in hospital for six months in 1977, he stopped eating altogether, and died of malnutrition. The central character in White Rabbit Red Wolf is a maths prodigy also. The tagline of the book is a paradox: ’This story is a lie’, stems from Kurt’s obsession with the uncertain, as Gödel’s greatest contribution to mathematics, the incompleteness theorems, were inspired by the liar’s paradox. I came to Dulwich in 1992, aged eight, and I was struck by how enormous the playground was. Who was your favourite teacher? Mr Eyre [Kim Eyre, Teacher of English]. Because I was a coaster. If 70% got you an A, 71% was a waste of effort. Eyre helped me see it wasn’t so much what was asked of me, but rather what I could achieve. And he was passionate about his subject. And charismatic! If you could go back and give your schoolboy-self one piece of advice, what would it be? Do more! There were and are fantastic opportunities available to boys here, and I wish I had taken up some of them sooner. I only really learned to think and work hard in the last year of university, so I would tell myself to start earlier. How do you tackle writers’ block? Writers’ block normally comes from having standards too high, too early on. Write something, anything, and you can change it later. What’s your first memory of the College?
Why do you write young adult fiction? The thing about YA novels is that they are not only for young adults. Not everyone who picks up a murder mystery novel is a serial killer! They feature young adults, but are about themes of growing up, carving out a path for yourself, how you find your path of engaging with the world and how it engages with you. Do you have any tips for budding writers? Write! And read. Talent is important, but it comes a distant second to loving the act of writing enough that you spend enough time doing it to get good at it. Write what you want to write. Write what gets you writing. Finish things. I have many author friends with lots of unfinished works. Once you finish it, even if it is terrible, you can fix it. A good book does not come from the wanting to be a writer, but from wanting to create something that fills that you-shaped hole in the writing landscape – the book you desperately
want to read but that doesn’t exist. That is what will drive you to create your piece.
Keep moving forwards.
How much of the book is based on your own experience?
That’s always the first question journalists ask you, because, of
course, your book is based on some of your own experiences. The fear element of White Rabbit Red Wolf was certainly my own. The panic disorder was similar to my own. However, I was certainly no maths prodigy. It was always a secret language I would marvel at from a distance but never come close to mastering. You can only write from your own experience. You write about fear how you know it, but you can change the stimulus. I can describe fear, but I change what makes the character in my fiction afraid. Who is going to win the world cup? Germany. (This was before they lost 0–1 to Mexico.)
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