Michelle Paver
Michelle Paver
Michelle Paveris a British novelist and children's writer, known for the fantasy series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, set in pre-agricultural Stone Age Europe. For the concluding book Ghost Huntershe won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a book award judged by a panel of British children's writers...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 September 1960
experience intense
For a child, reading a book can be such an intense experience.
Even if you plan your book, the actual writing is unplanned.
stories
All stories come from the subconscious - which is why it doesn't make sense to over-plan.
A lot of my writing is wish-fulfilment, making things the way I want them to be.
four hang months until
In a ghost story, usually you've got to hang on until daylight, and you'll be alright. But if daylight's four months away, then you have a problem.
climbed eruption heavy helmet hours quite three watching
I've climbed Stromboli when it's erupting, which is quite a heavy climb: three hours with a helmet to get to the top. When you're there, and it's dark, and you can see this eruption and feel it, it's quite different to watching it on TV.
hard reach
I think true wilderness can still be found, but it's hard to reach and dangerous when you get there, which is probably why it still exists.
age ate chewing experience finland forest gum northern skins sleeping stone travelling tried
To experience the northern forest in the raw, I went to northern Finland and Lapland, travelling on horseback, and sleeping on reindeer skins in the traditional open-fronted Finnish laavu. I ate elk heart, reindeer and lingonberries, and tried out spruce resin: the chewing gum of the Stone Age.
asked diagnosed hating life litigation terminal
When my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1991, I asked him if he had any regrets, and he said no. I was a burnt-out litigation solicitor in my thirties, hating my life, and his cancer made me re-evaluate it all.
age aware based late northern novel stone storm
My novel 'Wolf Brother' is set in northern Scandinavia during the late Stone Age, so I was aware from the start of Norse influences. I used some Norse names, and the soul-eater Thiazzi is based on the Norse storm giant, Thiassi.
When a wolf doesn't want to do something, they look really cute.
age bear bed kid love might realise remember rid simple slept stone
I wanted to write a very simple story about a boy, a wolf, a girl, a bear and a forest, so I thought I might set it in the past. I didn't realise that it went back to when I was 10: I used to love the Stone Age when I was a kid and wanted to live in it, and I got rid of my bed and slept on the floor, but I didn't remember it.
arrows carry details fly fungus love maybe owl piece wrapped
It's the little details I love. How to fletch your arrows with owl feathers, because owls fly silently, so maybe your arrows will, too. How to carry fire in a piece of smouldering fungus wrapped in birchbark. These are the things which help a world come alive.
cottage family love mobile move nowhere rent
I would love to live in the wilds of nowhere, and when writing 'Chronicles,' I would occasionally rent a cottage in the middle of nowhere that had no mobile reception, but I'm not about to move away from my family.