Julia books in for Winter Words

Jan 20 2009 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

JULIA Donaldson (right) is one of the world’s best loved contemporary children's’ writers – and she’s Pitlochry-bound on Saturday.

The atmosphere within Pitlochry Festival Theatre will be in party mood when Julia, and her husband Malcolm, share with their audience on Saturday morning the 10th birthday of her most famous creation, The Gruffalo.

Julia’s Gruffalo books have sold more than two million copies in 38 languages. During her writing career so far she’s written some 80 books, and her ‘The Snail and the Whale’ was named by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as one of his favourite books.

So it’s quite a coup for organisers of the Winter Words Festival – at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from Thursday until Sunday – that Julia is coming to share with children (and adults) some of her songs and tales from the Gruffalo and other books from 10.30am-11.30am on Saturday.

“Malcolm and I love heading north, so being invited to the Winter Words Festival was a lovely excuse for us to come to Pitlochry,” said Glasgow-based Julia.

“We’ll be doing eight items in the show; acting out four stories and singing four songs. The Gruffalo will be there, and there’ll be lots of audience participation.”

Julia reckons the highlight of the show will the story of The Magic Paintbrush.

“”This is based on an ancient Chinese story, and Malcolm is the wicked emperor. It’s very colourful and children love it.

“A great deal of work goes into the show. I have a room at home with is packed full of props.”

Julia explained that it was, in fact, performing live which came before her astronomically successful career as a children's’ author.

“My writing all stemmed from performance. Malcolm and I met while we were students at Bristol University. We were both strapped for cash and so we went busking, then we started to get proper bookings, mainly for children’s television, and I started writing songs.

“I became an expert at writing-to-order on such subjects as guinea pigs, window-cleaning and horrible smells!”

Her career as a published writer took off in 1993 when one of her songs, A Squash and a Squeeze, was made into a book, with illustrations by Axel Scheffler, who also created the illustrations for The Gruffalo.

Now Julia is hoping that the young readers who first read the Guffalo 10 years ago will be keen to read her new book, Running on Cracks, which is published in March.

“Running on Cracks is a thriller and aimed at 13-year-olds, who would have been three when the Gruffalo came out,” she said. “I hope they enjoy reading it.”

And Julia reflected her and Malcolm’s passaged from their student busking days, to raising a family and Malcolm juggling the live shows with his career as a doctor, to them being increasingly in demand for their live performances: “Things have gone full circle for us, although we don’t pass the hat round any more!”

Tickets for Julia Donaldson, plus full details of the Winter Words programme at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, are available from 01796 484626 or go online to www.pitlochry.org.uk