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Aileen Paterson - Author
Aileen is a successful children's author, famous for her series of books about Maisie the cat. She was a Brownie, born in Burntisland and brought up Kirkcaldy, Fife."Books are the key to everything... There are still too many homes where there are no books or interest in them."
I love the Royal Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street
- all that glass and airiness, and lofty ceiling. Very
calming building. I hope the renovations will not change
my mind about it.
I also love the colonies in Edinburgh.
Rows of little houses, with outside stairs and washing
on the line. There are quite a few, but the nicest are
in Stockbridge.
My least favourite building may well
be the Parliament, with all those sticks stuck on it,
and grey silhouettes of hairdryers on the walls. Over-decorated
and not very Scottish. Oh dear!
I'm quite old, and my Granny was a great influence, and I was brought up in Burntisland and Kirkcaldy, so Scottish words are still much-used by me every day and in my books. They hit the spot! Some make me laugh… e.g:
SITOOTERIE - The Scottish word for PATIO.
BAHOOKY - The Scottish word for one's hips.
STICK IN TILL YE STICK OOT - Scottish phrase for 'BON APPETIT'!!
I have always drawn, painted, worked as a potter, craft-worker in wood, made life-size rag
dolls, drawn portraits of children - but never thought of writing and illustrating until I was
an Art Teacher at Craigroyston High School, Edinburgh (1980).
In fact, it was a fellow teacher in the English Department who was hoping to become a publisher
(Tom Fenton), who asked if I'd try to think of a children's story set in Scotland, and if I
was any good, he'd publish it. He asked several of his friends but I was the only one who eventually
wrote one.
Maisie comes to Morningside was based on the reactions of my naughty children to a genteel suburban life in a flat after freedom in the country. I suddenly thought of making the heroine a kitten, because we were all cat lovers, but all the settings were and always are, real places.
I'm still surprised to find myself working as a children's writer
and illustrator, but Tom Fenton moved to London and
never did publish my story!
I don't like many of my books, but three of them are OK. Maisie and the PUFFER, a sort of children's
Para Handy tale, after I was offered a free holiday (super) on a puffer, if I'd try to write
a book about it. Drawings fine, story works.
I like Maisie Bites The Big Apple - about New York, involving the Metropolitan Opera House and
three gangster cats. I was keen to do my version of the two Chagall murals in the Opera House
- the rest followed.
I seldom know exactly how a story will evolve until I do drawings and I get ideas from the oddest
things! Maisie Digs Up The Past was inspired by my son's finding of an ancient arrowhead in
a field and I set off to find out about Scotland's history; my knowledge had been rather patchy
until then.
Being a Fifer, I like to think my ancestors were PICTS and painted blue, so I enjoyed making
up the poem at the end of this book.
I was a Brownie in Burntisland, during the 1940's (and
during the Second World War). I enjoyed going to the
meetings with my friends, all arrayed in wee brown uniforms
and woolly hats. I loved the giant toadstool we had.
Alas, I blotted my copybook by being rather naughty
one day and I don't think Brown Owl ever forgave me
! I cannot believe I was so naughty, I was usually quite
obedient and top of my class at school! By the way,
I deeply regret the loss of the traditional brown uniform
which I wore, as did my daughters, and so did Maisie
in Maisie and the Monster.
Of course Guiding should remain all-female environments. To change this would be yet another inexplicable P.C. move. Boys and girls have plenty of opportunities to get together at school and at other clubs. It is nice to be in all-girl or all-boy groups for some things.
I have great respect for Dorothy L. Sayers who wrote detective stories, crammed with erudition. Her life was not an easy one. Also, George Eliot, who wrote Middlemarch. She had a brain the size of Asia, in an age when women weren't expected to show any signs of cleverness.
I'm a Reading Champion - like many who write for children in Scotland, and this scheme was set up fairly recently so that we could all encourage reading, and reading TOGETHER for parents and children.
BOOKS are the key to everything. Well, I'd advise joining the local library, nightly bedtime stories and getting Dads involved. There are still too many homes where there are no books or interest in them. Saturday morning raucous TV is no substitute.
Wouldn't it be nice to have Mary, Queen of Scots in for tea and find out the truth? Was she silly, and was she involved in the death of her husband, and all that sort of thing. Was she beautiful?
Maisie was based on a very quiet cat we had called Charlie, a fluffy tabby. Maisie's character
is more like mine and my children's. I have a cat named Genghis, which was the name he had when
I got him from the Dog and Cat Home.
I fancied calling him Biggles, but he is not a warrior like Genghis Kahn, nor a daring chap
like Biggles. He's a very timid aristocrat, the only one in my house, and he's a Cornish Rex
with curly whiskers. Maisie would scare him.
If I could give a million pounds to charity, it would go to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. This disease affects children.
I loved books as a child. One of my favourites was Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. The two heroes were very different, and far from perfect. I loved all the Mary Poppins books by P. L. Travers, and the Library's huge book of Greek Myths and Legends.
To find out more about Reading Champions please see Read Together
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