Meg Rosoff
Meg Rosoff waited until she was 45 to write her first novel, How I Live Now, the story of a passionate love affair between young teenage cousins, set against the background of apocalyptic war. It changed her life, selling a million copies and becoming a film starring Saoirse Ronan. She gave up a series of unfulfilling jobs in advertising and reinvented herself as a writer. Over the last 16 years she\u2019s published eight more novels, as well as eight books for younger readers, including four about McTavish the rescue dog. She\u2019s won numerous awards, including the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award - half a million Pounds, the biggest prize in children\u2019s literature.
In Private Passions, she talks to Michael Berkeley about the ways in which she\u2019s reinvented her life over the years. First, there was the decision to come to England from New York and begin a new life here; then, after the tragic early death of her sister, there was the decision to become a writer. It didn\u2019t begin well; she decided to write a book about ponies aimed at teenaged girls, but no publisher would touch it \u2013 it was far too sexy. Finding her voice as a writer took a while, and has led Meg Rosoff to think about \u201cvoice\u201d in relation to musicians and composers too.\n \nMusic choices include Bach\u2019s B Minor Mass; \u201cLondon Calling\u201d by the Clash; Brahms\u2019s Second Piano Concerto, and Ravel\u2019s String Quartet in F Major.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3\nProduced by Elizabeth Burke