R A Spratt was born in the UK but now resides in Bowral NSW. She’s the bestselling author of books such as Friday Barnes, The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, The Peski Kids and the Shockingly and Astonishingly Good Stories collections. Her latest novel, Hamlet is Not OK is a hilarious and clever take on Shakespearean moral dilemmas. Good Reading for Young Adults caught up with R A Spratt to discuss everything from books, reading habits to her novel.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Selby hates homework.

She would rather watch TV – anything to escape the tedium of school, her parents’ bookshop and small-town busybodies.

So Selby didn’t plan to read Hamlet. She certainly never planned to meet him.

This novel transports Selby, and the reader, into the cold and crime-ridden play itself. Here she meets Hamlet: heavy with grief, the young prince is overthinking and over everything. Selby can relate. But unlike Hamlet, Selby isn’t afraid of making decisions. In her world, Selby is used to feeling overlooked. But in the bloody, backstabbing world of Shakespeare, Selby’s good conscience and quiet courage might just save some lives . . . hopefully before Hamlet stabs one of her classmates.

WHAT’S ON R A SPRATT’S BOOKCASE?

What are you reading now?

I just read Smash! written by Sara Latta and illustrations by Jeff Weigel, which is a graphic novel explaining the large hadron collider in Cern. I highly recommend it for anyone trying to understand the experiments they’re doing with the large hadron collider. It’s meant to be for kids but all the things written for adults are bewildering. This graphic novel was really helpful. I’m trying to wrap my mind around the Cern experiments for the Friday Barnes book I’m working on.

And I just bought myself a copy of Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. The school holidays are coming up and I thought it would be a good beach read. I enjoyed her first two books.

If you were stranded on a desert island and you could only have five books – what would they be?

Persuasion by Jane Austen because it’s my all-time favourite book.

Rivals by Jilly Cooper because it’s my all-time favourite trashy book. If I’m fighting for survival on my own in the wilderness things are going to be grim. I will want to read something fun.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer because it’s my all-time favourite silly book. If I’m isolated on a desert island it will be nice to imagine that I’m in a rain soaked forest with lots of very handsome vampires and werewolves.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy because I hear it’s good, but it’s so long there’s no way I’d read it unless I was stuck on a desert island.

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope because I love rereading this book. I love his conversational writing style and his characters.

Where is your favourite place to read?

The recliner in my office. It’s a very nice spot. It’s even better after the kids have gone to bed and I can have a glass of wine with cheese and crackers while I read.

Do you read one book at a time or multiple?

I read one book for pleasure at a time but I’m often reading a variety of books for work as well.

Do you use a bookmark or fold the corners of pages?

I fold the corners. I don’t care if you judge me. They’re my books and I’ll do what I like. As an author, I can tell you – authors prefer it if you physically ruin their books. It forces people to buy more of them. Really, the kindest thing you can do if you love a book and want to help the author – is go on social media and rave about how great the book is. Then burn your own copy, or flush it down the toilet, or throw it in a wood chipper, or feed it to your pet piranhas or get a herd of hippopotamuses to stampede across it. That forces everyone else to buy their own copy.

What can you tell us about your latest novel Hamlet is Not OK?

I’ve taken the quippy conversational style of Friday Barnes books and soaked it into Hamlet. I wanted to make Shakespeare easier for teenagers to wrap their minds around. And Hamlet much easier to understand when you write a modern day 16-year-old into the story, who asks Hamlet to explain what he’s talking about and tells him off when he’s behaving badly. I’ve got a 15-year-old daughter. So basically, this books is what would happen if I sent her back in time to comment on every mistake Hamlet makes as he struggles with his moral dilemmas.

What do you hope readers will take away from Selby’s journey?

My goal is always to tell a fun story that readers enjoy. It’s full of ideas (I love ideas) about all sorts of different things – social issues, language, literature, you name it. There’s also action, sword fights and teenagers saying really cool clever disparaging things to each other.

What book character would you be, and why?

I quite like who I am already. In a way I am a book character because a lot of my books are very autobiographical. I find if you transform these stories so that the lead character is a flying pig, you’re less likely to get arrested.

If you could meet one author (living or dead) – who would it be and why?

I love Jane Austen but I don’t know that I would want to meet her. It would be so disappointing if she was horrible. I might be better off meeting someone like Nigella Lawson, because I think it would be more comfortable to have a long conversation about food than a long conversation about the nature of love.

Learn more about R A Spratt and her books HERE.