INTERVIEW: Jacqueline Harvey On Ideas, Characters And Writing 50 Books

Jacqueline Harvey is an Australian author who is best known for the popular series Alice-Miranda, Clementine Rose, Kensy and Max and Willa and Woof. She has written more than 50 books and has sold almost two million copies in Australia alone.

Press Gang: What gave you the idea of writing your books?

Jacqueline: I was a teacher for a long time and I wrote a lot of stories and poems and plays for the children in my classes. And I always had ideas for things that I wanted to write. And one day I thought, well, what if I could write stories that were read by a bigger audience than just the children at the school where I taught? 

And then, one day, my husband, said to me ‘You talk about wanting to write books for kids all the time’. I was like,’ Yeah, I know. And he goes, ‘No, you don’t understand. You talk about it nonstop. So here’s my question. Are you ever going to do anything about it or are you going to talk about it for the rest of your life?’ And I thought that was a good challenge.

Press Gang: How do you go about creating your characters? 

Jacqueline: Alice Miranda was inspired by three little girls that I used to teach. Their names are Kate, Angelique and Heidi. Kate is now illustrating my picture books. So Kate used to be in my class when she was in Kindy and Year 4, and now she’s illustrating my picture books. 

So Alice Miranda was originally inspired by those three girls, and then she took on the characteristics of lots of children I’ve taught over the years. 

Kenzie and Max, I don’t know where they came from. They’re very adventurous spy twins – they just sort of popped into my head. Clementine Rose looks exactly like one of my nieces, but she’s sort of her own little character as well. So, the characters come from all over the place. 

Press Gang: Who is your favourite character out of all the books you have written? 

Jacqueline: That’s like asking parents who their favourite child is, assuming they have more than one. So I don’t have a favourite character. I don’t have a favourite. I don’t even have a favourite book out of all the ones I’ve written. 

I adore Alice Miranda, I adore Kenzie and Max. I love Clementine Rose. I’ve just started writing a new Willer and Wolff book, and I’m getting back into her head and she’s really fun too, so I don’t have a favourite at all.

Press Gang: Ok, so which character  was the most fun to write?

Jacqueline: They’re all fun to write in different ways. They can all be challenging in different ways too. So I’ve just finished writing Alice Miranda and the Christmas Mystery, which is coming out in October. That was challenging because I hadn’t written an Alice Miranda book for a couple of years, so it was challenging getting back into her head space again. 

Press Gang: How long did it take to publish your first book?

Jacqueline: Oh, that’s a good question. So I think I started getting serious about writing when I was about 30, 31. I actually finished something and I thought, ‘well, I want submit this to a publisher’. And so after that, it probably took, probably took about two years to get something published. 

And then for a little while, I was lucky. I had four books come out really quickly in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and then absolutely nothing happened for another five years until Alice Miranda came out. 

Publishing can be one of those industries where things happen very slowly and then all of a sudden happen really fast, or they can happen really fast, and then they happen really slowly. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve written 54 books now and 50 of those books I’ve written since 2010. So in the last 13 years I’ve written 50 books.

Press Gang: Do you feel good when you see your books on the shelves? 

Jacqueline: Oh, yes. It never gets old. Last week I was in Auckland doing a book tour, and I went into this beautiful children’s bookshop and I didn’t expect that they would have very many of my books. And they had a huge range of everything, and it was very exciting. So it never gets old. It’s always exciting to see your books in a shop.

Press Gang: What made you think of the locations your books take place in? 

Jacqueline: Okay, so locations, a lot of the time it’s places that I’ve travelled to. Pretty much I’ve been everywhere that Alice Miranda’s been, except I’ve never been to Spain or Egypt. When I wrote Alice Miranda in Egypt, I had to do lots of research online, and I had to talk to people who were Egyptian and I watched a lot of Egyptian YouTube clips and I watched Egyptian comedians to try and get a feel for the Egyptian sense of humour. I really wanted to go there to do the research, but it was during the pandemic, so that was impossible.

Press Gang: Do you think you are ever going to write for adults?

Jacqueline: That’s a good question. I’ve got a story started, I just need time to finish it. So I’ve got lots of kids books that I’m working on at the moment, but I do have an adult story that I’m busting to write, so we’ll see what happens.

Press Gang: Did you ever expect your books to become as popular as they are?

Jacqueline: No. I never in my wildest dreams. You always hope that kids will like them and you’ll find readership, but it’s such a privilege to have kids enjoy the stories that you write, especially when you really put your heart and soul into things. 

Press Gang: how did it feel when they made a movie of Alice Miranda?

Jacqueline: Amazing. It felt weird because it’s a bit like handing over your baby. The producers do give you a say, but they don’t give you that much of a say. So, even though I was a consultant on the project, it wasn’t really my baby anymore. 

But it was super exciting. We had the launch for Alice Miranda Friends forever at Bondi Junction and there were all these stars from Channel Nine who came along. And I got to talk at the start of it and say a little bit about Alice Miranda and the film, so that was fun.

Press Gang: What advice do you have for kids who want to write fiction?

Jacqueline:I think when you want to be a writer, you have to practise every day. Even if it’s just a couple of sentences. Write a description of something, or think about a character and write some notes. 

I advise kids to find competitions to enter. You need to find competitions that identify good writing and give you a bit of feedback. I got my start from winning a competition. So I think they help you to focus because they give you something to work towards. 

Write stuff that makes you excited. Write stuff that makes you want switch off the TV or get away from your video games or get off YouTube. know that if I’m writing something really fun and I wanna do that more than I want to go and watch a Netflix series, then I’m on to a winner.

Press Gang: How do you choose a good book to read?

Jacqueline: I love to read things that other people recommend to me. Sometimes I see books in shops and I’ll pick them up and read the blurb. The blurb is always a good indicator of whether you might like it or not.