Robin Jarvis

Robin Jarvis is the creator – in words and pictures - of unforgettable fantasy worlds, featuring real and vigorous characters that positively demand the reader’s attention. Robin gives you heroes to love, villains to hate and, perhaps most compelling of all, characters who are a mixture of both. His latest work is The Hagwood Books.

THE BASICS
Born: Liverpool, May 8th 1963
Jobs: Model-maker for film & TV, worked in gnome factory
Lives: Greenwich, South London
First Book: The Dark Portal, 1989

THE BOOKS
Robin Jarvis was born in Liverpool, the youngest of four children, and grew up in Warrington. His favourite subjects at school were Art and English and he went on to study Graphic Design at Newcastle Polytechnic. His final degree show was full of goblins and river spirits that leered and dangled off the screen.

After college, Robin moved to London and put his design talent to use creating characters for television and advertising. His first book, The Dark Portal, developed from doodles of the Deptford Mice characters in a sketchbook. The Dark Portal was an instant bestseller and became the first novel in The Deptford Trilogy. Robin has written three further trilogies – The Deptford Histories, Tales From The Wyrd Museum and The Whitby Witches – and is now working on The Hagwood Books.

Robin produces all the artwork for his own books. When he gets an idea, he produces a “map” for the book – “It’s a storyline, really, but they can get quite long… up to 80 pages or so.” He also makes models of the characters, from “whatever works… a little bit of fibreglass, a little bit of wire, hair, fur, glue, paint and spit…they’re great to take around schools and bring out when the kids are bored of looking at me.”

WHAT HE SAYS...
“You have to work hard to make the readers suspend their disbelief… to want to live in, or at least visit the places you’re writing about.”

“I live with these ideas and get really excited about them, and when I’m like that I never tell anyone anything about what I’m doing; I’m a bit like a chef who won’t open the oven door for fear of ruining the souffle.”

“When I’m writing I’m looking at a widescreen picture in my head and just taking notes.”

“When it’s all happening – all the action and the death – I’m right there and I can do 20 pages of good stuff a day, but when I’m not in the right mood I can spend all day looking for the right CD to put on.”

On the inspiration for The Hagwood Books…

"I was walking through the woods and I started thinking about all the stuff going on around me, in the undergrowth and the trees; by the time I got home I had the idea for the werlings and on it went. This is very much scary fairyland, not quirky reality. It isn’t about the real world."

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT ROBIN JARVIS...
"Jarvis is that rare character type – a true original. He creates worlds of fantasy and has the ability to make them real in words, three dimensions and pictures as well." Publishing News

AWARDS
Runner-up for The Smarties Prize 1989 for The Dark Portal
Lancashire Library Children’s Book of the Year Award 1992 for The Whitby Witches