Adele Parks

Bestselling author Adele Parks is this month’s interviewee. She has sold over a million and a half copies of her novels in the UK and her books have been translated into over 21 languages. Adele tells us more about her work, why she thinks literacy is such an important issue and how she is supporting our Vote for Literacy campaign.

Why did you make the decision to leave your career in advertising and become an author?

I guess it was a combination of desire and desperation! I’ve wanted to write novels, for as long as I can remember. Even as a child I read voraciously and wrote my own stories, making them into little books with illustrations. I mostly wrote about witches, strange lands and magical adventures. By the time I was ten or eleven years old I found that I often wrote about things, in an effort to understand how I felt or thought about them. I referred to these scribbles as my jottings. When I was in sixth form I read a book every second day. People rarely believe me when I say that but it’s true.

It’s possible that I would never have done more than fill note books with jottings but between the ages of 27 and 29 I lost a number of friends and family. I felt scared and vulnerable. I turned to escapist jottings by way of relief from the sadness that swamped me; reading can be a great stress buster and writing can be too. Once I secured a contract with a publisher it seemed the most natural thing in the world for me to leave my career in advertising.

What inspires your writing? Do you draw inspiration from other authors?

I did my degree in English Language and Literature and read dozens of classics, so no doubt I have been inspired by numerous authors, it would be impossible to remain impervious but mostly I think I get my inspiration from life: my own and other peoples’. I might get an idea from overhearing a conversation on a bus or from a movie poster or a joke. I’m never interested in stories that people deliberately tell me, in the hope I’ll turn them into a novel, the interesting thing is not what someone is saying but more often what they are not saying.

As a parent, do you think you have a role in supporting your child’s literacy? What do you think this is?

Absolutely, I have a role in supporting my son’s literacy. I don’t think parents should imagine it’s all happening at school. Literacy should be a fun part of family life. I want my son to be excited by books, to gain a wider education, a wider vocabulary and a bigger imagination because of the books he reads. I want him to have an ability to empathise and to criticise because of the books he reads. Books are freely available through libraries and parents should try to make an effort to make books part of every day life. Books aren’t just for kids though; a great way to support your child’s literacy is to let them see you reading and being thrilled by a book.

Do you think TV and computers are a distraction from reading books?

These other activities take physical time but I’m not draconian; I think there is a place for books, TV and computers. We have to be realistic about the world we live in and the various entertainment that’s available.

You are supporting our Vote for Literacy campaign to make literacy a key issue in the forthcoming general election. Why do you feel that literacy is such an important subject?

Life without literacy skills is extremely difficult. Things that most people take for granted – reading an instruction manual, the headline of the newspaper, a bus timetable or the menu in a restaurant - can be crippling for some. That doesn't seem fair or reasonable to me.

One in six people struggle with basic literacy; in your opinion, is enough being done to promote and develop literacy skills?

There’s always more to be done. Until everyone has literacy skills there’s still a job to be done.

Do you think that the advancement of technology means that in the future traditional books won’t exist?

I think there will be a place for traditional books for many, many generations to come. Reading a traditional book is such a pleasant and personal experience. The advancements in technology have a long way to go before they can supersede that.

Are there good and bad books to read or should all reading be encouraged?

All reading should be encouraged. I hate literary snobbery; it’s myopic.