Penelope Lively
Penelope Lively
Dame Penelope Margaret Lively DBE FRSLis a British writer of fiction for both children and adults. She has won both the Booker Prizeand the Carnegie Medal for British children's books...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth17 March 1933
money people doe
People die, but money never does.
fashion believe people
There's a fearful term that's in fashion at the moment - closure. People apparently believe it is desirable and attainable.
book reading people
If people don't read, that's their choice; a lifelong book habit may itself be some sort of affliction.
giving people way
Giving presents is one of the most possessive things we do, did you realize that? It's the way we keep a hold on other people. Plant ourselves in their lives.
work people links
We all act as hinges-fortuitous links between other people.
allow characters forms main narrative points version
Conventional forms of narrative allow for different points of view, but for this book I wanted a structure whereby each of the main characters contributed a distinctive version of the story.
english-author raft shot simply since sort stylistic suppose whom writers
Since then, I have just read and read - but, that said, I suppose there is a raft of writers to whom I return again and again, not so much because I want to write like them, even if I were capable of it, but simply for a sort of stylistic shot in the arm.
english-author interest
It was a combination of an intense interest in children's literature, which I've always had, and the feeling that I'd just have a go and see if I could do it.
came greek until
We read Greek and Norse mythology until it came out of our ears. And the Bible.
Deep down I have this atavistic feeling that really I should be in the country.
aspect english-author historian whether
I'm not an historian but I can get interested - obsessively interested - with any aspect of the past, whether it's palaeontology or archaeology or the very recent past.
successful egypt jerusalem
Born in Jerusalem, Wadie Said went from being a dragoman to a salesman in the United States and thence to a hugely successful businessman in Egypt.
writing fiction writing-fiction
You learn a lot, writing fiction.
memories preoccupation operations
There's a preoccupation with memory and the operation of memory and a rather rapacious interest in history.