A Series of Unfor tunate Murders
Lemony Snicket and Holly Jackson at the Oxford Literary Festival on Sunday, March 24
Review by JON LEWIS
AMERICAN writer Lemony Snicket (real name Daniel Handler) and British young adult novelist Holly Jackson gave entertaining talks at the Oxford Literary Festival in rooms packed with young fans.
They are drawn to the dark side of life. Handler revealed that it was “fun to kill off the parents” of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Beaudelaire for his thirteen novels in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Indeed, Handler started his talk by playing a game of hangman with his interviewer, author Jack Meggitt-Phillips, jovially enjoying his interlocutor’s avatar getting closer to the noose.
Handler, who has been in Oxford with his family on a fellowship at All Souls College while researching his next book about an Italian villa with
its sculpture garden, revealed his first piece of writing at elementary school was about an egg that loved a radio. Friends drew pictures for the story, his first collaboration with illustrators.
He used to take books home from the library which didn’t have covers and hoping they were good. His favourite children’s book was Dino Buzatti’s The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, which had one character as a werewolf. Handler mused that “a disadvantage of being a werewolf is that you wake up naked in a ditch”. Holly Jackson’s favourite author is the American crime novelist Harlan Coben. She said: “I just read all of them – not appropriate for an 11-yearold … but I turned out fine.” Her love of true crime fiction set Jackson on her path of writing the Good Girl Guide to Murder trilogy.
Her new standalone novel, The Reappearance of Rachel Price, is set in America about a woman, presumed dead, who returns to her family after many years. Her daughter, Belle, was only two when she disappeared becomes a kind of detective to work out what has happened.
Jackson wanted to write a novel in real time, inspired by the US series 24, but making it more realistic: “I’ve never seen Jack Bauer have a wee.” Most of her research was on Google Street View to describe the town in the novel.
Two compelling storymakers.