Noah writes…

To Michelle paver
My name is Noah White. I’m eleven years old. I have a pet cat called Lottie a gecko called gex and nine fish. The Chronicles of ancient darkness is my favourite series of books. I started reading them at the beginning of this year when our teacher read us wolf brother as part of our topic and ever since then I’ve been going through all of the nine books and i finished them. I’ve also started listening to the audiobooks read by Sir Ian mckellan which are absolutely amazing I have just finished the audiobook of Soul Eater which was definitely the best one yet. A question I would like to ask is did you get a say in who read your books or did the publishers decide for you and if you did what made you choose Ian McKellen. My favourite Soul Eater is seshru because I really like snakes and I like how you’ve done that she’s got like a pointed tongue and I thought that she was the best Soul Eater. One last question I would like to ask what made you have the idea to create seshru the way you did. Your books are so well written and really good so I can’t wait to listen to the rest of the audiobooks
from Noah white

Michelle Replies…

Dear Noah, I’m delighted that you’ve enjoyed the books so much, and that you’re now working your way through Ian McKellen’s magnificent audiobooks!  The publishers did indeed let me have a say in who was to read my stories, and in fact it was my agent Peter who managed to get Ian to read them.  Before Wolf Brother was published, he met Ian at a drinks party and told him about my new story,  parts of which were written from a wolf’s point of view.  That interested Ian enough to ask for a copy, and a few days later he told Peter that he would read it.  I was doing research in Greenland at the time, and when Peter sent me a message telling me this, I was over the moon!  I had always been a huge admirer of Ian’s work (including his portrayal of Macbeth and his films of Richard III and The Lord of the Rings), so I knew he would do an amazing job.  So that’s how it started.  And I was lucky enough to be present at every day of every recording of the books, which has been a real treat over the years.

Your second question concerns Seshru, and I’m really glad that she’s your favourite.  I always knew she would be beautiful and cunning, partly because of her relationship to another character in the stories (I’m not naming them as that would be a spoiler, but I’m sure you can guess who I mean); and  I made her more snake-like by meeting some snakes; which wasn’t a hardship, as I like snakes too.  She was enormously fun to write about, so I’m delighted that you like reading about her.  Thank you very much for getting in touch, and I hope you continue to enjoy Ian’s magical readings of the stories.  May the guardian run with you!  With best wishes, Michelle