Into the dragon’s lair

English author Cressida Cowell's award-winning franchise has sold more than seven million copies around the world.

English author Cressida Cowell, known for the book series, ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, says growing up in the countryside and the stories of courage told to her by her father are what inspires her to write. ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is an award-winning franchise and has sold more than seven million copies around the world. A recipient of several awards, Cressida believes reading and writing not only helps you connect with your inner self, but also with others. ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is premiering on a major television channel today. In an interview with Sunday Herald, Cressida talks about what inspires her to write, her childhood influences and her latest work.

How did your years growing up and living mostly in the countryside influence your decision to become a writer?

The ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ books were inspired by the summers I spent as a child on a tiny, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland. The island had no roads, houses or electricity and I used to imagine that there were dragons living in the caves in the cliffs. By the time I was eight, my family had built a small stone house on the island and from then on, every year we spent four weeks of the summer and two weeks of the spring on the island. The house was lit by candlelight and there was no telephone or television, so I spent a lot of time drawing and writing stories. In the evening, my father told us tales of the Vikings who invaded this island Archipelago 1,200 years before, of the quarrelsome tribes who fought and tricked each other and of the legends of dragons who were supposed to live in the caves in the cliffs. I began writing and drawing about Vikings and dragons when I was nine years old.

Has being a parent helped fuel your imagination when writing children’s literature?

I don’t think being a parent makes you more qualified, but of course, you take inspiration from the world around you. Becoming a parent for the first time was why I began to reflect on my own childhood, which was the beginning point for ‘How to Train Your Dragon’. Some of the early conversations Hiccup has with Toothless are very like the ones I had with my daughters when they were very young. And I wrote the last book in the series, ‘How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury’, when my first child was leaving home, which in theory was a coincidence, but in reality, who knows!

What according to you are the biggest benefits or advantages when books are adapted to films?

The wonderful ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ films have brought me so many readers and if you are an author, of course you want your books to be read by as many people as possible. Seeing something that you began creating as a child, which is so very personal to you, up on the screen is astounding. When I saw the first ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ film for the first time (alone in a screening room, by my request) I cried with joy and amazement.

What keeps your creativity flowing?

I’m inspired by the outside world — my ‘Wizards of Once’ series, for example, is partly inspired by amazing woodlands (did you know that trees really can communicate with each other?). I also love learning about history. Viking history, of course, was vital when writing ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ and the ‘Wizards of Once’ was inspired by Ancient Britain, when people believed in magic.

Who are the authors who have influenced you? Any Indian authors whose work you have admired?

As a child, I loved books like The Ogre Downstairs and Pippi Longstocking. I read everything because when I was young, the TV was so awful, and we went to the library a lot. As a teenager, I read books such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Lord of the Rings. In terms of Indian writers, I have enjoyed the works of Rabindranath Tagore, as well as more contemporary writers such as Aravind Adiga, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth. I’ve also enjoyed books from authors who were raised by Indian parents in other areas of the world — Jhumpa Lahiri, for instance.

According to you, if books could unleash three different magical powers, what would they be?

When I was made the UK’s Children’s Laureate, my speech was about this very thing. Books do give you three magical powers and these are creativity, intelligence and empathy. Books put you into somebody else’s skin (to quote To Kill a Mockingbird) and make you feel how they feel; they encourage the reader to use their creative imagination, because a book is partly what I write and partly what you imagine. Books give you words and words not only give you the means to express yourself and connect with other people, they also build neural pathways in your brain. There has been so much research to show that reading for the joy of it makes you not only more successful academically, but also helps you excel in other areas of your life and betters mental wellbeing.