Gavin Bishop is a children’s author and illustrator living in Christchurch (like Bill Manhire he was born in Invercargill). He has written and illustrated lots of children’s books, many of which have won awards. If you hold both your arms out straight you could line up all the awards he has won along one arm, and all the books he has written and/or illustrated along the other. He used to be an art teacher in a high school and studied at the Fine Art School at Canterbury. In 2009, Storylines honoured Gavin by starting the Gavin Bishop Award for children’s illustrators. You can see the Storylines page here.
Gavin’s illustrations are like poetry — so beautifully crafted, with gorgeous colours, characters that are full of warmth, movement and humanness. You pick up a book by Gavin and it is always a thing of beauty. In my view, he is one of our very best illustrators, which makes him a national taonga. I have posted some of his book covers so you can see he has many illustrations up his sleeves!
You can find out more about Gavin Bishop at his New Zealand Book Council page. You can also find out more about Gavin by reading his wonderfully written story of his childhood, Piano Rock (Random House).
Gavin has also written a number of his books — he knows the magic of keeping things simple when you write. This means his books are excellent to read aloud.
Gavin kindly agreed to answer some questions for Poetry Box:
What did you like to write when you were little? What did you like to draw?
I used to write lots of haunted house stories. I read a lot of ghost
stories and fairy stories. I guess it was the usual boy’s interest in
horror, especially as I became an adolescent. I also ventured into the world
of horror films when I was far too young and had endless, tortured nights
filled with bad dreams that disturbed me for many years.
What did else did you like to do in your spare time?
Not much. I was in the Boys’ Brigade briefly but I hated the military
style marching and the strong religious overtones. I seem to remember being
made to feel guilty about nearly everything, especially lepers. Learning to
tie knots was fun but entirely useless because I never had the urge to
runaway to sea. In my teenage years I read a lot and mowed the lawns at the
Methodist church to make enough money to go to the movies every Saturday
afternoon.
Name three of your favourite New Zealand children’s books. What do you like about them? [they don’t have to be poetry]
Can’t think of any I read when I was a kid. There weren’t many around. It
was as an adult I became aware of early New Zealand books like Rifle and
Tomahawk by Mona Tracy. But now things are very different. NZ publishes
many, many excellent books, so many I can’t keep up with what is being
produced. Three of favourites? Let me see…..
For a start there is Old Hu-hu by Kyle Mewburn and Rachel Driscoll. And
See Ya, Simon by David Hill. There are lots of others but I’ll single out
Margaret Mahy’s, The Pirates’ Mix-up Voyage. This is definitely one of my
favourites.
Do you have any favourite poetry books for children?
Not New Zealand ones, except for collections used in NZ schools when I
was a kid in the 1950s such as Fresh Fields chosen by E.W. Parker and
published by Longmans. I used to love books like this. You could open them
at any page and dip into them, reading poems that you just came across. Most
of the poetry I read though was in the Cole’s Funny Picture Books from
Australia. Some of these poems are really bad but these are probably still
my favourites.
You are really good at writing and drawing. What do you think is important
when you write a story book? What about when you do an illustration?
I write mainly picture books, where the words and pictures tell a story
together. My main aim, whether I’m writing or drawing is to tell a good
story. Without that, your book will never be any good no matter how well
drawn the pictures are or how moving the text might be.
Do you have any tips for young writers (or drawers)?
Read lots of fiction. Watch lots of movies. Do lots of drawing and keep a
notebook or journal.
Thank you Gavin!
Poetry Box 