Steve Turner
STEVE TURNER has been writing books for adults for many years, including biographies of such rock stars as Eric Clapton, Cliff Richard and Johnny Cash. Now he's become a best-selling children's poet as well, with four highly successful collections published by Lion Children's Books, including the 120,000-copy-selling The Day I Fell Down the Toilet. His poems address the often pertinent questions that children ask in fun, witty and thought-provoking ways.
As a child, Steve liked to read books by Enid Blyton, Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson. His favourite book of poems was When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne, which he still enjoys reading as an adult.
Praise for Steve Turner
‘Steve Turner knows his way around the English language. But while you and I might share a similar vocabulary with him, it’s the freshness, originality and zest with which he uses words which has enabled him to carve a career out of it.’
Christian Herald about I Was Only Asking
I Was Only Asking
CY Magazine, Issue 41, August 2004
‘Steve is a genius when it comes to writing child-friendly poems that adults will love too... Packed full of wit and child-like wonder, these poems cause you to chuckle one minute and nod with realization the next.’
CY Magazine about I Was Only Asking
Interview with Steve Turner
What started you writing poetry?
'I was always writing ‘things’ when I was a kid – stories, comics, sermons, adverts, posters. I suppose I had what was the typical school experience for my generation as far as poetry was concerned – poems were either to be learned or written out as handwriting exercises. They were usually about things from other centuries – galleons, highwaymen, stagecoaches. Even though I was often touched by certain phrases and therefore thought that I ‘liked poetry’; it was a long time before I came across any poetry that I really liked, poetry that seemed to be describing the world in which I lived.
I had a school friend known as Ginger Goodwin and he had a wooden shed which became a meeting place for about half a dozen of us during the mid sixties. We would listen to records, read magazines and Ginger would write poems out longhand in a hard cover exercise book. I was very impressed with this. I thought poetry, like playing a guitar or having a mouth organ, was a very cool thing to do and so I bought a hardback exercise book and began writing poems. This was in 1965. My friend Ginger is now the Scotland Correspondent of the and once almost reached the top of Everest!’
What poetry did you have published first?
'My first publication was in 1968 in a poetry magazine put out by the group I belonged to in Northampton. Then I submitted to national magazines and had poems in The Sunday Times (Hunter Davies was running funny short poems on his page). Then I had a poem in Transatlantic Review, a literary magazine. My first book was called Tonight We Will Fake Love, published by Charisma, then the record label for Genesis. Charisma were trying to find writers who were doing in literature what the Beatles and Bob Dylan were doing in music. I then published Nice And Nasty, a compilation called Up To Date and The King Of Twist, which had a foreword by Bono of U2.'
What stared you on writing for children?
'Two things - firstly having children, reading to them and understanding what made them think, laugh and gasp. This reacquainted me with children's literature which, like everyone, I'd left behind at the age of 10 or 11. Secondly, my wife wanted to write musicals for children and asked me to do the lyrics. At first I didn't think I'd be any good but found that I enjoyed it and that the songs we came up with really worked.'
What sort of themes are there in your poetry books?
'I like to have a framework for my books and the framework for Toilet was poetry itself. I wanted to write poems which were about the basic devices of poetry and which could therefore we easily used in schools. The first section, for example, is about words. All the poems have something to do with language and loving words. Then there are sections on rhythm and rhyme, metaphor, the magic of language, telling stories, having fun with words etc.'
Do you enjoy reading your poetry to children?
'I enjoy reading to children because you get an immediate response. Adults might think a bit of culture is good for them and therefore pretend to enjoy things they don't. Kids are either moved or they're not. There's no faking. So you know straight away whether what you're doing has worked or not.
Also, it's a very direct confrontation with your audience. Adult poetry is mediated through critics. If you are reviewed well the public might listen. Kids don't go by reviews. They taste and see. The way they respond to poetry is very personal. They write letters, they write poems in imitation and they come up and tell you their stories. They absolutely love being made to laugh. I am constantly impressed with the level of questioning and the depth of their thoughts.'
Why do kids like poetry?
'Children like wordplay, humour and poems which see the world from their side. I think children like to hear their hopes, fears and questions articulated. They love rhythm and rhyme particularly.'
What do your children think of the work you do?
'When they were at junior school they used to cower a little when I came in to read. Especially Nathan whose name crops up once or twice. But then when they saw how eager their friends were to get copies of the book I think they became proud. I think they just take it for granted that their dad isn't quite like other dads. Where other dads are playing golf or the stockmarket I'm writing funny things on bits of paper about bottoms and toilets. Neither of them yet write poems themselves. Now they're older I think they're quite proud when they hear me do a reading and they'll tell me which poems work. The title poem of the collection, Dad You're Not Funny, is a line my son Nathan used with me quite a bit.'