Andy Griffiths - Adventures Unlimited
Kidzone chatted to legendary author Andy Griffiths about endless ideas, lost glasses, found stories and his brand-new series, Adventures Unlimited.
Kidzone: Congratulations on this brand-new series! New characters, new illustrations, new adventures. What can readers expect from Adventures Unlimited: The Land of Lost Things?
Andy: Thank you! As the title suggests, the new book is a mix of adventure, fantasy, comedy and complete nonsense. Pretty much like ALL my previous books, really, except this one stars YOU, the reader, and the pictures are drawn by the relatively new and ridiculously talented Bill Hope.
How was the idea for this new series born?
One of the most common questions that readers have asked me over the years is, “Can you please put me in your next book?” The problem is that I can’t put everyone into a book because there would be about a million characters and it would get too difficult to write and/or read. Then I had the idea that I could simply call the narrator ‘ME’ and the reader ‘YOU’ and we could be adventurers who go on wild and silly adventures to wild and silly places together.
Bill helped me to figure out how to make this work by suggesting we have ME and YOU wear full body adventure suits and helmets so that you can’t actually tell what we look like … which makes it easier for you to imagine the suited character as YOU!
The book has quite a different look and feel to the Treehouse series. What is it like to work with Bill?
It’s been SO MUCH FUN! Bill has a very cinematic style of drawing and we dreamed up the story together. A typical session might start with me suggesting a possible character or story idea and then Bill draws it. His drawing helps me to imagine the situation in even more detail which helps me figure out what to write next and then Bill draws that and so on and so forth over a number of months. It’s like playing in a sandpit with a friend when you’re a kid, except that instead of playing with sand and building sandcastles, we’re playing with words and pictures and building stories. Neither of us can quite predict – or is in control of – where the story might go next, but that’s a large part of the fun.
Is there something you’re always losing?
My reading glasses. I have all these systems for looking after them, but they always end up in the pocket of something that I’ve been wearing and then I don’t find them for a few weeks or months afterwards. Fortunately, I have a few pairs, but it’s my particular favourite ones that seem to get lost the most.
What’s something you once lost that you’d dearly love to find again?
Funny you should ask me that. I had a book of ghost stories when I was about 10 years old and there was one story in particular that has haunted me for years. It was about a ghost boy who befriends a real boy and it’s deliciously, wonderfully creepy. I always wished I could remember what the book was called, or the story’s title or the author’s name but, alas, I’ve never been able to recall anything about it except for the creepy feeling. And then, just recently, I found a folder full of the stories I used to type out for practice when I was learning to type … and there was the first page of the story! It’s called Cassius and it’s by an author called Elizabeth Fancett and it’s in a book called Spectre 1. I’ve managed to track down a second-hand copy on the internet and I can’t wait for it to arrive (though I’ll probably regret it because I’ll be too scared to go to sleep after I’ve read it).
What are the best and worst things to lose?
The best things to lose are memories of dumb things you’ve done because they’re embarrassing and painful to recall. The worst things to lose are memories of dumb things you’ve done because they can also be pretty funny to look back on, and they are great raw material for making funny stories out of.
When you’re bored, what kind of adventures do you like to go on?
Aside from reading books and comics, I like to dig into my record and CD collection and go on musical adventures to all sorts of weird and wonderful musical universes. Peaceful ones, sad ones, silly ones, exciting ones and especially indescribable ones. I’ve always loved music and it helps me a lot when I’m writing to find the right feeling and tone for a story.
As an author, is it more exciting or challenging to create a whole new series?
It’s both exciting AND challenging in equal measure. You’re creating an imaginary world with its own set of rules and possibilities, but you don’t know what they are in advance and the only way to find out is to stumble in there, try lots of things and see what works. The editing and rewriting process is an unlimited process of discovering the world you’re writing about.
Do you ever worry that, one day, you’ll run out of ideas?
No, because like all the lost things in the Lost Things Land, ideas are literally endless. It’s what you do with an idea and how you turn it into a story that, eventually, makes it valuable. But before that ideas are as common as rocks or sticks or leaves that you find on the ground.
No doubt readers will love meeting the bull, the watch and the Knuckleheads (among others!). Will our heroes be meeting up with them again in future books?
I’m not sure about the bull and the watch, but I think we’ll be seeing regular re-appearances from Johnny Knucklehead as the series progresses. Johnny Knucklehead is a no-good double-crossing 15-fingered knucklehead, that’s for sure, but he’s WAY too much fun to leave behind in the first book!
Have you ever lost something really, really precious to you? Jesus told a story about a woman who had 10 silver coins and lost one. It was super important for her to find it because a silver coin in Bible times was worth soooo much money. She searched her house high and low, in corners and under furniture until she found it. Woohoo! She was so happy she told her friends and neighbours, and they had a party. Jesus used this story to explain how precious we are to him. Even if we sometimes forget about him, he always loves us and is always looking for us. And when we ask him to be our friend, he celebrates! “How priceless your faithful love is, God!” (Psalm 36, verse seven).
