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Switching to writing for children

30 June 2008

'Part of the reason why I couldn't finish it is that I think I belong in children's literature. As soon as I thought of writing a children's book my imagination just expanded hugely and all the darkness and the surreal elements that were in my adult novel could still come out but I could deal with them in a more irreverent and playful way. In adult literature there seems to be this pressure to 'say' something, especially something that's 'never been said before', and I realised that I'd been navel-gazing when I was writing for adults, but I found I really enjoyed myself when I started to do it for children.'

Emma Clayton, author of the The Roar, in Publishing News