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Author: Tom Read Wilson and Illustrator Ian Morris visit Wolverhampton Grammar School.
Express & Star
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28/01/2025
Tom Read Wilson was in Wolverhampton along with Ian Morris, illustrator , of a book they have produced. They were at Wolverhampton Grammar School to talk to local school children.
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00:00
So we're here at Wolverhampton Grammar School. Hello guys, how you doing?
00:04
Indeed, we are here and it's a sequel for us.
00:07
It is, isn't it? Yeah.
00:08
And you know what I have to say Steve, it's an absolute boon about coming back,
00:13
is that the first time we came here, it was the very first day of our very first school's talk.
00:19
Yeah.
00:20
With our first book, Every Word Tells a Story.
00:23
And sensing the children's humour and the words they like to chew on
00:27
and the words they were fascinated by and stimulated by,
00:30
actually really inspired our second book.
00:34
Well, that's it, you can actually learn a lot and get inspired because, you know,
00:37
it's kind of that old adage that when you grow up as an adult you can never,
00:40
you forget how to paint and draw as a child. That's what they say, isn't it?
00:44
Oscar Hammerstein wrote, and I actually think I included this lyric in the book,
00:49
in the beginning of Getting to Know You, in The King and I,
00:53
he said that when you become a teacher by your pupils, you'll be taught.
00:57
And I think that's so true. I think we've learnt that.
01:00
Well, as a uni lecturer as well, I learn that all the time from my students.
01:04
I teach at Manchester School of Art in illustration.
01:07
I learn far more from watching them than actually teaching them, which is quite a surprise.
01:12
Yeah, it's such a truism.
01:16
So you're not just here because you love the black country,
01:19
oh, there's a school bell,
01:21
you're not just here because you love the black country and you just want to be in Wolverhampton.
01:24
There's a book, come on, let's have a look, show us the cover.
01:27
Yes, it's been covered by one of the illustrations of me, which I'm so delighted with.
01:34
And this is the book, Wonderful Words That Tell a Tale,
01:37
which is an etymological picture dictionary,
01:41
where every letter of the alphabet is ascribed four words for etymological study
01:48
to look into its roots.
01:50
And the first one is always a beautiful Ian Morris special double page spread
01:55
with a poetic exploration.
01:58
Yeah, because Ian does all your fantastic illustrations, which are gorgeous.
02:02
They are extraordinary.
02:04
And here is a little sample of some of the animals in the book,
02:09
penguin and rugby and astronaut, a sailor of the stars, narwhal, corpse whale.
02:16
Can you give us an example of one of the words in the book?
02:21
Yes, indeed I can.
02:22
That would be fantastic.
02:23
Well, the first one we did today was what many of the children told me they'd had for breakfast,
02:28
which was a croissant.
02:30
And we wanted to explore how it was connected to the moon, which is just about to come out.
02:35
Croissant.
02:37
I just need to hear this word uttered to drool at its pastry, so meltingly buttered.
02:42
But more than the taste, which I think quite delicious,
02:45
I love how its shape hugs the edges of dishes,
02:48
for croissant means crescent,
02:50
and either applies to the sickle-shaped roll or the moon in the skies.
02:55
When French children spy on croissant de luna,
02:59
it's likely that bedtime will be sometime soon.
03:03
Look at that.
03:04
He's good, isn't he?
03:05
He's good.
03:06
He's far better than I am.
03:08
It's crazy, isn't it?
03:09
Because all these stories, these words that we know,
03:13
know so well, but we don't know the origins of them,
03:15
and it's quite fascinating, isn't it, really?
03:17
And the journey to the words that we know,
03:19
I mean, the word after that in the dictionary is dingo,
03:23
which of course is a kind of rather ferocious wild dog in Australia,
03:28
but etymologically it means dog that is tame.
03:31
Oh, wow.
03:32
It's extraordinary, and sometimes the whole thing inverts completely.
03:35
The last word we explored today I think is rather beautiful,
03:39
which is a toy that every child in the room raised their hand
03:42
when I asked if they had one, which is a yo-yo.
03:45
And it is a word from the Philippines,
03:49
and it's the invitation for the yo-yo to come back.
03:51
It simply means come.
03:53
So it's come, come.
03:55
Come, come back up to my hand.
03:57
It's great, isn't it, because it just sparks that little bit of your brain
04:00
and just makes you think about all our language, doesn't it,
04:03
which we just kind of take for granted, really.
04:05
Well, I mean, I'm just thinking, looking down this lens, Steve,
04:10
that it's the lens through which we look at the world if we think that way.
04:15
Because if you suddenly think of a yo-yo being an invitation back to your hand,
04:20
you look at a yo-yo differently.
04:22
And we were talking about squirrels yesterday
04:25
from the Greek skia aura of shadowy tail.
04:29
And now I see one with that sort of dancing feather bow,
04:32
and I can't look at anything but the dancing shadowy tail.
04:35
Very true.
04:36
So it is a lovely lens through which to view life.
04:39
So have they been kind to you here?
04:41
Will you be back again, possibly, if you've had a good time?
04:43
Oh, absolutely.
04:44
We're always felt well-treated at home.
04:46
So we had the most munificent hosts.
04:49
And I have to say, we were talking about the school dinner,
04:52
which is so toothsome, for the intervening two years.
04:57
So we were so excited about it today.
04:59
Fantastic.
05:00
It's not like the ones I remember.
05:02
No, it doesn't sound like the ones I remember either at all.
05:05
Well, it's lovely to see you again, guys.
05:07
And good luck with this project.
05:10
And we'll catch you again another time.
05:13
Thank you very much.
05:15
What inspired you to start writing books?
05:18
Oh, that's such a good question.
05:20
I wanted to make Words and Destroys the way that my dad did with me when I was little
05:27
because he would break words up like a jigsaw puzzle and put them back together again
05:32
so I understood what they meant by the various parts that made the word.
05:38
So I tried to do that in this book, and it was helped enormously by Ian's art
05:44
because it made it so wonderfully clear.
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