'The pleasure . . . of telling a story'

 

“The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.  You learn a lot, writing fiction.” –  Penelope Lively

 

Born in Egypt (of British parents) on St. Patrick’s Day in 1933, Lively has authored dozens of books (fiction and nonfiction) for both adults and children, earning a Booker Prize for her adult novel Moon Tiger, and the Carnegie Medal for British Children's Books for The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.   She’s been honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and elected Vice-President of the Friends of the British Library, one of her main causes.

 

Beside novels and short stories, Lively has also written radio and television scripts, presented a radio program, and contributed reviews and articles to various newspapers and journals.

 

While she didn’t start writing until she was almost 40, the prolific Lively has written 32  children’s books, 5 nonfiction books and 22 adult novels or short story collections.  Her latest work Metamorphosis, a short story colletion, was published in 2022.

 

 “Every novel generates its own climate,” she said.  “You just have to get going with it.”  Also a dedicated reader, she added,  “Reading is of the most intense importance to me.  If I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved - probably too starved to go on writing myself.”