Getting to know our shortlisted authors: Tony Wilson

19 Apr 2015

Over the next few weeks we’ll introduce you to the six shortlisted authors on the Readings Children’s Book Prize 2015. Who are they? Where do their ideas come from? What do they love to read? What do they love to snack on?

We hope you’ll share these mini interviews with your children.

MEET TONY WILSON

Tony Wilson is the author of Stuff Happens: Jack, which is part of a brilliant new series that fosters emotional literacy in primary school-age boys through fast-paced stories designed to reflect their everyday experiences. Previously, Tony has written picture books including The Thirsty Flowers, The Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas and, coming in June, The Cow Tripped Over the Moon, illustrated by Lara Wood.

Tony writes columns and features for The Age, Good Weekend and The Monthly. He was a Breakfaster on Triple R for six years, and Sydney Morning Herald‘s Best Young Australian Novelist in 2006 for Players. Jack is his first novel for this age group.

1. What were you like as a kid?

Tall, gangly, extremely blonde, long sighted, sports loving, and adventure seeking. I remember at aged 7 I used to shimmy across a gas pipeline that ran through our park in Donvale, and I recently saw how phenomenally high, and stupid, that undertaking was. My childhood was very happy. Great parents, great siblings, and very little trauma, save for the time our rabbit Raphael was mauled by an Alsatian.

2. When did you first want to be a writer?

As a kid, my pipedream of choice was becoming an AFL footballer, just as my father had been. I came reasonably close as a senior listed player at Hawthorn, but never played that elusive senior game.

Writing was in the background in my teenage years. I was a prolific reader, and had some flair with creative 'free’ writing topics in English, but only really started to flourish in Years 11 and 12. I was editor of the school magazine in my final year, and had great fun writing silly editorials.

In 1993, I wrote for Farrago at Melbourne Uni, and in 1995, aged 23, I started submitting pieces to The Age, but it took the extraordinary fortune of winning the ABC TV show Race Around the World, to believe I could get published.

3. How did Jack begin?

Jack was commissioned as the first book in the Stuff Happens series. Series editor Susannah Macfarlane told me at the time of commissioning that she thought of me for one of these ‘emotional stories’ because I’d talked to her so passionately about the birth of my first child in 2007. That was the year she’d just published a picture book of mine (The Thirsty Flowers) at Hardie Grant Egmont.

Susannah sent me a document setting out the type of books she wanted – 10 chapters, 10,000 words, 1000 words per chapter, and a male protagonist in a grade 5 classroom going on a true-to-life emotional journey. I then sought out the grade 5s in my life, in particular my nephew Paddy, who told me that one of the bigger incidents in his grade 4 year was a boy hurting his neck in a lunchtime footy game. That triggered memories of the old violent games we used to play at school, and I was away. I also was at the centre of an ‘honesty’ incident at school around Year 10. I told the truth and a whole lot of other kids didn’t. That also fed into the story.

4. What is your favourite scene in the book?

My favourite character is the bulky and yet athletic, Fadi (he has his own story now, written by Scot Gardner) and my favourite scene is when he buys Lego out of his own money and arrives on Jack’s doorstep with his apology gift. It shames Jack into considering the impact of his lie.

5. What were some of your favourite books when you were a kid?

So many! My all time favourite is Roald Dahl’s Danny, The Champion of the World, but I also loved Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing series. Other gems include The 27th Annual African Hippopotamus Race, How to Eat Fried Worms, Flat Stanley, the Narnia series, John Wyndham’s The Chrysallids, The Chocolate War, and innumerable books listing football players’ favourite food as chicken parmigiana.

6. What was the last book you loved?

For adults, The Last Pulse by Anson Cameron. For kids, The Guy, The Girl, The Artist and His Ex by Gabrielle Williams.

7. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer?

I would love one day to walk into a bookshop and see that the owner has decided to give the Z, Y, X and W authors a go at being in the best spots on the shelf. It always looks so obvious when I’m on hands and knees, checking out if my books are there.

8. If you won the RCBP, who is the first person you would tell and how would you celebrate?

The first person I’d tell is my wife, Tamsin. Then my parents, then my four children, although I’d probably only get spit bubbles in response from the four week old, Alice. I have a son called Jack, too. He’s nearly four and he has cerebral palsy. He’s very different from the sporty Jack in the book, but I hope one day he enjoys having a book named after him.