Ask the Author: Charlie Lovett
Answered Questions (6)
Charlie Lovett
No, I made up The Tremendous Trio—they are not directly based on any pre-existing series. However, as you no doubt know, there were scores of such series, so I'm sure there are similarities with others.
Charlie Lovett
Keen's Cottage is a holiday rental when we are not there. It can be booked through Manor Cottages, Burford.
Charlie Lovett
I did not read Monmouth, other than a few excerpts, but I did read a fair amount of Malory. While I read certain sections in the 1634 Stansby edition, because I wanted to quote from that edition, I mostly used the 1917 Arthur Rackaham illustrated edition (the one Arthur's grandfather buys him). Incidentally, the copy of that book I have belonged to my grandfather, so there is a nice symmetry to the whole thing. When I taught Arthurian legends to seventh-graders, we used the Roger Lancelyn Green edition (also interesting to me because Green was the original editor of Lewis Carroll's diaries and because I knew his son, Richard—but I digress . . .)
Charlie Lovett
My father collected different editions of Robinson Crusoe, which led me, as a young man, to consider the idea not just of book collecting, but of single title collecting. I had enjoyed listening to records of the Alice book as a child, so I decided to pursue Alice as a collector. Only later did I discover its amazing history of publication and cultural influence as well as the fascinating life and other works of its creator. Now my collection, though still filled with Alice, might better be called Lewis Carroll and His World.
Charlie Lovett
Absolutely. I am lucky enough to live in the woods even though I am in a city—right now I'm looking out over the last of the autumn color on a sunny morning, the remaining leaves fluttering in a light breeze. I think the peacefulness of that view probably comes out in parts of my writing.
Charlie Lovett
Thanks for the question, Alex. I'm in the very early stages of work on my next novel (even though the new one isn't even out yet) so I can't say too much because I don't know too much. I do know that parts of it will be set in New York City in the early 20th century and that at least one of the characters grew up on boys adventure novels, yellow-backs, dime, novels, etc. But he also read what we now think of as early science fiction. So, I've been rereading Jules Verne (for example) but also reading (for the first time) H. G. Wells. I'm also trying to delve into the history (and social history) of New York at the time so I've been reading a lot of newspapers from the Library of Congress digital archive. I will probably read some academic studies at some point, but I really prefer that raw reporting one gets in original newspapers—and even if those reports are flawed, they are the reports my characters would have read.
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