SMITH, Derek 1943-

PERSONAL: Born July 30, 1943, in Long Whatton, England; children: Becky Rees. Hobbies and other interests: Films, reading, walking.

ADDRESSES: Home and offıce—82B Earlham Grove, Forest Gate, London E7 9AR, England. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER: Gardener, writer, and book publisher.

MEMBER: Newham Writers Workshop, Amnesty International.

AWARDS, HONORS: Pick of the Year 1996 list, Federation for Children's Book Groups, and shortlisted, Children's Book Award, 1997, for Frances Fairweather Demon Striker!; David Thomas Prize for best self-published children's book of 1999, for The Good Wolf; 100 Best Books for 2001, British Book Trust, for Lucy-Anne's Changing Ways.

WRITINGS:

for children

Hard Cash, Faber & Faber (London, England), 1991.

The Magical World of Lucy-Anne, illustrated by Tony Kenyon, Walker (London, England), 1995.

Frances Fairweather Demon Striker! Faber & Faber (London, England), 1996.

The Good Wolf, illustrated by Abi Bown, Earlham Books (London, England), 1999.

Lucy-Anne's Changing Ways, illustrated by Abi Bown, Earlham Books (London, England), 2000.

Half a Bike, Faber & Faber (London, England), 2001.

other

The Strikers of Hanbury Street and Other East End Tales, AP Ltd., 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Derek Smith's early readers and young adult novels are noted for their humor, pacing, and subtle depths. Smith introduced the world to Lucy-Anne in The Magical World of Lucy-Anne, a series of short stories for beginning readers that reviewers found delightful. In this book, and its follow-up, Lucy-Anne's Changing Ways, Lucy-Anne's imagination turns the events of an ordinary day—riding the bus with her father, taking in the laundry from the line in the yard, and so forth—into extraordinary adventures. In addition, Lucy-Anne's imagination comes in handy when her Dad's beans stop growing, or when the snowman's frozen neck needs a rub. "The conversations she has in all six adventures show great imagination on the author's part," remarked a contributor to the Junior Bookshelf. Smith's character "will be loved by children for many years to come," concluded a reviewer for the Book Trust. For a slightly older crowd, Smith wrote The Good Wolf, a sort of twisted fairy tale about a wolf who can't bear to be a carnivore, and helps save Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Pigs from his own bloodthirsty relatives. Although David Churchill writing in School Librarian remarked that a vegetarian willing to put his own siblings to death in defense of his principles "sounds a bit bleak," "the story-telling, with its dilemmas, tension, action and humour . . . is so good" that Smith pulls it off.

Smith's young adult novels are more firmly grounded in realism than his early-reader fare. Reviewers were more than usually affected by the dilemma that faces ten-year-old Frances in Frances Fairweather Demon Striker!, about a girl whose love of football drives her to disguise herself as a boy in order to play. When Frances's teacher and father forbid her to participate on the girl's football team because of her poor schoolwork, Frances becomes Frank, an ace footballer for the boys' team and all is well, until the day the boys' team faces off against the girls'. Some reviewers predicted that many young readers would be initially attracted to the football element, but would find themselves with a much more intriguing story on their hands, one that might make them question what it means to be a boy or girl. "The puzzles of identity thrown up by Frances/Frank's dilemma are an intriguing addition to a satisfying story," concluded Peter Andrews in School Librarian.

Also for the young adult crowd is Hard Cash, a novel in which a couple of poor urban would-be orphans find a load of obviously stolen cash and decide to spend it. Reviewers noted that the option of turning in the money for a reward hardly occurs to these children, whose primary role models are their drunken or criminal parents. When Shorty and Warby realize that they can't spend their loot in the local shops, they enlist the help of their friends and siblings, and then Shorty's ne'er-do-well father is on to them and the action of the plot begins to snowball. School Librarian reviewer Marcus Crouch called Hard Cash "an immoral story with a last-minute moral ending," and added that "Derek Smith handles the first-person narrative brilliantly." Just as reviewers were pleasantly surprised to uncover another level to Smith's novel Frances Fairweather Demon Striker!, so they found that the humor, fast-pacing, and action-packed plot of Hard Cash are just the beginning of this story. "There are some sound, hard lessons in this cautionary tale," remarked a contributor to Junior Bookshelf, continuing: "There is also much understanding, much exploration of complicated relationships, much destruction of illusions." Similarly, Roy in Smith's young adult novel Half a Bike is a kid whose lack of family resources, in terms of emotional as well as financial support, leads him to behave in ways with serious consequences.

Smith told CA: "I have lived most of my life in the East End of London. I have for many years been involved in community projects in the area—as writerin-residence for Soapbox Theatre in Newham in London, as one of the founders of Page One bookshop in Stratford (London)—and as a co-op development worker in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. I have had plays performed on radio, television and the stage in the UK as well as my published work for children.

"I didn't begin writing for children until I was forty-eight. I had up to that time been writing mostly plays. I began with them as I thought they would be easier (with no description) but quickly found they had their own difficulties.

"My first novel was a total mess. I had been writing plays and had no understanding of things like viewpoint. Well, I hadn't needed to until then. So I went on a writing course at the City Lit Institute in London. It helped a lot, and I now run a course for grown ups, Writing for Children, at City University, also in London.

"I don't completely plan my children's novels. When I start writing the story, I know about the main characters, the place, and how the story starts. I often know the ending—but I am very vague about the chunk in the middle. I find if I plan too much then I get bored with the story and don't want to write it. As I am writing the early chapters I keep a notebook in which I am thinking ahead. I liken it to a walk in a thick fog. When I am writing chapter one, I can see vaguely to chapter three. When I get to chapter three I can see just about to chapter five, and so on. Though it does help a lot to know where I am trying to end up.

"I live in the London borough of Newham and I go regularly to Newham Writers Workshop. This meets once a week at a local community arts centre, and ends up round the pub. They are a group of writers, from beginners to published writers, who live in the area. I find the meetings really enjoyable as writing can be a lonely business and it's good to meet other people who understand your problems and share your successes and commiserate on your rejections.

"I now survive on my writing, but not in the purest sense. Writing itself makes me about a quarter of my income. I make a little in my teaching at City University, but most comes from story-writing workshops I run in schools. I do about seventy a year in the London area."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Books for Keeps, September, 1996, review of Frances Fairweather Demon Striker! p. 13.

Book Trust, summer, 2002, review of Lucy-Anne's Changing Ways.

Guardian, June 20, 1991, Beverly Pangram, review of Hard Cash.

Junior Bookshelf, August, 1991, review of Hard Cash, p. 181; April, 1996, review of The Magical World of Lucy-Anne, p. 71, August, 1996, review of Frances Fairweather Demon Striker! p. 160.

Liverpool Echo, June 25, 1996, review of Frances Fairweather Demon Striker!

Lollipops, January, 1997, review of The Magical World of Lucy-Anne.

New Englander, August 13, 1996, Janet Croft.

Observer (London, England), April 8, 1991, Naomi Lewis, review of Hard Cash, p. 50.

School Librarian, November, 1991, Marcus Crouch, review of Hard Cash, p. 154; May, 1996, Angela Lepper, review of The Magical World of Lucy-Anne, p. 65; August, 1996, Peter Andrews, review of Frances Fairweather Demon Striker! p. 109; March, 2000, David Churchill, review of The Good Wolf.

Sunday Times (London, England), June 16, 1991, Susan Marling, review of Hard Cash.

Yorkshire Evening Post, December 8, 1994, Richard Beaumont, review of Hard Cash.