Interview with Peter In Peril creator Helen Bate

This has taken me a shamedfacedly long taken to publish.  the publisher gave me a copy of Peter in Peril - Courage and Hope in World War Two back in October or November last year.  I read it pretty quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it and was asked if I would like to do an interview with the author.  Of course I said yes, and then it took me a few weeks to send questions, then another few weeks to send follow up questions and now a few months later I am actually publishing this.

I reviewed Peter in Peril over on New readers.... It's about a Jewish boy living in Budapest in the 1930s and it covers his life before and during the war.  It's told from the point of view of Peter and is suitable for ages 8 up.I found parts of it very affecting and I think it's a good addition to WW2 literature.  So, I asked the creator, Helen Bate, a few questions. Here we go.

Q1.  I understand that Peter in Peril is your first book and that you used to be an architect.  How did you get into comics and did being an architect have any influence on how you approached constructing the comic pages?
I gave up my architectural career after 10 years to do a degree in illustration and I initially illustrated some children’s books for Frances Lincoln and Harper Collins. The Peter story was done as a student project initially but in a very different form. I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to work with Janetta Otter-Barry to produce it in a way that would suit 8-10 year old children and the graphic story form seemed to be the one that best suited the complexity of the subject and the age range. I used more text than other graphic stories, as I wanted to allow the book to be read to a child. I also felt it was important with the subject matter to adequately explain to children what was happening in more detail.

I think my architectural background has quite an influence on my drawing style - drawing with a black line is a very big part of architectural drawing and I always tend to gravitate to that way of drawing… even though I’d quite like to have a looser style … but drawing is pretty much like your handwriting - it’s very personal to the individual. 


Q2. Describing artistic styles in comics is one of my weak points, so for the benefit of readers can you describe your art style and how you came to illustrate the way you do?
I don’t think my artistic style fits into any particular category. The drawings are very much graphic and line based because that’s the way I work - and I use layering and watercolour to add depth and mood… Because I also do picture books for younger children, my style is influenced by that too.

Q3. I read that Peter is a member of your family.  Creating this book must have been quite emotional.  Can you tell us about the process of developing it and how you ensured the story stayed true to life?

Peter is my brother-in-law and his story has always been one that I have felt was an important one to pass on to future generations, especially within our own family. Because he and his parents and his cousin Eva all survived, it has a more positive outcome than the story of Anne Frank and others like it; Because of this it’s more suitable for younger and more sensitive children. And in this age of world problems, when intolerance and persecution are becoming more prevalent again, I feel it’s a really topical theme and much needed.

My sister and my brother-in-law wrote down his story in as much detail as he could remember some years ago, so we have a family book that I was able to use to get the details. I then showed Peter at every stage of the development to ensure he was happy with the simplification and the depiction of his childhood experiences. He and his cousin Eva have been amazed by the reaction of people to their story.. they genuinely didn’t think anyone would be interested. 

Q4.  Have you read many other comics dealing with World War Two?  Can you recommend any?
There are a couple of comic style books or graphic stories that I have read about WW2 (both holocaust stories involving children) and that I’ve found really interesting because of the different ways they are portrayed - but they are aimed at older children or adults … 

They are ‘Hidden’ by Loic Dauvillier, Mark Lozano and Greg Salsedo published by First Second in 2012 and ‘We are on our own’ by Miriam Katin published by Drawn and Quarterly, Montreal 2006

Q5. Was it Otter-Barry that asked you to do a children's book or did the idea come from you?

It was my idea for the book and Janetta Otter-Barry really liked the idea. 

Q6. Presumably you think comics are good for children, do you feel they improve literacy or that they offer more (or different things?) than prose books do? How so?  What do you think is important about them?

I think the graphic novel style of picture book or comic style - whichever you want to call it, makes reading more accessible for those children who may be less happy reading straight forward prose with some illustrations. So if reluctant readers can be encouraged to read by providing them with comic style stories on more serious themes done well, then that’s a great contribution to literacy.

Although I love reading fiction, I am also a very visual person, so I love mixing the two. I know my 11 year old grand daughter and my 8 year old grandson are big comic or graphic novel fans, and although they read prose fiction too, I see comics as offering them something very different that helps them to see storytelling and fiction in a different, and more visual way. Providing them with a good cross section of styles helps with their visual literacy and develops their aesthetic judgement.

I think comic style stories can also be a great stepping stone to understanding film making and theatre, and I think that is a big plus.

Doing Peter in a comic strip form helped to make a difficult subject more accessible - and although I did use a lot of prose in it, that was to ensure that the complexities of the subject were explained more fully. My next comic style story, although also a difficult subject, is set today so needs less explanation and will be more visual.
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There we go.  Many thanks to Helen for answering my questions and for being patient regarding my delays.  You can read more about Peter in Peril on the Otter-Barry website.  Please please check it out.

I have also published this interview on my other blog, www.paipicks.blogspot.com.  Just in case you came across it twice and thought I stole it. 

Derbyshire

What I Did On My Holidays.

I'm such a twerp.  What follows are a few interesting things I did on my trip to Derbyshire this Christmas!

It snowed!!!  On Boxing Day evening we got about 4 inches.  It was lovely.  Well it started and I complained and bitched and moaned because I hate the cold and the wet and the ice and the associated risk of falling over.  The Canadian with us thought I was a killjoy.  She is right.  However when we went out to the pub, all wrapped up, on a journey that took us over a few fields and I discovered that my shoes were waterproof and my toes remained dry and warm I was quite happy.

The next day we went out in the snow again. Of course.  Here is proof:

Pretty!

Then on the next day we went out to Ambergate and had a walk through the Shining Cliff Woods.  There's a lot of fun to be had in these woods, particularly when you discover Oakhurst House, which is technically off limits but there's not much actual fence to keep you out so we went in anyway.  This is the house:

Now that is not the sort of house you'd expect to see in the middle of Derbyshire!  It's long since abandoned and the second floors and roof has fallen in.  It's fascinating to look at and work out which rooms were used for what.  We had the additional pleasure of a robin following us around as we wandered around the building.  He was probably trying to chase us off, they are territorial little buggers.

We reckon this room was the kitchen:

This must have been a main door as you can just see the boot scraper at the bottom right of the entrance:

There is also some interesting graffiti:

We had fun searching out an old yew tree called Betty Kenny's yew, where a family supposedly built their house around this massive tree and raised 8 kids in the branches.  See the full story here.  Then there was all the ice to mess about with.  Some of the puddles had a couple of centimetres of ice frozen on top.

For better pictures of our trips out go to James Sharpe's instagram.  Because he's got talent and I'm a photographic fool.

Another day we went out to Fresh Basil in Belper for breakfast:

Between us we got 2 full Englishes and 2 vegetarians.  On my vegetarian one I swapped out the egg for black pudding.  They were good.  Very good.  Not too much.  The black pudding was well worth it and the Fill Englishes got 3 rashers of bacon instead of the usual two.  Although I am informed it wasn't smoked bacon.  The halloumi on the vegetarian plate was properly cooked which you'd think would be a given, but I got battered halloumi in a Kent pub recently and the halloumi wasn't cooked.  Bah.  The same place gave my boyfriend food poisoning so I am Not Impressed by it.

Fresh Basil has lots of signs up about the importance of shopping local and how much money goes into the local economy when you shop local as opposed to supermarkets.  I appreciate that.

Later that day we went to Kedleston Hall who do a very nice cream tea and the cake of the day is always gluten free.  Surprisingly for a National Trust place winter admission prices were just £1 per adult.  We had a good walk around the grounds and I had a massive rant about the parasite aristocracy and class injustices in England and the boyfriend told me to shut up and be quiet.  Fair enough.

One thing I didn't like about the hall was the godawful taxidermy they had in the corridor on the way to the shop.

Decorating dead animal heads is not on!  It's gross and inappropriate.  The stuffed bird scenes (you can see the cases at the bottom of the picture) were particularly disturbing.  I understand why the National Trust still has this stuff up - it's part of the history of the hall and that's what people want to see when they visit.  The owners still live in the Hall and I expect there are lots of complicated agreements about what the Trust can and can't do with the bit they run.  I just don't like taxidermy.

Apart from that shock the rest of the trip was petty good :)

I has been on a trip

I just spent 6 days in Kent visiting family and as I took a lot of photos I thought my trip would make good blog fodder.  And I've been reading a lot of lifestyle blogs recently, and I'm apparently quite impressionable..

Here goes.

My first thing to talk about are these wonderful earrings I got on Tuesday just before I left:

They are from Fabrication Unlimited, an Etsy shop based in the States, but postage to the UK is dead cheap and delivery was only a couple of weeks.  I considered asking for the lightning bolts in gold but decided I quite liked the silver effect.  As for the blue ones, well everyone needs a little bit of hope in their life.

Then I left, and left the earrings at home. As you do.

I spent Wednesday with my Dad and we went to Buttercups Goat Sanctuary in Boughton Monchelsea.  If you like goats, and in you are in Kent, you need to go.  There are oodles of goats. Big goats, little goats, lame goats, healthy goats, horned goats, sleepy goats, white goats, black goats, brown goats. Friendly goats and lazy goats.  I like goats, a lot.  I don't want to steal pictures from the website, but I urge you to go and look at it.  And check out the how to donate pages as well.

Then we went to the Three Chimneys pub in Biddenden.  We went by possibly the most circuitous route, as it appears my Dad isn't quite clear on the route to Biddenden, and when he was clear, I kept missing important turnings.  Sadly, once there, I could have no beer as I was driving.  So I had sausage and mash instead and it was good.  I had a lot of sausages this week.  Meatyrific.

On the Thursday me and my Mum went to Scotney Castle, a National Trust property that just so happens to have have hops farmed on it.  It also has some lovely gardens, and I found these sunflowers:

Hops are important in the ale brewing process and we went on a tour of the hop farm and learned about the growing and gathering process.  This is how hops grow:

Tasty hops.

It turns out that the farm has always kept a record of how many bales of hops were harvested each year.  It can vary a hella lot from year to year, dependent on the weather, as shown by these boards in the processing plant:

Some years (about a century ago) they only harvested about 61 bales. Other years they harvested closer to 500.  Can you imagine only producing a paltry 60 odd bales and having to make a living off that, for the rest of the year?

The tour included a walk round the farm to see where seasonal hop pickers lived, up until about the 1930s (I think).  They lived here:

These sheds used to have corrugated iron front walls, and would house between 10 and 15 people, of all ages, in double bunk beds erected against the side and back walls.  There wouldn't be room for much else.  That should give you an idea of the small size of them.  Some of the sheds were used by the same families, year in and year out, and still have the wallpaper put up by the families.  They cooked in a communal shed, opposite the living quarters:

This is a field we walked through towards the end of the tour:

Included because I think it's a nice photo and I'm usually crap at landscape photos.

They had beer samples at the end. I wasn't driving, so I did try them. The bitter was decent enough but the pale ale was much better. 

On the Friday morning, me, my sister, brother in law and niece went out for a fry up, at my suggestion, because I've been reading this blog and craving a Full English.  We went to The Rustic Cafe, attached to a garden centre, which I was dubious about, but it turned out to be bloody lovely.  The only things missing were black pudding and hash browns, but as I couldn't finish what I'd ordered maybe that was for the best.  The decor was nice. Our tablecloth was a map of the world:

On Saturday I went into Maidstone to meet friends and go to the comic shop.  I grew up in Maidstone and it was bloody weird being back, seeing all the changes.  I haven't walked round the town for about 5 or 10 years, and it's changed quite a bit.  It was really disorienting actually.  At the bottom of Gabriels Hill is a big retail space that used to be a newsagents.  It was where I went to buy UK reprints of Marvel comics and every time I went there and looked at the comics rack I was terrified I would be found out.  That someone would shout at me that these things weren't for girls.  Now that retail space is this:

How times change huh?  Maidstone is not quite the pit of horror that I remember, it has been cleaned up, but it still feels like a dump to me.  I guess it's impossible to get rid of emotional negative connotations.

I also visited Maidstone's actual comic shop, that I didn't go into at all until after I moved away (about 15 years ago).  The shop is called the Grinning Demon and it used to be on the High Street.  The High Street shop was a dark box and the few times I went in I was met with surly, grumpy, miserable staff.  The only good thing about it was that I got a copy of the first Peter David Supergirl trade in there.

Now the shop has moved to the Royal Arcade and it's magnificent!  The shop itself is light and airy.  They have tables outside and upstairs for gamers (card games, not video games).  They offer free tea and coffee to the gamers.  You walk in the shop and the owner (Graham, I think) asks if you need any help.  Have some pictures of the inside of it:

 (Local artists' work on the walls!)

They have a sofa (pictured above) which I took advantage of as I was very hungover and couldn't cope with other shops.  I just sat there for half an hour and the owner was cool with this.  I had just bought this lot of comics too, I didn't just wander in off the street and claim refuge:

Other things to note from my trip are:
This massive horse chestnut tree I found in Mote Park:

These beers that I drank (not all on the same night):

I got up on Sunday morning to discover the wire in one of my bras had worked it's way through the bra material, which was incredibly disappointing.  It's one of my better ones as it gives me shelf boobs.  I had this crazy idea that if I took both wires out it would be a useable soft cup bra.  Not so.  I think I need to learn more about bra machinery.

Finally, salutations to the very helpful gentleman who carried my suitcase down some steps on the London Underground.  I suspect he decided to help because I was limping, as my knee had decided to play up for that stretch of the journey.  Whoever you were Sir, I thank you!

Hah! A wonderful example of culture bias

This post looks at one of the oldest (yet found) female figurines that has recently been dug up in Stuttgart.  More specifically, it looks at how the archeologists et al have deemed it an early example of porn.

The writer then goes on to pull apart this assertion and show how the men commenting on this don't seem to be able to a) get past their own views on what constitutes pornography and b) coem up with any other reasons as to why figurines of women may have been created.

Gender blind and religion blind then.

Go read it.

The remains of the Maya

Wow. I particularly like pictures 3 and 10.