Children’s author David Almond hides behind his website, rather than welcoming us in
DavidAlmond.com
Some serious money has been put into www.davidalmond.com, as befits an author whose career has gone interstellar in the past few years, with his novel Skellig capturing the imaginations of countless adults and children, both in its original written format, as an opera and, most recently, as a film starring Tim Roth.
It’s clear that David keeps the website at arms-length, with the home page welcoming us aboard with the words: “His website aims to offer you an insight into David Almond, the author and his work; from backlist and information on new titles to exclusive material he has written especially for the site.”
Well, good, we’re pleased he’s at least contributing.
Despite David’s remoteness, the content is excellent, including a podcast in which David reveals his talents as an accomplished storyteller, sharing with us in his rich Newcastle accent the motivation behind his novel Clay.
Tabs along the top of the homepage lead you into a section on “The Author”, including David’s biography, a Q&A and, most interestingly, “Note from David” in which he explains how two children inspired him to adapt Skellig from a novel into an opera: “Adaptation is natural to children. They don’t recognise the artificial boundaries we draw between fiction and drama, drama and opera.”
Despite David being a children’s author, his website is very much aimed at adults, with masses of text and little interactive material. The ‘schools’ tab leads to a page of answers to the questions he gets asked most frequently during visits to schools, suggesting they “can be used in school for discussion or follow-up activities”, but then fails to offer any ideas for the activities themselves, which is a shame.
Possibly the most useful sections is the ‘Writing tips’ tab, which provides some valuable advice from David, but this too is just a page of text, missing, we feel the opportunity to engage visitors fully.
Yes, it is an interesting site with lots of fascinating information, but more evidence of warmth and imagination would have kept us there for longer. David is adept at creating dazzling, enveloping worlds, and it would be wonderful to see some of these skills transferred to his website.
To submit a review of a book, course, film, magazine or website, please email judy@EssentialWriters.com
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