From the Reluctant Writer... Mari Howard (Clare Weiner)
Desk and tools! Some writers say ‘I always wanted to write’ and they can point to reading out to the class a story they had written, aged about six. My stories were always drawings, but always ‘narrative’ drawings, as the A-level art teacher described them. Writing, as such, evolved much later, after school, after university. My stories come straight from my interest in people, their motivations, their underlying cultural beliefs, what they want from life. School is a microcosm of society and it’s where aged five, I first realised the enormous differences between me and the other children. Why, for example, do some kids bunch together as a group in the Wendy House, and then disallow any others to join them? It seems some of us arrive at school to discover we attended the “wrong” nursery! What makes kids think “us and you” style? Why does someone come behind and pinch you, or kick you under the table in class? So, I became fascinated by people and observed them, trying to f...