11/8/2023 0 Comments Heavens tot lotComplete heresy you go into primary schools and say you don’t plan…’ ‘That book (the fourth) just about finished me off, actually. With my Harry Potter hat on, I have to admit that I had considered Mrs MacLachlan a bit of a Dumbledore figure, taking care of everyone, making sure everything’s all right in the end. ‘She’s the only one who comes out and says she’s a witch, but she’s rubbish!’ Debi laughs. I mention that to start with I was disappointed in Baci’s lack of skill in being a witch. The less I steered, the more rounded the characters became.’ It’s only through years of living with these characters, that you get to know their preferences and their deepest, darkest secrets, and their personalities start to come out. An author needs to get to know their characters. Sometimes a series takes time to get going. I was having a pint of Guinness with Eoin Colfer, and he was telling me all about his idea for mad fairies and leprechaun units, and I wondered where the heck he was going with his wayward plot! I adore him, he makes me fall about laughing, he is a genius. I compare her first PDM with Artemis Fowl, which also has an adult feel to it. I ran into a woman in a signing queue up in Shetland, who said “Oh, we love this in my reading group!” She was convinced they’re adult books.’ ‘Titus swears like a trooper in that book. I say I reckon the books really are for adults.ĭebi tells me that after my recent blog post on her fifth Pure Dead Magic book, she read on, and counted five ‘bloody hells’ in quick succession. They are very, very frank about how much they don’t like you.’ ‘You go in cold to schools, sometimes the classes are too young. ‘Yes, or Rab C Nesbitt.’ Debi tries to read her books in accents when going into schools, but the trouble is it takes an hour to explain what she is about to read. I always give Titus and Pandora a sort of west coast twang.’ I say I can only think ‘Billy Connolly’ when I think of her Loch creature. ‘My mum was determined I wasn’t going to speak like “that”. He was the one who went to college, and became a teacher.’ I remark that she has not got a strong Glaswegian accent. My father had lots of siblings, and they were very poor. My grandfather used to sell ice cream off the back of a donkey cart. My grandparents came from Italy in the late 1930s. She says that sometimes in schools she is greeted with the phrase ‘Good Morning, Mrs Ravioli’, which she finds hilarious. It makes it easier to pronounce, but it’s hard to unlearn years of G-lioring. Something I have realised from listening to Debi on Meet the Author, is that the G in Gliori is silent. ‘I’m so not cool’ she says, ‘that AGA is my dirty little secret.’ Debi says jokingly that they’ll have to move, to avoid being AGA owners, ‘but I love my shed, and I did tidy it up a month ago. I admire her AGA, which looks very cool, except it’s quite hot, of course. I end up getting the milk for the tea and the coffee, and have a lovely hunt through for the Italian homemade ice cream we have with pudding. Well, that’s who I did find on that platform, and if I interviewed the wrong Debi Gliori, then that’s nothing to do with me.Īfter a short tour through the almost Scandinavian countryside east of Edinburgh, we arrive at GlioriSchloss, and within minutes I know more about the inside of Debi’s fridge and freezer than I ought to, having sat down in the ‘wrong’ spot in her kitchen. Twelve years on, we’re now running Debi OSX version 50.1.27.’ I had googled her to see what she looks like, and she tried to make out I’d not find that – very nice looking – woman when we finally meet. A previous wrinkle-free self who probably could still fit into a size ten. Debi is easy to recognise despite that dreadful lie she told me in her email as we set up our meeting ‘It was an impostor you found on Go Ogle. She looks a little lonely standing on the platform, scanning the train for a witch she has never met, so I wave to Debi Gliori through the train doors, to indicate that I am me, so to speak.
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