Northern Highlight - Francis Martin
NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT
Why did you become a writer/illustrator?
The vain conceit that if I worked hard enough I might be able to entertain people even children with the stories that I think up.
Tell us about where you live.
Just prior to the pandemic I was moving into my new home on the banks of the Leeds Liverpool Canal near Burnley. Now I have to stay a little longer in Liverpool which is no hardship. As I am next to Sefton Park which is one of the most magical places I know. We have a statue of Eros in the centre made from the same cast as the one in Piccadilly Circus, the same statue of Peter Pan that resides in Kensington Gardens. All surrounded by the most beautiful landscape courtesy of the same bloke (Édouard André) who designed the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.
Where do you illustrate?
I haven’t been able to move into my new studio yet. It has a sink and a window overlooking Pendle Hill. Hopefully access to limitless tea and a panoramic panoramas will unleash my creative urges. The only painting I have done in it so far is two coats of emulsion on the ceiling.
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| Cover design by Anders Frang |
What for you is the 'spirit of the North’?
When I came to Liverpool and Manchester in the early 80s what struck me first was seeing the wild creative butterflies, aesthetes and artists who poured out of the art schools, music clubs and vintage clothes shops into what were literally very grey neglected cities. Proud to be different, weird, putting creativity at the centre of their lives when all around the world seemed in decline. Just being into art seemed like an act of rebellion. Now I love and come from London but very often London forgets that it’s the capital of a whole country. So much of the culture, technology, science that has transformed the world originated in the North but still the world views London as being the whole country. It’s frustrating that cities of the magnificence of Manchester, Newcastle or Leeds are referred to as provincial. Would Italians consider, Milan, Naples or Bologna as ‘provincial’ ? Would Germans see Munich or Frankfurt as backwaters?
Has this spirit influenced your work?
I have always felt that if the fantastical and the weird isn’t juxtaposed with well observed reality it loses it’s power to create awe and wonder in the audience. So in my interpretation of the Spirit of the North there needs to be a tension between the everyday and pragmatic with the imaginative and maybe flamboyant.
Who for you are the great northern children’s writers?
As a student in Liverpool I kept getting introduced to Adrian Henri at social occasions but he kept forgetting so I’d be introduced again. I read his poetry after he died and wished I had valued him whilst he lived. Amongst the living I have had the pleasure of meeting and hearing the beautiful poetry of Dom Conlon.
If you could be transported to anywhere in the North right now, where would it be?
Very poignant at the moment as I am locked in. Running in front of the sand dunes at Formby with Chip my daughter’s dog watching the cargo ships come in and out of the Mersey estuary with Welsh mountains in the background.
What would you like to see from children's publishing in the North?
It would be great if children’s literature in the North managed the trick of having a powerful sense of place whilst at the same time reaching out across the world.
What's your favourite children's book set in the North?
Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter, the original bad boy of children’s literature. Take that Miffy.
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