The tale of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of time’s most famous love stories --- a pair comes together through the power of music, and ill-fated snake bite kills Eurydice on their wedding day, and Orpheus goes all the way to the underworld to bring her back. Considering David Almond’s newest book A SONG FOR ELLA GREY is based on this ancient Greek tale --- this time, following high school students in Northern England --- we had to ask, does he consider himself a romantic?
See his answer below, and be sure to head to the next stop on the A SONG FOR ELLA GREY blog tour!
I’m a grown man but there’s a baby still inside me, there’s a child still inside me, there’s a teenager still inside me. I’m a writer and to write is to make imaginative leaps into other minds, other bodies, other worlds. To write is to take part in the ever-moving process of creation, to draw readers/listeners into the worlds and characters I create. My readers share the journey and the process with me. I love writing for the young. The universe is very ancient. Our society is very old. But for each young person, the universe, the world, our society is brand new and filled with excitement and possibility. Each time a child is born, the universe is recreated. Everything is new --- every leaf, every bird, every song, every moment of joy, every moment of danger. Each time a teenager falls in love it is the first time anyone has fallen in love.
Once I found the right tone, the right characters, the right voice, the right words, the right settings, I wrote A SONG FOR ELLA GREY with a great sense of excitement. I felt the yearnings, joys and dreads of Claire and Ella, I was entranced by Orpheus and his music and troubled by the deep sense of danger that suffused him. It’s an ancient tale --- a girl falls in love with the greatest singer the world has ever known, he falls in love with her, she dies, he travels to the underworld to bring her back to life again. The tale has been told and retold through the centuries. It has been told in music, drama, poetry, film, song, dance, fiction. It’s tale that has fascinated me as long as I can remember. It seemed time to create my own retelling, and to set it among ordinary modern teenagers in an ordinary modern world --- the streets and beaches of Northern England, where I was born and where I live today.
Am I a romantic? Perhaps. I want love to be as strong as death. I want music and art to transform us. I want words to reach to the furthest fringes of space and time and to resonate in the depths of the soul. I want us all to be happy, to be excited by our lives and our possibilities. I know that such yearnings are impossible, but still I want to feel them and somehow to communicate them…
DAVID ALMOND grew up in a large family in northeastern England and says, “The place and the people have given me many of my stories.” His first novel for children, SKELLIG, was a Michael L. Printz Honor Book and an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book and appeared on many Best Book of the Year lists. He wrote MY NAME IS MINE, the prequel to SKELLIG. His novel KIT'S WILDERNESS won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. David Almond is a recipient of the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. He lives in England. Visit him online at davidalmond.com and on Facebook and follow @davidjalmond on Twitter.
