Author: Tom Read Wilson and Illustrator Ian Morris visit Wolverhampton Grammar School.

Express & Star

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.

Transcript

00:00So we're here at Wolverhampton Grammar School. Hello guys, how you doing?

00:04Indeed, we are here and it's a sequel for us.

00:07It is, isn't it? Yeah.

00:08And you know what I have to say Steve, it's an absolute boon about coming back,

00:13is that the first time we came here, it was the very first day of our very first school's talk.

00:19Yeah.

00:20With our first book, Every Word Tells a Story.

00:23And sensing the children's humour and the words they like to chew on

00:27and the words they were fascinated by and stimulated by,

00:30actually really inspired our second book.

00:34Well, that's it, you can actually learn a lot and get inspired because, you know,

00:37it's kind of that old adage that when you grow up as an adult you can never,

00:40you forget how to paint and draw as a child. That's what they say, isn't it?

00:44Oscar Hammerstein wrote, and I actually think I included this lyric in the book,

00:49in the beginning of Getting to Know You, in The King and I,

00:53he said that when you become a teacher by your pupils, you'll be taught.

00:57And I think that's so true. I think we've learnt that.

01:00Well, as a uni lecturer as well, I learn that all the time from my students.

01:04I teach at Manchester School of Art in illustration.

01:07I learn far more from watching them than actually teaching them, which is quite a surprise.

01:12Yeah, it's such a truism.

01:16So you're not just here because you love the black country,

01:19oh, there's a school bell,

01:21you're not just here because you love the black country and you just want to be in Wolverhampton.

01:24There's a book, come on, let's have a look, show us the cover.

01:27Yes, it's been covered by one of the illustrations of me, which I'm so delighted with.

01:34And this is the book, Wonderful Words That Tell a Tale,

01:37which is an etymological picture dictionary,

01:41where every letter of the alphabet is ascribed four words for etymological study

01:48to look into its roots.

01:50And the first one is always a beautiful Ian Morris special double page spread

01:55with a poetic exploration.

01:58Yeah, because Ian does all your fantastic illustrations, which are gorgeous.

02:02They are extraordinary.

02:04And here is a little sample of some of the animals in the book,

02:09penguin and rugby and astronaut, a sailor of the stars, narwhal, corpse whale.

02:16Can you give us an example of one of the words in the book?

02:21Yes, indeed I can.

02:22That would be fantastic.

02:23Well, the first one we did today was what many of the children told me they'd had for breakfast,

02:28which was a croissant.

02:30And we wanted to explore how it was connected to the moon, which is just about to come out.

02:35Croissant.

02:37I just need to hear this word uttered to drool at its pastry, so meltingly buttered.

02:42But more than the taste, which I think quite delicious,

02:45I love how its shape hugs the edges of dishes,

02:48for croissant means crescent,

02:50and either applies to the sickle-shaped roll or the moon in the skies.

02:55When French children spy on croissant de luna,

02:59it's likely that bedtime will be sometime soon.

03:03Look at that.

03:04He's good, isn't he?

03:05He's good.

03:06He's far better than I am.

03:08It's crazy, isn't it?

03:09Because all these stories, these words that we know,

03:13know so well, but we don't know the origins of them,

03:15and it's quite fascinating, isn't it, really?

03:17And the journey to the words that we know,

03:19I mean, the word after that in the dictionary is dingo,

03:23which of course is a kind of rather ferocious wild dog in Australia,

03:28but etymologically it means dog that is tame.

03:31Oh, wow.

03:32It's extraordinary, and sometimes the whole thing inverts completely.

03:35The last word we explored today I think is rather beautiful,

03:39which is a toy that every child in the room raised their hand

03:42when I asked if they had one, which is a yo-yo.

03:45And it is a word from the Philippines,

03:49and it's the invitation for the yo-yo to come back.

03:51It simply means come.

03:53So it's come, come.

03:55Come, come back up to my hand.

03:57It's great, isn't it, because it just sparks that little bit of your brain

04:00and just makes you think about all our language, doesn't it,

04:03which we just kind of take for granted, really.

04:05Well, I mean, I'm just thinking, looking down this lens, Steve,

04:10that it's the lens through which we look at the world if we think that way.

04:15Because if you suddenly think of a yo-yo being an invitation back to your hand,

04:20you look at a yo-yo differently.

04:22And we were talking about squirrels yesterday

04:25from the Greek skia aura of shadowy tail.

04:29And now I see one with that sort of dancing feather bow,

04:32and I can't look at anything but the dancing shadowy tail.

04:35Very true.

04:36So it is a lovely lens through which to view life.

04:39So have they been kind to you here?

04:41Will you be back again, possibly, if you've had a good time?

04:43Oh, absolutely.

04:44We're always felt well-treated at home.

04:46So we had the most munificent hosts.

04:49And I have to say, we were talking about the school dinner,

04:52which is so toothsome, for the intervening two years.

04:57So we were so excited about it today.

04:59Fantastic.

05:00It's not like the ones I remember.

05:02No, it doesn't sound like the ones I remember either at all.

05:05Well, it's lovely to see you again, guys.

05:07And good luck with this project.

05:10And we'll catch you again another time.

05:13Thank you very much.

05:15What inspired you to start writing books?

05:18Oh, that's such a good question.

05:20I wanted to make Words and Destroys the way that my dad did with me when I was little

05:27because he would break words up like a jigsaw puzzle and put them back together again

05:32so I understood what they meant by the various parts that made the word.

05:38So I tried to do that in this book, and it was helped enormously by Ian's art

05:44because it made it so wonderfully clear.

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