How Was Airy Fairy Born?
Where 'Airy Fairy' came from You never
know when an idea will strike. I was looking up at the
fairy on our tree one Christmas thinking,' What an uncomfortable
job that must be. Imagine being perched up there for
the whole of the festive season with pine needles sticking
in your bottom.'
 Then
I thought, 'Oh, that might be an idea for a book,' so
I gave the fairy a name. I called her Airy Fairy. That
name gave me her character, i.e. someone who's terribly
nice, but gets a little bit muddled at times. Though
in the books Airy Fairy always has her own logic, which
makes perfect sense to her.
But, I didn't want a story with only one person in
it, so I gave Airy Fairy some friends. She's a nice
person and would naturally have friends. I gave her
an enemy too, Scary Fairy. Sometimes when people are
quiet or shy or perhaps just a little bit different,
like Airy Fairy, they can be bullied. Often they're
bullied at school where there's no mum or dad or family
to help them. They have to rely on themselves. They're
on their own. So is Airy Fairy and she has to pluck
up the courage to stand up for herself, which she does.
When Scary Fairy pokes her with her wand, she always
pokes her right back, though she's the one who gets
caught.
 I
decided to set the stories in Fairy Gropplethorpe's
Academy for orphaned fairies because I wanted to focus
on Airy Fairy herself and how she coped with every day
life. I thought giving her a family might prove to be
a distraction. I've written a lot of stories about families
and I wanted this one to be different.
All this might make the Airy Fairy books sound a bit serious
and, of course, they're not. They have a serious theme,
but, treated with humour, a serious theme can be made
much more accessible and readable for children, and, in
this case, the humour arises naturally from the character
of Airy Fairy. |
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