| Pete Johnson
Pete Johnson’s fiction provides a heady cocktail
of “compulsive readability” and “emotional
truth”. Often, Pete focuses on extremes of emotion
– fear, love, bereavement. This is writing that begs
to be read and talked about.
THE BASICS
Born: Winchester, April 29th 1965
Jobs: Film extra, Film critic, Teacher, Journalist, Author
Lives: St. Albans, Hertfordshire
First Book for Children: Secrets From The School Underground,
1986
THE BOOKS
When Pete Johnson was ten, he wrote a fan letter to Dodie
Smith – author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians.
She wrote back to him and the two began exchanging letters.
“She was the first person to encourage me to become
a writer,” says Pete, who began sending stories to
publishers at the age of eleven.
After studying English at Birmingham University, Pete worked
as a film critic for some local newspapers. This led to
a plum job as a film critic on Radio One.
It was working as a teacher at a secondary school that
inspired Pete’s first published novel, Secrets From
The School Underground and his short story collection, One
Step Beyond. Pete gained some valuable insight by inviting
his students to comment on his writing. “They helped
to make me tough on my writing,” says Pete, “I
learnt that bad books – and clichés –
arise when a writer doesn’t know enough about his
world.” Today, Pete still regularly visits schools
and libraries to keep in close contact with his readers.
Pete Johnson’s most popular novels have been those
in which the characters experience the strongest emotions.
In We The Haunted and The Dead Hour, Pete’s subject
is bereavement. He drew heavily on his own experience. “People
are immensely sympathetic immediately after someone close
to you dies, but it was six months later when I felt the
pain of loss at its most devastating.” These are the
two books about which Pete receives the most letters.
Several of Pete’s stories have been dramatised for
Radio 4. He has also written plays for radio and theatre
and made several appearances on TV.
Pete is delighted with the enormous feedback he receives
from readers, whether in person or by mail. “I’ve
never read a book that’s so original as your We The
Haunted,” wrote one fan, “It’s as if I
cannot get my head out of the book.” Another wrote
simply, “Thank you for making me mad about reading.”
WHAT HE SAYS...
“Writing is an incredible form of investigation.
I love hearing stories and telling stories. Writing is how
we make sense of our lives. As D H Lawrence observed, ‘we
shed our sickness in our books’.”
“One of the best things an author can do is show
the reader he or she is not on their own.”
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