Sir Lenny Henry speaks to Express & Star senior reporter James Vukmirovic about his appearance at the the Reading for Smiles Children’s Book Festival in Birmingham, a ground-breaking new initiative, in partnership with the charity World Book Day and Midlands Arts Centre (MAC).
Sponsored by Pan Macmillan and funded by Arts Council England, the first-of-its-kind festival will welcome 210 children from schools with high free school meal eligibility and low literacy rates, offering many their first-ever experience of a literature festival.
Sponsored by Pan Macmillan and funded by Arts Council England, the first-of-its-kind festival will welcome 210 children from schools with high free school meal eligibility and low literacy rates, offering many their first-ever experience of a literature festival.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, I'm James McManus and you might recognise the gentleman next to me, a comedian, broadcaster,
00:05fundraiser and a very successful author, Mr Lenny Henry.
00:08Tell me about what's brought you here today.
00:10We've been here for this fantastic festival, the Black British Book Festival, it's called
00:15Reading for Smiles and it's about encouraging kids to read, which I'm really behind.
00:20Since starting writing books about six years ago, I've found that kids have been incredibly
00:24responsive to stories, they love using their imagination, they love putting themselves
00:29in stories and I think it's a really important thing.
00:33Literacy amongst kids has gone down slightly in the last few years and I think it's all
00:37our jobs to try and get that up again.
00:39So encourage your kids to read, read to them, get them to read to you and also get them
00:44to tell stories.
00:45It's really important to get kids to use their imagination and make up stories as well
00:50as read them.
00:51I used to go to Dudley Library when I was a kid with my Aunty Pearl and she encouraged
00:56me to take out any book, read them and then bring them back and I think that really got
01:02me into the thing of reading and writing.
01:06So when I wrote essays at school, I would use my imagination, even if it was maths or
01:10geography and I would just make up a story to suit whatever the subject matter was.
01:14So reading is really important, choice is really important for kids and also most vitally,
01:19seeing yourself in a story, if you're black, you're white, you're brown, if you're a girl,
01:24you're a boy, seeing you in a story is really important and back in the day, authors just
01:29used to write one type of character but now in the 21st century, with authors like Mallory
01:35Blackman and authors like Nadine Sherween, we've got Asian characters, black characters,
01:41white characters, boy characters, female characters, kids can see themselves in stories now and
01:47that's a good thing.
01:48And that's been, I suppose, is that what's influenced your writing as well with Tunday
01:52in the past, with Tyrone today?
01:53Yeah, in The Boy With Wings, I just wanted to see a little kid, I wanted to read the
01:58kind of story that I wanted to be in, the kind of story I wanted to read.
02:03So The Boy With Wings is, I wouldn't regret it if there was a little kid in Britain, actually
02:08in Dudley, that looked like me, who suddenly discovered he had superpowers and it was just
02:12letting my imagination go free.
02:15And there's three Tunday books, one of them is a World Book Day book and with Tyrone it
02:21was just, when I was five I was scared of the barber, when I was 12 I was scared of
02:26the barber because I thought he might do me damage and I wanted to write a book that would
02:30offset that.
02:31I wanted to write a story that when barbers are cool, they're not going to hurt you and
02:35look we have a great history of storytelling through hair, there's lots of different types
02:41of black haircuts and here's some of them are and Salome Daku man, she does a splash
02:46page where there's every kind of black hairdo and it's wonderful.
02:51So big up to her.
02:52And events like this, events like World Book Day, I know that you were a voracious reader
02:57back in the day, for kids of your time, how valuable would days like this have been?
03:03Well put it this way, when I was at school and I was this age, you know who came to my
03:08school?
03:09A man dressed as an apple and a woman dressed as a toothbrush and I'm 66 and I'm still talking
03:14about it.
03:15So can you imagine if an author comes to your school and reads you a story and talks about
03:19how to tell stories, can you imagine if a film cameraman comes to your school and shows
03:23you the inside workings of a camera, can you imagine if a traveller like David Attenborough
03:27comes to your school, you know, I would imagine most of the kids would be an author, a film
03:32cameraman or a cartoonist or a filmmaker or a traveller today.
03:38These things are important to kids and I'm glad you're being part of this today.
03:42And you had the kids in the palm of your hand today, going through the story, getting them
03:46engaged with it.
03:47Talk about the show, I suppose the show for yourself, it's also about telling a story
03:50to those kids and inspiring them as well.
03:52Yeah, inspiration is important and as I say, if you need Blighton or JK Rowling or Mallory
03:57Blackman or Roald Dahl to come to my school and tell me a brilliant story, you know, that
04:02would encourage me to be a writer myself.
04:04So I think the more your parents, your uncle, your auntie can read to you, can encourage
04:10you to go to the library, the more you'll want to be a reader and I think that's really
04:14important today.
04:15What were the sort of stories that you were doing back in school days?
04:17Because I remember creative writing myself, writing about people riding jetpacks and going
04:21on long journeys and things like that, is that the sort of thing you wrote about?
04:24Stories of the future, of course, we all want to know about what it's going to be like in
04:28the future.
04:29We all want superpowers, we're all interested in magic powers, magical happenings, anything
04:34like that where we can use our imagination is good.
04:37And stories, I always gravitated towards stories about superpowers or magic.
04:42So Tom's Secret Garden, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, things like that.
04:46Today if you ask any kid what story they love, they always talk about Harry Potter, The Worst
04:49Witch, they always talk about Narnia, so magic is still big.
04:54So I think make up your own stories and also don't wait to learn how to write before you
05:00start telling stories.
05:01Start telling stories about anything and that's going to stand you in good stead later.
05:05And I've spoken about the kids being inspired by today, how much do you get inspired by
05:08these events?
05:09I love it and I love looking out at the audience and seeing all kinds of kids.
05:13It's really good to see all manner of kids out there listening because you hope that
05:17one day they're going to make their own stories and that's really important.
05:20And what's next for you in terms of your writing journey?
05:23I'm writing another Tyrone book and I'm writing another Tindy book and they should be out
05:27later next year and I'm doing more acting, I'm doing a play at the Soho Place and the
05:35best thing of all is that there's going to be a play of The Boy With Wings, a Birmingham
05:41rep soon this year.
05:44It's written by, adapted by Arvind Ethan David and it's promoted by the Pulker Children's
05:52Theatre and I can't wait so I'm going to be in the Midlands supporting that place.
05:57Hello I'm here on World Book Day supporting Black British Book Festival Reading for Smiles.
06:03I've had a fantastic time, read all about it, see it on this channel later.