Rating: **** 4 stars

Joanna Carey,
An Interview with Jamila Gavin.
Egmont, 2002.

(reviewed together with An Interview with J K Rowling)
This series is a good way to find out more about favourite authors and their published works. Titles already published feature Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Gillian Cross and Anne Fine.

Both books begin with an interview (n the case of Gavin illustrated with plenty of engaging family snaps), which steers sensibly clear of the totally sensational and inane, like fave food and birth signs, and concentrates instead on family and childhood influences and on the writing career and the books themselves. There follows an overview by the compiler and a comprehensive bibliography.

There's plenty of quiet integrity in this series, which should be welcomed by teachers and librarians to drum up interest in writers and their art and to provide readable, engaging material for young readers, who want to know some serious facts about their favourite authors. I'll be using it as approachable, worthwhile non-fiction in the National Framework for English. Worth it in anybody's money!

David Bennett