As a child growing up in the 70s there wasn’t a whole lot of choice about what to watch on TV. There were some after-school programmes, the odd Saturday show and there was a lot of test card time. I was good at entertaining myself: I liked being outside, I liked making things, drawing things and reading, but there were also times when I really wanted to just watch something. I was often so desperate to watch something that I would sit with my eyes glued to the test card, waiting for the weird static picture of the girl and the clown-headed creature to vanish and for a film to begin.
The films I watched were all in black and white, because we only had a black and white television; sometimes cowboy films, sometimes musicals, often thrillers. I got to know Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Shirley Temple, and countless other actors, but the only director whose name I ever remember becoming familiar with was, Alfred Hitchcock.
He used costume and interiors to create a rich visual experience, sets beautifully designed to lead the eye around the screen seeding silent clues. He understood that thrillers are more thrilling when interrupted by the domestic, that suspense is heightened when drama is broken by chit chat and comedy. We are taken back to normality and reminded of what is at stake.
Hitchcock is responsible in large part for my desire to write a thriller for children. When I began to sketch out the first Ruby Redfort book I returned to his films, in particular North By Northwest, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder and To Catch a Thief – glamorous movies with sharp dialogue.
Hitchcock likes to throw his characters in at the deep end; North by Northwest pushes innocent by-stander, Roger Thornhill, into the path of ruthless murderers. The victim of mistaken identity, Thornhill doesn’t know what is going on, we don’t know what is going on and so we are on the run together, neither of us knowing who to trust.
I wanted to drop Ruby into this Hitchcock world, where glamour meets murder and car chases are followed by dinner. The wit is there, but so is the threat, and characters can make intelligent decisions yet still come unstuck.
The inspiration for the personality of 13-year-old Ruby also came from film. As a child I had seen Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon and The Bad News Bears, and Jodie Foster in numerous movies, most importantly Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Freaky Friday and Bugsy Malone. Both these child actors made a huge impression on me: they represented something that the child me wanted to be (actually still wants to be). They weren’t defined by their girlness, they were convincing characters, smart, savvy and fearless who happened to be girls.
These were the qualities I wanted Ruby Redfort to embody, that I wanted the reader to admire and envy in her because they, like I, wanted them for themselves.
Lauren Child’s latest Ruby Redfort book is Feel the Fear, find out about all the books in the series on Lauren’s Ruby Redfort website. Also read this interview with Lauren by BookCookie and ScribbleKeeks.
You can hear Lauren Child talk about Ruby Redfort (and other matters) at the Imagine children’s festival at London’s Southbank Centre today at 3pm. Lauren is also part of the Everybody into books free all day event on Monday 16 Feb, where she’ll be reading her new book The New Small Person, brought to you by Inclusive Minds. Charlie and Lola’s Best Bestest Play runs until 22 February.
