JAMILA GAVIN
WRITER AND STORYTELLER
JAMILA GAVIN
WRITER AND STORYTELLER
JAMILA GAVIN
WRITER AND STORYTELLER
I was born in the foothills of the Himalayas in Mussorie, India, in 1941. After the war, our family relocated to England where I spent the remainder of my childhood.
Those first experiences of life at that time, between two countries and cultures became the main inspiration for much of my writing later on. I wanted to reflect the changing face of multicultural Britain, knowing the importance of every child being able to find their mirror image in books. My first book, The Magic Orange Tree was published in 1979, followed by numerous other short stories, collections and several novels including The Surya Trilogy (Egmont,) Coram Boy, (Egmont: winner of Children’s Whitbread Prize 2000) and Blackberry Blue, (Random House.)
Books
IN WHATEVER SOCIETY WE LIVE, stories are an essential part of growing up and helping us to become members of our community. The very first contact a child has with storytelling is often the bed time story. In the safety and warmth of their bed, their imagination can be stirred; the seeds sewn, showing the child what wonders are to be found in a book.
What a wonderful thing a book is!
This simple object can be taken anywhere, read anywhere: in a park, on a bus, in your home, under the bedclothes with a torch. Reading allows you to experience hundreds of sensations, emotions, ideas and descriptions, all within that small confined space: brain to brain, creating a unique dialogue between just you, the reader, the author and, paradoxically, silence…