Meet the genius behind this heart warming junior fiction novel and our November Kids Book of the Month.
Discover bravery inside you in a magical Robin Hood reimagining from author,
comedian and actor Ben Miller.
Lonely at school, Charlie prefers to escape into a world of books. But when she finds herself on the other side of the library in a completely different world, she must embark on a quest to save the people of the forest from the dastardly Sheriff who looks a lot like her mean teacher. There might just be some friends to help her on the way . . .
Turn the page, share the adventure in a hilarious and magical story for all the family, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli.
Congratulations on the release of Robin Hood Aged 10 ¾! Can you please give us an overview of the plot and share a bit about the inspiration behind the book?
“So, the quick version for me would be, its about a girl called Charlie, she’s slightly struggling at her new school. She’s not really fitting in and she’s finding a lot of joy in a book of Robin Hood Adventures. It just really takes her out of herself, she loves the excitement of the adventures and the Baddie (the Sheriff of Nottingham). Charlie loves Robin’s bravery, maid Marion’s bravery and all the merry men and their crazy characters. She really loves escaping into this world.”
“One day, when there seems to be mischief afoot at the school, the Deputy Head turns up (he’s not a very nice man) and says the Headmistress has disappeared and the Librarian is resigning! Charlie goes up to the library, that she loves, to check in with the Librarian and discovers that there’s this magical door which leads into this magical world. When you walk through the door, you become a character in Robin Hood!
The reason that the Headmistress has vanished is that the evil Deputy Head has discovered this magical world, and he’s kidnapped the Headmistress.
Now Charlie and her friends have to try and get her back. So, to do that they go into this incredible world, Charlie becomes a version of Robin Hood and she’s amazing with a bow and arrow! Her friend Nathan becomes, although he’s tiny, Little John (the giant of the Robin Hood story) a master with a three-quarter staff. So, you’ve got this little guy who turns just brilliant with a three-quarter staff.
And of course, the evil Deputy Head becomes the Sheriff of Nottingham. There’s a really, really exciting adventure they all have together. By the end of the story, Charlie has learnt a lot, she’s learnt a tremendous amount about this magical world, but also made some friends.
She finds that when she comes back to the school, it’s a different place for her. Because of this extraordinary adventure she’s been on, the challenges of the school… they don’t seem quite so huge anymore.”
What made you choose Robin Hood as Charlie’s story of interest? What potential links did you see between characters?
“Well for me, what I love about Robin Hood, he’s in a really tough situation. He’s been outlawed by the Sheriff of Nottingham. He is a really unpleasant man, doing awful things to the villagers, stealing all their food, their clothes, their houses ad taking them prisoner. In the stories, Robin and his friends, try and put right a big wrong. They try and help the poor and the villagers by basically ‘taxing’ the Sheriff of Nottingham.”
“What I love about the story is that Robin is not just brave, he’s joyously brave. He has so much fun doing what he’s doing. At one point, in the Robin Hood stories, he hears about this archery competition this Sheriff is running. It is obviously a trap to try and catch Robin, but he goes anyways because he wants to have fun. He accepts the challenge. I think that is what I really love about that character. I always find really inspiring about the Robin Hood stories, he is not just a do-gooder, he is having and bringing so much joy and fun in quite a tense situation. Everyone around him takes inspiration from the way he deals with the challenges.
I thought that would be a really great thing for Charlie to experience because she (at the beginning of the story) is the opposite of that. She is almost hiding away form the world, she is too scared to even make any attempt at making friends. She doesn’t want anybody to notice her.
That is her main goal ‘I do not want to be noticed’. While Robin Hood really wants to be noticed. So, I thought this is going to be a fun story if we take a character that doesn’t want anyone to see her and make her be this really bold, joyous and adventurous character. That will be really good for her.”
The Raven in this story is quite an interesting character, can you tell us a bit more about writing it and its relationship with Charlie?
“That’s so funny because that’s the bit I missed out when I was telling the story, and it’s a really lovely character. One of the most important characters in the story is a raven.”
“At the very beginning of the book, in the very first scene, the raven appears at Charlie’s window. It is one of those mysterious characters like “what is this bird doing, hanging out, following me around, following me to school?”
The kids start to make fun of her because of it because at one point she tries to talk to it. But it’s the raven that leads her to the library. It turns out that in the magical world, when the raven goes through, it becomes this ancient Saxon character of the Widsith, who is the magician that can see everything.
This raven can now talk and plays a role similar to Friar Tuck -in the original Robin Hood stories -and is sort of Charlie’s mentor throughout the story. I love the character of Widsith. Widsith is quite bad tempered for a mentor, not particularly helpful. I mean he doesn’t really think much of Charlie to begin with. It’s really the librarian, Miss Willow, that believes in her. But Charlie proves herself to Widsith throughout the story and by the end they’ve become very close.
I sought of skipped over the bit where there are basically two evil twins at the school, who make Charlie’s life a bit of a misery. In fact, Charlie proves herself at the very beginning of the story by standing up to these twins. That’s what I think makes her the hero when she walks into this magical world.”
A common theme in this book is fungi and mushrooms, can you tell us a little about that?
“Mushrooms and Fungi are a big part of the story, I guess I am just really interested in them. One of the things I love doing when I am out in the woods is looking for mushrooms and fungi because that is one of the best places to find them.
Here’s the thing, there is something magic about forests to me. I live in a forest; I’ve got forest right outside my window. I am obsessed with woods, forests and trees so they’re often in my stories. One of the things that is magical about forests is this thing called a mycelium, all the trees are connected by a web of fungi. When you see a mushroom in a forest, really that is like seeing an apple on an apple tree. That is the fruit of the mycelium, which is all underground.”
“The mycelium does extraordinary things, when you set foot in a forest, the mycelium knows you’re there, it feels the pressure of you standing on it and it spreads that information to all the trees. They call it the wood wide web.
In lots of forests the trees are all connected with one another by this underground network of mycelium, and I have always been really fascinated by that. You couldn’t really write a story about a magical forest without having fungi in it somewhere.
So, Nathan, who is just great, a very funny character with a huge heart and very brave, but not popular at school.
He hasn’t yet found his way, almost like a more extreme version of Charlie in someways. Charlie gets teased for being the ‘bird girl,’ because of the raven and Nathan gets teased for being ‘fungus boy,’ because he is really into fungi.
Nathan’s knowledge about fungi becomes really important in a couple of places in the story. Particularly in a moment later on, where the whole story hinges on his knowledge of fungi.
I am just one of those people who love science, so I love to get it into my stories.”
If you were to go through that magical door, which character would you want to become?
“I would absolutely love to be the Sheriff of Nottingham. He’s the other character we have to talk about!
The evil Deputy is not very nice, so of course, he becomes the villain when he goes through the magical door.”
The Sheriff, in the story, is so much fun. He’s super evil but he is very funny and has a cruel sense of humour. He also has a sidekick called Chive, who I really like. Chive is very much… sort of a hand wringing, creepy lacky who will do the Sheriff’s every bidding. The two of them together make a really fun double act.
It sort of like dumber and dumber. The Sheriff is smart-ish, but Chive is not very bright. He is always getting it wrong, always getting in the way and making mistakes.
One of my favourite parts is when the Sheriff turns up to his own castle and Chive won’t let him in.”
How does it feel to be shortlisted for our 2024 Children’s Book of the Year?
“I cannot tell you how… it’s such a hard thing to put into words, its such a huge thing. I love QBD, your book sections are… I see children’s book sections all over the world and QBD is in a class of its’ own when it comes to children’s books. To be in this position, is something beyond my wildest dreams. It’s just wonderful.”
“I can’t wait, I’m coming out to Australia in January, I’m going to be there for I think 3 or 4 months, so I am so excited to see the book in store and to meet some of your readers.
And to really soak up that magical QBD children’s section atmosphere.
Here’s the thing, there’s more… I think maybe if you grow up in Australia you don’t know, but in the UK we will get some UK books, a few American books and that’s pretty much about it. In Australia, you get all these amazing Australian authors, all the British and all the best of the American as well! So, it’s a really unique situation.
Also, bookshops are not necessarily thriving in the rest of the world as they are in Australia. That’s something that I think is incredibly valuable.
The short answer to your question is: Can’t believe it… pinch myself!”
What is a message you hope young readers will get from Robin Hood Aged 10 ¾?
“Everybody has their own special bit of knowledge, or their own special gift and sometimes other people don’t value that gift, but then you will at some point find that situation where that gift becomes very important and it will be appreciated.”
Find Robin Hood Aged 10 and 3/4 by Ben Miller in your local QBD store, or buy online today!
