Joseph Coelho: Books That Changed My Life

Pirates, fairies and flying! I yearned to be able to open my window and fly, I grew up on a diet of the various adaptations from Disney, to Robin Williams' Hook to Loisel's graphic novel and beyond. I think I always suspected there was something darker going on in the story and research later in life led me to the theory that Barrie was inspired to create the character of Peter by a tiny little "gravestone" in Kensington Gardens that has "PP" etched into its surface. The theory is compelling and speaks to the subtext of "lost boys" though rather than being a tiny gravestone, it is actually a boundary marker for the Parish of Paddington!

It was in adulthood that I read the original play and was awe struck. Here was a writer after my own heart who, like me, was working in theatre before adapting his work into books. I found it hugely encouraging that the stage could lead to the page. 

I came across this wonderful tale via the BBC adaptations that then turned me on to the books. I think on some level I was looking for a way into Narnia and was perpetually discouraged by the fact that I did not have a massive house containing a huge wardrobe. I lived in a flat, with a melamine wardrobe with a broken door…Narnia was not in there, so I started to hunt for magical lands on my estate.

There is a direct link from those wanderings to my books Our Tower and The Girl Who Became A Tree. I was always searching for the magical in the every day, in the tower block and on the estate. That said, Aslan became my hero and has accompanied me whenever times get tough. 

A collection of spooky poems by the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson and Michael Rosen, the poems are great—they do not hold back!

But it's the pictures by Chris Russell that I vividly remember, especially the one for "The Queer Moment" by Brian Lee that shows a child sitting up in bed aware of something being not quite right in his room, and the creatures that are shown lurking within the walls.

I memorised poems from this book that became a part of play. In many ways this book gave me permission to play with words and language.

I continue to search for this book. I don't remember the exact title or the author, but I borrowed it many times from Westhill Library in Wandsworth. Inside it had descriptions of activities that one could do at the beach from beach-combing to searching for fossils, to crabbing and making seaweed prints.

Over the years I have accumulated the odd beach-combing non-fiction book from the 1970s and 1980s that pass a resemblance to this long-lost tome, hoping to get back some of the excitement that the original book brought forth. I hope I find it! It is because of that book that I now live by the sea and don't think I could ever be without the waves near by.