Michelle Paver

Were you interested in writing when you Author of the Chronicles of were at school? What was your favourite subject? Ancient Darkness, Michelle Paver, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t like talks to Rebecca Wallis about the writing stories: when I was five, I wrote one inspiration behind Torak’s story. called “Ebany the Mouse Goddess” on my mother’s typewriter. English was one of my Author Profile favourite subjects, and this was mostly due to a wonderful, inspirational teacher who used to read aloud abridged versions of the classics. By the time I was ten, she’d read us (among other things) The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Woman in White, and children’s versions of the Greek myths. I also had amazing history and biology teachers. I remember peering through a microscope at colonies of bacteria we’d grown on petri dishes by pressing our fingertips to the agar; this sparked a lifelong love of biochemistry. And there was an unforgettable history assignment in which I had to write as if I were one of the Pilgrim settlers in America; this opened my eyes to the imaginative reality of history. MICHELLE paVER PCP Photocopy or download from scholastic.co.uk/literacytime The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness three hundred miles through a Finnish forest stories are set in the Stone Age. What is it and talked to Sami hunters to pick up tips on about this period that intrigues you? hunting, carrying fire, and tracking animals. I Even before I could read, I loved the Stone slept on reindeer skins in a traditional open- Age, because my parents had a big, beautiful fronted Finnish shelter, which gave me the book (which I still have) of archaeologically idea for the Raven Clan’s shelters; and I ate plausible paintings of how people lived then. I forest berries, spruce resin (which Torak’s used to lie on my tummy and lose myself in the people used for medicinal chewing gum), Author Profile pictures. As I grew older, I read more about reindeer moss, and elk (ie, moose). the Stone Age, and when I was ten, I tried to live the life myself. I got rid of my bed and For Spirit Walker, slept on the floor. I grew wild herbs to make I went to the Stone Age medicines. And I bought a (dead) Lofoten islands off rabbit with my pocket money and skinned it. I the coast of north think what fascinated (and still fascinates) me Norway at the time is the fact that hunter-gatherers managed to of the midnight sun, survive by finding or making everything they to get ideas for the needed – food, weapons, shelter and clothes Seal Islands. I also – simply from what was around them: that is, went to Greenland from rocks, plants, trees and animals. Imagine to learn how the trying to do that in February in the Arctic, and Inuit traditionally you’ll get some idea of how immensely skilled built kayaks, hunted and resourceful Torak’s people were. seals and made their hide clothes; How do you research your ideas and I tried some of for Torak, Renn and Wolf’s their food (whale, surroundings and adventures? seal, seaweed etc), because that’s what Torak My aim is to make the reader feel eats when he’s with the Seal Clan. Probably that they’re right there in the the best bit, though, was when I swam with Forest, having the adventure some wild killer whales. Floating in that deep with Torak, Renn and Wolf. To green water and hearing the whales whistling do that, I try as far as possible and clicking to each other, then seeing a big to experience what Torak male killer whale swimming directly beneath experiences in the stories. me, was one of the most unforgettable Thus for Wolf Brother, I rode experiences in all my research. PCP Photocopy or download from scholastic.co.uk/literacytime Author Profile For Soul Eater, I went back to Greenland, this back to Lapland in the winter, and snow-shoed time in winter, to do some husky-sledding, and through the silent forest, following the tracks to study traditional Inuit methods of survival of a female elk. I also spend time wandering in extreme cold. I also did some tracking in the mountains of Dovrefjell National Park in the snow in the Carpathian Mountains of Norway, where I tried (and sometimes failed) Transylvania (Romania), and went to Churchill, to avoid the musk-oxen, and Manitoba, to observe wild polar bears up spent hours gathering their close. To research Outcast, I went to northern amazingly light, warm wool, Sweden, where I encountered elk and beaver which had got snagged on in the lake country, and saw some wonderful bushes. I also climbed most rock carvings made by people who lived of the way to the summit about six thousand years ago. I also got to of Mount Snøhetta, which know some wolf cubs, which was probably gave me inspiration for the the most fun part of my research: getting Mountain of Ghosts. On chewed, nosed and generally pawed by three the way down, I fell and boisterous and impossibly cute bundles of bashed my cheekbone fluff! on the rocks, which told me just how For Oath Breaker I went to an ancient forest Torak feels when he in Poland, where I encountered bison and a falls down the stone species of wild horse. For Ghost Hunter I went waterfall in the story. PCP Photocopy or download from scholastic.co.uk/literacytime With the exception of the odd mountain As I grew a bit older and read more about mishap, going on research trips is one of wolves, I came to love them for themselves. the best things about writing these books. (I even pestered my parents for one, but as However, it’s crucial not to include too much we lived in London, they gave me a spaniel of the research in the stories. You may be instead.) For the Torak books, I’ve made surprised to learn that I only include a tiny part friends with the wolves at the UK Wolf of what I’ve learned: maybe about one per Conservation Trust in Berkshire. These wolves cent. The challenge is to put in just enough aren’t wild, but they’re not tame either, as you Author Profile to make the reader feel they’re there, without can’t really tame a wolf, so when you meet clogging up the story. them, you need to obey wolf good manners. Over the years, I’ve got to know some of these Which of your characters in the wolves, and they know me, so we give each Chronicles do you most identify with? other a real wolf greeting when I visit. When I I identify a lot with Torak, who’s a loner, like was writing Outcast, the Trust acquired some me; and also with Renn, as cubs whom I got to know from she can be rather sharp I pestered when they were tiny. The Trust and critical (also like me). my parents named the male cub Torak, and Really, though, I identify with he’s my favourite. Best of all, all my characters when I’m for a wolf, but though, was the day I spent writing about them, even as we lived in introducing Ian McKellen to the Soul-Eaters. However, London, they gave the wolves. Ian has performed I find the sections written the magnificent recordings of from Wolf’s point of view me a spaniel all six books in the series, and easiest to write, so maybe instead he seems to have an instinctive I identify with him the understanding of wolves, so I most. Why should that be? Perhaps it’s partly knew he would get on with them just fine. And because, when I was a baby in central Africa, so he did. my parents had a large, wolf-like Alsation dog called Sheba, who kind of adopted me as her Can you tell us a little about your interest cub. Sheba was very protective, to the extent in archaeology? that my parents could leave me quite safely I’ve been interested in the past since before with Sheba in their overgrown, jungle-like I could read, and have always loved ancient garden, knowing that no snake could get near myths and legends. For the Torak books, I me. did a lot of library research about the people PCP Photocopy or download from scholastic.co.uk/literacytime of Torak’s time, the Mesolithic, finding out What did you like to read as a child, and what we know about their clothes, shelters, what do you enjoy reading now? weapons and food. But of course, we As a child, I read all the time. Every week I don’t really know what they believed. For would visit Wimbledon Library and take home example, what did they think about life and an armful of books (in fact, I still do). When I death, and their fellow creatures? For that, was very small, I loved the Moomin books by I’ve studied anthropology, particularly the Tove Jansson and the Adventure books by ways of more recent hunter-gatherers, such Willard Price (Lion Adventure and Volcano Author Profile as some American Indian Adventure were tribes (particularly those of particular favourites). the Pacific Northwest), the The more you I also adored books Inuit, the Ainu of Japan, the write, the more in which fantasy was San and Eboe of Africa, the you’ll learn: about mixed with reality, such Aborigines of Australia, and what works and what as Elidor by Alan Garner, many others.

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