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INTERVIEW

July 18, 2001

If you haven't already immersed yourself in the wacky world of Georgia Nicolson and her mates, then run, don't walk to the nearest bookseller and scoop up both of her hilarious diaries: ANGUS, THONGS AND FULL FRONTAL SNOGGING and ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I'M NOW THE GIRLFRIEND OF A SEX GOD. British comedian and writer Louise Rennison brings the daily traumas of high school to hilarious life in these two books, leaving no stone unturned in her quest to detail the minutiae of being a teenaged girl. No disaster --- from eyebrow plucking to French kissing to sadistic gym teachers --- is spared the Georgia treatment. Teenreads reviewer par excellence Lucy Burns recently got the chance to chat with the author and discuss the difference between English and American slang as well as the trouble with writing what you know.

Teenreads: I find that sometimes Georgia is a bit on the naive side. I know that is probably because she is 14, and I can barely remember being 14. But, in general, your books paint being a teenager in a positive, fun light, as opposed to the many dark, abuse and sex filled Young Adult novels out there. Do you think "real" teenagers today are more jaded than Georgia is? Or are she and the rest of her girlfriends the norm and the jaded teens are a media invention?

LR: Hmmmmm...well, no, I don't think so. When I was a teenager there were always the "bad" girls, or anyway girls who were a bit more forward than the rest of us (the Bummer twins for instance in the book). The rest of us more or less jogged along at the same stage. I think it is the same now, at least in England. In London some teenagers I know who have "groovy" parents are allowed to stay out later than others, etc. I think teenagers are fab and have great energy and are on the whole a great laugh.

Teenreads: How much of Georgia's thoughts, deeds, and slang came from your experience as a teenager? Did you and your friends spend way too much time at Boots, making up your own language and not enough time studying?

LR: Oh dear. I keep getting told off by my publishers and also by my family, who beg me not to admit that the books are based on my life...but sadly they are. Almost everything that happened in the books happened to me and, yes, I am including shaving off my eyebrows, which was the act of a complete and utter prat. I do, still, call my mum and dad mutti and vati. Actually, my mum was in the audience of one of my readings, and a quite shocked woman asked me if my family minded me depicting them in the way I did in the book...so I said, "I don't know. Mutti, how do you feel about being portrayed in my books?" And she had to say!!! She said, "Erm, on the whole I think the books are quite good, but the bits about me are ridiculously exaggerated."

Teenreads: Did you have a mad crush on a sex god of your own while you were growing up?

LR: Oh yes. Yes, I had a mad crush on the Sex God. He was in a band and he went out with someone I called Wet Lindsay. In fact, I may as well come clean now --- when I wrote the books I based all of my characters on real people, Sex God, Wet Lindsay, Slim, Herr Kamyer, Elvis Attwood...and I used their real names in the writing, intending to change them before publication...but I forgot...so I am expecting to be killed when I go back to my hometown. My only hope is that Elvis Attwood will have gone to that big caretaking home in the sky. He was about 185 when I was at school, so I may be lucky.

Teenreads: Did you have to wear a uniform to school?

LR: Yes, I used to have to wear a uniform, including regulation navy blue knickers (you don't say knickers in America do you?). The very worst thing was that we had to wear berets, and that is why we used to think of different ways of wearing them without actually wearing them, if you see what I mean...

Teenreads: On the character tip, will Angus mellow out?

LR: Will Angus mellow out? It doesn't seem very likely does it? Once a mad half-Scottish wildcat always a mad half-Scottish wildcat...actually Angus is real as well. I absolutely loved him. He was the best cat known to humanity and he really did beat up next doors poodles --- they had to be sent to an animal psychologist in the end because they wouldn't come out of the house. And he had a lead. He was a fantastic boy magnet too...

Teenreads: And what about Georgia and Libby's names? Are we to assume Mutti and Vati were hippies at some point in the far distant past?

LR: The names are a bit mixed up. My sister, who was born when I was 11, was called Sophie and she has a daughter called Libby who is 4 and is bonkers!!!! Georgia is a name I always loved, I wanted to be called Georgia, my best friend wanted to be called Mary Leek, because leeks were her favourite vegetable...which is unusually mad. Mutti and Vati ex-hippies? Oh yes, I think so, the flares speak (sadly) for themselves.

Teenreads: I absolutely love all the funny sayings and British-isms in both books. I found them very addictive and I still use some (fabbity fab fab!) in my own daily speech. Which is your favorite? Did you grow up saying these things? Do British teens talk about lippy and the like?

LR: The slang I use is partly made up and partly what we used at school and partly what me and my friends use now...the expression as thick as two short planks, or mad as a loon, or two short loons is from me and my mates now...it can take us years to get to the end of a sentence when we are in the mood. It's fantastic actually because it has become a real cult over here, all over the country girls are calling their dads vati and asking if they can go to the piddly diddly department. Even more fab is that I have now started getting letters from American girls saying that they are "practicing being British" and can I send them anymore British words so that they can get really good at it!!! Fab!

Teenreads: Do you find you have as much trouble understanding Americans as we do understanding Brits?

LR: Do I have trouble understanding Americans? Hmmm...well, when I was doing a radio interview last time I was over there, the interviewer asked me something...oh, and I should tell you that in England "fag" has two meanings, it can mean either a gay person or a cigarette, whereas in your pad it just means a gay person doesn't it? Anyway this jolly nice chap said, "Miss Rennison, we love your book but we are just a bit concerned that on one of the pages you actually say that you "lit up a fag," which we think is kinda cruel." Tee hee!!!!

I love Americans. I had such a groovy and fab time with you, and everyone was incredibly nice and not at all like in England where everyone ignores me...(that last bit is not strictly true).

Teenreads: What was the most difficult part of writing these books? Did you go through many drafts and rejections?

LR: I wrote my books quite quickly. I was busy working for the BBC as a comedy columnist on radio, and a big London newspaper heard me and asked me to write some articles for them. I wrote one about having to have my slingbacks cut off in casualty (true) because I had walked home in them, and because I am vain, they were far too small for my big fat feet and I fell asleep on the sofa with them on...well, my feet swelled up around the little straps which had cut into them. My mates had to carry me to Charing Cross Hospitals where the doctors cut them off...I was crying and saying..."Oh, doctor can't you save them???"

Anyway an English publisher read my article and phoned up and said they loved it and would I consider doing a book for them. I was very flattered and imagined that they meant a sort of sophisticated girl about town thing. She said, no they thought a teenage girl's diary. I said "Er...why me?" And the MD said, "Because I have never read anything so self obsessed and childish." So I just went ahead and wrote it, sort of pleased to have managed to finish it and expecting the publishers to come back and say, "Yes nice try, now let's try again." And they just loved it, and it was an amazing and immediate hit. I was staggered.

Teenreads: How long did it take you to write them?

LR: It took about 6 months to write. I write in a very eccentric place in the middle of town, called the Natural Health Centre...I used to do yoga there when I went to performing arts college here and just sort of ended up writing there. It's hilarious, there's always workshops going on 5 rhythms and belly dancing and primal screaming, etc. So if I get bored I go and peer in at weird dancing!!! And moaning....Also, and I still find this very, very funny even years on, there is a wholefood (natural food) shop called "Infinity," so I never tire of saying, "Just popping to Infinity...I may be some time."

   --- Interviewed by Lucy Burns

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