An Interview with Neil Arksey

By Alexander Laybourne (aged 13)

Interviewer: Here today we have Neil Arksey an author and one time actor, he was born in Nottingham, lived fifteen years in Peckham and now lives in Euston.

Neil: That is true, thank you for having me today.

Interviewer: Firstly, how does it feel to be nominated for `The book I couldn't put down' on the BBC's Blue Peter show?

Neil: It feels fabulous, I never expected it.

Interviewer: On the subject of your latest book what inspired you to write it?

Neil: Well, I started off by writing football books so I decided to continue that. There were reports about players like De Boer who had tested positive for illegal steroids or drugs, I felt then I could write a book that would give an idea of how the future of football would be.

Interviewer: You've now written several books about football, can you ever see yourself writing about another sport, if so, which one?

Neil: I never set out to write about football, but my publishers wanted me to start in the football area and establish myself there. They are now happy for me to move on and to write about other thing, sports could possibly be featured, but which ones I really don't know.

Interviewer: On the theme of football do you play football yourself and whom do you support?

Neil: I love playing football, and table football but I don't have much time for them now. Footballs what got me into being an author, my sister asked me to write a book for her son, my nephew. He was a big David Beckham fan so it was a bit like a young David Beckham. They both loved the story called `Banana' so I sent it off and it was published.
I support Arsenal but I had better not go into that!

Interviewer: Now moving on, what's the longest you've ever written for, uninterrupted?

Neil: Sometimes I write and re - write for 20 hours in one go, which as you can imagine is very tiring! It's also a thing of mine that if the publishers want to see my `near perfect' copy in a weeks time I'll work really hard to have it finished in 4 or 5 days.

Interviewer: Now moving to your books in general, what is your favourite book you have written?

Neil: My favourite book would probably have to be `Playing on the edge', as it was my most ambitious, my longest and the hardest one to write! The truth is it is very hard to say I prefer one book to another, that's like asking a parent to say which of their kids they like best!

Interviewer: What is your favourite passage or chapter that you have written?

Neil: There are a couple of parts to MacB I'm very fond of - chapter 2 `FATE' when MacB and Banksie go to visit a fortune-teller. I am actually busy working on a screenplay of this for T.V. at the moment. Also the last chapter of MacB I like to as it gets a bit mad.

Interviewer: You are a very good author, reading books when you were younger must have helped, so what kind of books did you read?

Neil: As a child I was a very keen reader, I read anything I could get my hands on and I was always in the library. My favourite book must have been ` The lion, the witch and the wardrobe' but there must have been a lot I don't remember. At 12 I was reading adults books and I was reading `Tales of Greece and Troy' over and over again.

Interviewer: Finally, who was your favourite author as a boy?

Neil: I loved `Paddington' by Michael Bond when I was younger. Then Roald Dahl was probably my next favourite author. Then `Huckleberry Finn' and `Tom Sawyer' by Mark Twain were my big favourites when I was 13.



Incidentally - Alexander Laybourne and I have never actually met. Alex created this interview as part of a school project on authors. He put it together using information he gathered on the net and elsewhere. He also emailed me asking me for a few snippets. Then he sent me his finished work. I thought it was great. So here it is!