Children’s authors have hit out at celebs who think that it’s “easy” to write books for kids. Several frustrated scribblers spoke to The Guardian about A-listers jumping on the bandwagon.
The report describes Meghan Markle‘s 2021 children’s picture book ‘The Bench’ as a “flop” that “made a lot of headlines but didn’t sell at all well”. The Guardian adds: “Only 8,000 copies have ever been sold in the UK, according to Nielsen BookScan.”
Author and poet Joshua Seigal told the paper: “These celebrities do not need any more money or exposure, but plenty of genuine writers do… Writing for children is an art. It requires skill, practice and discipline. I work really hard on my art, and it’s quite galling that people seem to think it is something that’s easy to do.”
The Duchess of Sussex reportedly received an advance of £500,000 for The Bench, despite being only 40 pages long. It comes after the news that Pirates of the Caribbean star Keira Knightly is working on her debut children’s book, to be called ‘I Love You Just the Same’.
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The author James A Lyons fumed: “I sent out 180 queries across three manuscripts over four years. Non-celebrities face hundreds of rejections – and not a fast-tracked ticket to the front of the queue.”
Helen Tamblyn-Saville, the owner of the Wonderland bookshop in Retford, Notts, urged celebrities to “promote access to the wider children’s book market, rather than just publicise themselves”, adding that this would “be more welcomed”.
And the writer Katherine Rundell said she was “exhausted” by “those celebrities who put their names to ghostwritten children’s novels”. She added: “We would be shocked if you put your name to a concerto you hadn’t composed; we would find it supremely embarrassing if you signed a painting you hadn’t painted. It poisons the water. It makes it harder for parents and teachers to find great children’s fiction, and it makes children’s fiction look like something cheap and thin, instead of what it is – a literature with its own strangenesses, its own rigours, its own power.”
At least the Duchess of Sussex is thought to have written The Bench herself. It is a series of musings and poems about the relationship between a a son and his father (who bears a close resemblance to Prince Harry). Released in July 2021, Meghan is said to have written it shortly after she gave birth to Prince Archie.
(Image: ANDRES CASTILLA 2024)
READ IT: Click here to buy The Bench from the Express Bookshop
While the illustrations by Christian Robinson won praise, the book itself was hammered by critics. Royal author Alexander Larman said: “I assumed prior to publication that a ghostwriter’s services would have been employed, but I now believe that this is indeed the work of Meghan, if only because I cannot believe a professional writer would have come up with something so entirely inessential.”
And Catherine Woulf for The Spinoff said: “As a picture-book user I’m very confident that this is not a book I’ll ever read to my kids, or buy as a gift. If we were given it I’d probably be so keen to have it out of the house that I’d do the unthinkable and exchange it.”
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