ways, it was a great experiment. Some things needed to change, but we ended up doing away with things like grammar and producing generations without the writing confidence of their grandparents. WhenConn taught English, he found that boys loved the logic of it. After all, if there are only nine kinds of words, why not learn them?
GM: I come from an age when there was no TV (or rather, we didn't have one) and we were always scratching around for things to do when we'd read all our books and comics. Books like Dangerous were invaluable at weekends, and helped also to engender a huge amount of general knowledge which makes watching University Challenge such fun. Did you have any help in compiling the various practical projects in Dangerous or are they all your own work?
Having both of us working together is what makes the book work. Alone, it wouldn’t have the light touch – and the huge range of subjects. As I said, we did have an awful lot of suggestions from friends and family. You only have to ask someone for a famous story of courage and they come up with a cracker – then you have to go to see Nelson’s tomb inSt. Paul’s. We ended up with huge piles of reference books of course, but rule No.1 was that we had to make everything in the book ourselves. It’s the only way to know something works and discover the problems that come up. Conn’s brother-in-law helped make the treehouse, which was probably the biggest job in the book. Finally, everything had to be checked and we were lucky enough to have half a dozen people willing to sift the facts from the errors.
GM: Why "The Dangerous Book for Boys"? There's nothing particularly dangerous in it – though it is a very engaging title, of course!
The ironic thing about the title is that the only truly dangerous thing is ignorance. We wanted to recapture the spirit we had as boys, when everything was interesting and danger was fun. There are always limits, of course – Boys Own thought nothing of including Nitric acid etching of metal. Apparently, you can burn your fingers off with the stuff, so that couldn’t go in. In part, the title is a reaction to the health and safety culture that prevents old ladies making cakes for each other at Age Awareness homes. The safest place in the world is a cage – but where’s the fun in that?
GM: How long did it take the two of you to compile the plethora of great articles for the book once you'd taken the decision to write it? Did it overlap with work on the Emperor series, or did you decide to get that out of the way first? What I'm asking, I guess is if you can work on two major projects at once?
Conn can’t even walk and chew gum. He is strictly a mono-tasker. The only way to produce the book was to stop all other activities and concentrate on writing it for six months solid, morning to late evening. We built a workbench, played conkers and marbles and went around the country researching stories and places. Hal calls it ‘creative stress’ and we never came to blows – though it was close a few times.
GM: Did you have a hand in designing the look and feel of the book? Harper Collins have done a magnificent job on this title. It's certainly eye-catching.
It’s everything we hoped for, in looks. Cost played a part, of course and for a long time we thought we wouldn’t be able to have colour, which would have made the chapters on insects and Nelson’s flags a bit pointless. We were very keen to have the pages stitched in rather than glued so it will last long enough to be dug out of attics fifty years from now. The Boys Own style of lettering was something we wanted from the beginning, but hats off to HC for the look. Neither of us were able to say exactly what we wanted, but as soon as we saw it, we said ‘Yes, that’s it!’
GM: What's next? You're a full-time writer, your brother is involved with the theatre. Do you plan any more joint writing projects? How did you split the workload on this one?
It takes a fair bit of time to stop and restart theatre – bookings usually work months ahead. Hal is getting back into it at the moment. He says he might as well go bankrupt doing something he loves! Conn is writing a series on Genghis Khan, going on to Kublai. He also wrote one of the Quick Reads, ‘Blackwater’ and would love another crack at that short format. There is never enough time.
For workload, we wrote an awful lot of it sitting together, changing lines and phrases and checking facts. Some of the experiences were brilliant – and some not so much, as whenConn shattered the rear wheels of the go-cart in testing it.
GM: Essentially, what you've done is to take the general knowledge and practical "things-to-do" sections that used to be in every boys' annual, brought them up to date where necessary, and left the stories behind. Would either of you fancy having a crack at writing boys' adventure stories of the sort that used to appear in those old annuals?
You know, I think we’d both love to. We did use Joe Simpson’s story in the DBfB and there are many great tales out there. I think it’s important to remember that boys aren’t born with an ipod grafted to them. If you can get them hooked on stories early, they’ll get a lifetime of pleasure from them.
GM: Everyone I've spoken to about this book is full of praise for it. It's a long time since anything quite so special has hit the bookshelves. I wish you every success with it, and, of course, with everything you have planned for the future. Brilliantly well done, and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed for Gateway
A pleasure!
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