My Story: Nicola Jemphrey
1992, and my first correspondence from Scripture Union Publishing came in the form of a politely worded rejection letter and some constructive criticism. I took another look at my lengthy, wordy children’s novel which had just been returned and realised that if I was ever to achieve my aim of becoming a published children’s writer, a few things would have to change!
Fast forward to 2001 and the children’s publishing team at SU were looking for new writers from different regions of the UK. My name was passed on by one of the staff at SU Northern Ireland, who knew I was interested in writing. During the intervening years, in the midst of looking after my three children, I’d managed to find some time to improve my writing techniques. I’d done a correspondence course on writing for children, had a short story broadcast on Radio 4 after winning a children’s writing competition and had recently completed a novel for teenagers. I was asked if I’d like to submit a book proposal to SU and I sent off a few chapters of the teenage novel, along with an idea I had for a children’s book set in a school boarding department, something we’d had experience of as a family. The teenage storyline wasn’t what the team was looking for at the time, but they did decide to commission the boarding school book, Scaldie, which was published in 2003.
For many years I’d been interested in the life of C S Lewis, who grew up very close to where I live in East Belfast. I’d encountered his writings at various stages in my life, from the Narnia stories as a child, to his academic works when I was studying English at university, to his Christian books for adults, such as The Screwtape Letters and the autobiographical Surprised by Joy. I’d also been very moved by the TV and film adaptations of Shadowlands, about Lewis’s marriage to Joy Gresham. Around the time that the big screen version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was released, I began to wonder if anyone had written a children’s biography of C S Lewis. I found there were several teen biographies, but couldn’t discover any specifically aimed at children of 9-11, the main readers of the Narnia books. I assumed this was because children find biographies boring. Then one day I had the idea of a boy (called Jack, like C S Lewis) bumping into Ross Wilson’s sculpture of Lewis and the wardrobe outside Holywood Arches library in Belfast and suddenly saw how I could write a biography of Lewis which would be entertaining for children. I thought if the details of his life could be intertwined with the story of a modern day boy, then the readers would take them in without realising they were reading a biography! SU was keen on the idea and I embarked on a year or so of research and writing, the highlight of which was a trip to Oxford with my daughter, mum and sister to visit some of the Lewis haunts there.
Jack and the Wardrobe is being published just before the release of the film, Prince Caspian, and because of the high profile of C S Lewis, I’m hoping it will reach a wider readership than those children who would normally read Christian books. Of course I also hope that everyone who reads it, while absorbing the Christian content, will really enjoy the stories of the two Jacks!
Reproduced from The Life Magazine by kind permission of Scripture Union.
