TALK: Allan Boroughs

#interview #adventure #writing

Allan Boroughs is a writer of children’s adventures. His debut novel Ironheart is out now from Macmillan. He spoke to StoryWorld about his writing, inspirations, and traveling in the name of research.

Tell me about Ironheart!

Ironheart is, first and foremost, an adventure story – it is set 150 years in the future when the Great Rains have consumed the world’s cities.  It tells the story of a young girl who travels to Siberia in search of her missing father in the company of a seven foot military android who becomes her friend.  Along the way she meets pirates, outlaws a 200 year old shaman and encounters a dark secret under the ice that could bring about the end of the world.  The story was inspired by my own journeys in Siberia and by the mystery surrounding the ‘Tunguska Event’ – the largest meteorite to strike the earth in human history which landed in Siberia in 1908.

You did research in Antarctica? How?

Primarily by going there to have a look! I have a strong preference to visit all the places I write about so I can get a sense of what it is like to see it for the first time and can instil this sense in my characters when I write the story.  It took me about four days to get to Antarctica via Santiago, Tierra del Fuego and a bleak Chilean air force base in the South Atlantic.  After that I took a boat down the Antarctic peninsula to a point below the Antarctic circle.  It was an astonishing journey and one I feel very privileged to have made.

What writers or books inspired you to start writing?

·       CS Lewis – who made me fall in love with reading at age 7

·       Tolkien for the best quest stories ever.

·       David Almond for Skellig – the only book that ever made me cry

·       Philip Pullman for Northern Lights  - the book with the best ever female protagonist.

·       And AA Milne – for Winnie the Pooh – the funniest book in the universe.

Are you working on new anything at the moment?

I’m currently finishing up edits on the second instalment of Ironheart in which India travels to Antarctica.  Also plotting for book three which, if I have my way, will require more research, this time in Venezuela.

Thanks Allan! You can find Allan online at his website www.allanboroughs.co.uk and Twitter: www.twitter.com/allanboroughs Ironheart is available in bookshops and online