Arvon and the things we forget: N M Browne
I have just returned from an inspirational Arvon residential course at Tottleigh Barton. At least I found it inspirational, I cannot necessarily make the claim for the sixteen eleven year olds from Newham I was tutoring. These days I generally work with adults, tutoring and supervising MA students and much as I enjoy that, there is nothing like the mind of a child. Years ago, when I first started writing for young people, I was often asked if I wrote for my own young children. My answer was always ‘No.’ I would fix my interlocutor with a beady eye and firmly state that I wrote for the child I had been and to some extent remained. It is true that I have always written the kind of story that would have excited me as a child. I’ve got a little wiser and a great deal greyer but haven’t changed that much in any essential way: I still love strange tales of magic and transformation, other worlds and secret powers. I have added to the repertoire of stories I love, but subtrac...