The Awesome Andy Briggs

Andy Briggs uses the word "awesome" a lot. This is very appropriate. Andy hangs out a lot in Hollywood. He sometimes overtakes Beyoncé and walks past Steven Spielberg and on his way to work. He writes books, but he also writes for TV, films and scripts comic books. Stan Lee once phoned him up and offered him a job.

Andy Briggs IS awesome, and any one of the 300 hundred or so children at Larkmead and John Mason schools who spent an hour in his company yesterday during a series of incredible events would definitely agree. As one boy said on his way out at John Mason: "you sir are the most awesome author I have ever heard". 'Nuff said.

Andy was in town ostensibly to talk about his latest book "Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy". I was already bowled over by this book - but Andy's talk was so much more than what Tarzan is about and how it came to be written.

Andy talks with more passion that I have ever heared about writing. He asks the kids "who here likes films?", "who here watches movies?", "who listens to songs?". All written by people like him: writers. And why stop there: let's include soap operas, sports commentary, video games and the sides of cereal boxes. Advertising, most of the Internet...and, yes, books. No writers = nothing to read, watch or be entertained by.

And then he makes the link between where his audience is now, and where he was at their age: broke, bored, but with an idea in his head which eventually spilled out as writing. It was compelling stuff. Even I wanted to get out a pen and start writing...

Then we were onto Tarzan. Andy approached the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs with an idea to change Tarzan and bring him up-to-date. One trip to Burrough's preserved house (Tarzana, near Los Angeles) later, and Andy was the first person in 100 years to be given permission to change the origins of Tarzan.

As well as a précis of the story, he talked about preserving endangered species (via his work with EAZA's Great Ape campaign), gave a fantastic geography lesson on the sheer size of Africa (see how China and the US fit neatly in there, and look out for GB overlaying Madagascar)...

...before finishing up with an awesome jungle quiz to see how many people would survive - or more likely perish horribly - if forced to survive in the rainforest.

All that in under an hour, three times in a row, and signing books after as well. As I say...awesome.

(The only thing not quite so awesome was my lamentably bad photography, but hopefully you get the general idea).

Signed copies of Tarzan are now in Mostly Books, and I urge you to take a look. Written in a tradition of Rice Burroughs, Willard Price, Spiderman...and with a sprinkle of Hollywood glamour thrown in there as well, this is unashamed rip-roaring entertainment, and one written in the service of making a real difference to endangered species. As Andy says, soberingly, "there are 900 children in this school, but there are only 650 mountain gorillas left anywhere in the world. This is their last chance".

Me Bookseller, You Jane: the return of Tarzan...in Abingdon

In the days before running a bookshop, I spent a bit of time at the other end of the ‘paper supply chain’ – timber production. And not just any old timber, but tropical hardwood. I helped develop a system (still going strong) which tracked timber from the forest, proving (amongst other things) that the patio set you just bought from your local garden centre did indeed start life as a legally felled log – and definitely not from a shady illegal operation.

So when (ahead of two school events with him tomorrow) I started reading Andy Briggs’ Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy I was - quickly, brutally, and in an utterly compelling way - plunged back into the world of illegal timber in the rainforests of Congo. Boy oh boy, is it an exciting read...here's a picture of Andy at the recent launch of the book at Scotia Books.

We have been involved in one or two franchise ‘reboots’ this year, and it seems to be an increasingly attractive thing for publishers to do: this year there has been Deaver’s Bond, Lustbader's Bourne and forthcoming attractions include Cottrell-Boyce’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and Anthony Horrowitz’s Sherlock Holmes novel “House of Silk”. But rebooting Tarzan? It wasn't clear to me that that bringing Edgar Bice Burrough's creation back to life would work.

2012 is the one hundredth anniversary of the original Tarzan, and – like many people my age – I grew up with the tail end of the black and white Tarzan on Saturday morning telly, with Cheetah and Jane. However, I would be hard-pressed to tell you much about the characters and the stories, aside from swinging through the trees, thumping his chest and uttering that well-known roar.

But Tarzan on TV bore little resemblance to the original book, and Andy Briggs has sensibly gone back to Rice Burrough’s original tale, a book of surprising emotional depth (it's a great love story), and one which sits well with other science fiction writing around that time. Instead of (say) War of the Worlds, which extrapolated modern developments in warfare, Tarzan worked with ideas of identity, race and civilisation that are still very much relevant today.

Briggs stays very close to Burrough's original premise: of a boy adopted by a gorilla, who grows up to become a 'white ape' and Lord of the Jungle. Taught about the outside world by the mysterious D'Arnot, we first meet Tarzan dispatching (in a suitably savage way) three very nasty poachers, against an all-to-realistic backdrop of civil war and environmental destruction.

The main action though begins in an illegal logging camp. Jane Porter is the daughter of one of the loggers, a man who has fled America after losing almost everything of value to him - and when the camp is attacked and Jane disappears, it seems as though he will lost his daughter too. Jane has already been removed from her previous life, cut off from the outside world, sending emails from her iPhone destinated never to arrive by dint of the utter remoteness of her situation in the camp. And when she disappears, a young boy in the camp, Robbie, sets off in hotheaded pursuit.

Thus begins a tense yet thrilling pursuit through the forest on the one hand, whilst on the other hand the relationship between Tarzan and Jane - and the slowly unfolding truth about who Tarzan is - begins to emerge. I particularly liked the nuanced portrayal of everyone - ape or human, father and daughter. No-one is entirely good or bad (Tarzan is certainly no angel) and the nice moral ambiguities work well within the the exciting plot (rip-roaring is an understatement).

Anyway - Andy has pulled off a remarkable book, I hugely enjoyed it, and everyone should take the opportunity to reaquaint themselves with Tarzan (but for fans of the films, a warning: there's no Cheetah!)

We have previously done an event with Andy during the Amazing Books for Boys event with Trapped By Monsters, but I am very much looking forward to taking him to Larkmead School and John Mason School in Abingdon tomorrow. If you are coming along to those events, we'l see you there...

An Amazing Day

Our "Amazing Books for Boys" event took place on Saturday - and an amazing day it was too. We'll write up the individual events in more detail over on the Amazing Blog for Boys shortly, but for now here are some highlights. First up was Trapped By Monsters:

From left, Sam Enthoven, Joe Craig, David Melling, Tommy Donbavand, Andy Briggs and Ali Sparkes. Hard to believe that at least two of these authors had never met before - their show was superb:

The strain of having been locked for the past weeks in a cave was really showing. The authors were under a great deal of stress - forced to compete in a nightmare gameshow to avoid being eaten. Kids were selected at random from the audience for to take part in unspeakably awful activities. Here we see children turned into mummies using specially re-used toilet paper... ...whilst at the back a frightening monster took form as the event progressed. Finally, released from the horrific spectacle, the authors were allowed into the main foyer of the theatre to sign books!

There were Trapped By Monsters trading cards - and even Trapped By Monsters cakes! No sooner had they departed, the stage was transformed into a dojo ready for the appearance of Young Samurai author Chris Bradford and Team Taurus - the brilliant Oxford School of Martial Arts Display Team. Fog crept out onto the stage, and the packed audience was treated to an incredible display of carefully choreographed martial arts, readings and audio-visual displays: Chris doesn't just do readings - he brings them to life, acting out the fight sequences from the Young Samurai books: This was the official launch event for Way of The Sword, the sequel to the award-winning Young Samurai.

After the performance, Chris signed copies and had pictures taken with young fans.

Finally, Robert Muchamore came onto the stage, and talked about CHERUB, Henderson's Boys - including the latest Eagle Day. Robert had fans travel from as far afield as Reading and Milton Keynes to hear him speak. He talked about how he started writing, how the books have developed - and took many questions from fans who had a scary amount of knowledge about his books. It was a great performance - and a storming end to the event. Robert then signed books, chatted to fans and patiently had photographs taken by everyone - including the event organisers. Thanks to everyone who helped out on the day (including Yaxkis and Will above), everyone who came to be entertained - but mostly thanks to all the authors and performers who made it such a memorable day. We have a week to recover - and then this Saturday it's the return of the Children's Food Festival for us...