Q&A with Lisette Auton all about The Secret of Haven Point

What inspired you to write this book?

My love of the north east coast. Place always comes first for me when I write, then I begin to populate it with characters, theme, plot. But until I have a place and setting I find it very hard to pin anything down.  The setting of the book is where I spent my childhood with my family. This then married up with the dearth of books with disabled characters having an adventure. Not just one disabled character who sits on the sidelines, is the baddie, or gets magically fixed, but a whole book full of adventuring disabled and neurodivergent children! It was really important to me that they were definitely northern too. Once I had the idea about Cap’n with a kitten in his beard and the fierce mermaids there was no going back, the book begged to be written.

How would you suggest primary teachers use this book?  

First of all, as reading for pleasure. It’s a cracking adventure, and there is something brilliant about this just being an adventure story that just happens to have disabled characters in lead roles. I’ve loved the feedback from people who have finally felt that their lives have been represented, but also from those who have just loved that there are magic ships in bottles! Then it could lead to discussions about things like the social model of disability, and access - leading on from the section ‘On Language’ in the front of the book. Activism too - what issues do you really care about and how can we creatively champion them? A good discussion could be about other things that are missing from our bookshelves - what’s important to you, about you, your friends and family, where you live that you would want to champion? A hunt for more books by underrepresented authors would be brilliant. And as a creative leap off into the ultimate question - what would you keep in your beard?

What motivated you to begin a career in writing/illustrating?

I’ve always loved words and stories. They’ve been a massive part of my life - getting my own library card was one of my very best days. I didn’t know what an author was though, until Anne Fine came to visit my school and I had a complete lightbulb moment - that could be my job? I’m not sure where I thought books came from before then, my dad worked in manufacturing, so maybe by a machine on a conveyor belt? The human element and the possibility of this being part of my life was just entirely absent. That’s why artists of all kinds visiting schools are so important, especially for children like I was without creative roles in the family. I studied devised performance at university (make it up as you go along acting) at university and that’s when impairment struck. Making up stories in my head was one of the only things I could still do for a number of years, and the need for creativity grew from that. I got onto a development programme with Writers’ Block North East which gave me technical skills, confidence and very importantly a community of writers. The massive motivation to get the book published was knowing that this was the book I had needed to read, and it was missing from shelves.

What are the major influences in your work and how do you decide on your subjects?

Daydreams and naps. They are key! It’s where all the things I’ve overheard, seen, read, wondered about go into a liminal ‘What if…?’ space and they collide together. We need to make more time for daydreaming! For me, once I keep repeating myself in my notes, or going round in circles, I realise I’ve probably come to a ‘THING’ and it’s time to see whether it can be a ‘SOMETHING’. I read avidly (rabidly?!), anything I can lay my hands on, and listen to the World Service through the night. I love the random and chaotic collisions my brain makes with these things, and it’s a matter of tentatively following them until they lead somewhere exciting.

Which books had a lasting impact on you as a child and why?

‘The House at Pooh Corner’ by A.A Milne was the first book I remember my dad reading to me as a bedtime story. I loved the map in the front, the friendship, but mainly how brilliant it was to read out loud. That’s something I try to remember and keep in my writing, that stories are not just for the page, but to be told and enjoyed as stories read out loud together.

Discover The Secret of Haven Point by Lisette Auton published by Puffin (3rd February 2022)...