British author David Baddiel: ‘We are all pretending to be adults’

An illustration from Birthday Boy. Illustrations Courtesy/Jim Field

MANNAT. Worli Koliwada. Siddhivinayak temple. Haji Ali dargah. British author, David Baddiel packed in a proper Mumbai darshan despite a hectic leg of his India tour to promote some of his popular titles, including The Parent Agency, The Taylor Turbochaser and Birthday Boy (HarperCollins). Of course, not without having to negotiate traffic snarls and crowds, which he admits has "gone crazier" since his first visit to India in 2000. "But that isn't new for you," he chuckles, during our phone interview earlier this week. "Honestly, I was fascinated about how everyone around me, including my driver, gets excited to catch a glimpse of homes of film and TV actors, especially SRK. I was hoping to spot him, since my hotel was nearby," his child-like enthusiasm was unmissable throughout the conversation. Minutes into the chat, and we can gauge why his books resonate with young readers. Edited excerpts from an interview.

David Baddiel at a promotional event in a Mumbai bookstore. He is working on a graphic novel about a team of British sparrows who don't normally fly south for the winter; he reveals that he will make sure they visit India on their travels!

You are also a comedian, actor, screenwriter and television personality. Do you feed off these professions while writing books?
I do different types of things that fall into one bracket - storytelling. It's one job, one skill. I tell different stories in whichever medium that suits the story; so, if I'm telling jokes, that's with a microphone in a comedy space; if I am telling a serious story about anti-Semitism, I'll do that in a non-fiction book or in a serious film; if there is fantasy story where there is magic in it, I'll choose a children's book. I am good if I have an idea driving an idea so that it becomes a story; if it has structure, it should take you from one place to the next.

You seamlessly straddle writing for grown-ups and young readers. How do you negotiate this contrast?
I don't recognise the boundaries between different types of storytelling. It depends on the idea rather than the genre. When my son Ezra was eight years old, he asked me, ‘Why doesn't Harry Potter run away from the Dursleys [his adopted family] and find better parents?' It gave me an idea of a world where children were able to choose their parents. I thought it's a good children's story. I was right because it [The Parent Agency] sold half a million copies. I don't write anything unless I feel energised by the subject.

Illustrations featuring Amy Taylor from The Taylor Turbochaser. Illustrations Courtesy/Steven Lenton

Your son's ideas often inspire your writing…
Absolutely. In fact, the Harry Potter anecdote is the best example in my career. I had been asked by my publishers in the UK to write books. My children grew up to a point where they were talking to me; I borrowed ideas from them, and also made up stories for them. As Ezra got older, he even asked me to pay him royalty!' I bought him an iPod and that shut him up!

Ezra is 19 now, but at least four of his ideas have become books. My new book, Small Fry, is partly to do with his idea about a brilliant boy chef who makes the best burgers. [With hindsight] I owe Ezra huge amounts of money!

Did you take up specific research to develop Amy Taylor, the bright wheelchair-bound protagonist in The Taylor Turbochaser?
I wrote it about four years ago, but I feel that now people might say that we need to put the book in front of sensitivity readers, or present it to disabled people, which is perfectly fine.

If Ezra doesn't suggest an idea, a lot of them start with me thinking about what I would like to hear if I was a kid. I imagined pretending to drive my dad's car that was parked in the driveway. It's how I thought up Amy - what if I wrote a story about a disabled child who had lost the ability to walk in a car accident but still loved cars and driving? It would be interesting if there was a wheelchair where someone transforms it into a supercar. I knew I was never going to make her a victim who was not devastated by her disability but instead embraces it. She happens to be in a wheelchair that becomes the centre of the story; it is symbolic of her power that her wheelchair becomes a super car. Amy is a sparky, resilient character.

Many disabled kids and their parents thanked me for writing a book with a disabled child as its hero. There is no happy ending in the expected way, where she gets cured. She stays disabled. In the book, Amy faces typical problems that have nothing to do with her disability.

Sam Green is another interesting protagonist in Birthday Boy...
All of the kids [in my children's books] are me. To borrow a line from another book I wrote [for grown-ups] - and I don't know how you feel about this - all of us are pretending to be adults. We grow old but, in our hearts, we feel we are 12, 13- or 14-years old forever. We have responsibilities, and have to learn things. Still, in terms of hopes, dreams and desires, they stay pretty childish. As a children's writer and comedian, I have the licence to access the child in me and express myself.

Like Amy, Sam was also an imagined idea where I had a basic childish desire to have my birthday every day. With The Parent Agency, it was about dipping into my childhood experiences, where my parents were unbelievably neglectful…

Do you have any advice for today's parents who are clueless or disinterested about raising their kids?
My parents were somewhat clueless and disinterested in raising their kids, and I turned out - kind of - okay. My advice would be that there isn't a right or wrong way to parent, but that children tend to have amazingly imaginative and interesting minds so what parents should be doing is engaging with those minds and enjoying them, rather than feeling perhaps that it's their duty, or difficult. I recommend joint reading of books because it's a good way to engage with your kid.