An interview with Owlcrate Jr…

February 2020

Hello Benjamin and Laura! The Midnight Hour is such a wild story. Where did the idea first come from and how did it grow into the final book?

B: A long time ago a friend of mine posted a little surprise package through my door at midnight. As well as scaring the life out of me, it also immediately made me think of what a great start that would be to a story - who would send midnight post? Why exactly at midnight? Somewhere along the line that little acorn of an idea ran head on into a much bigger idea. What if midnight wasn’t just a time? What if it was a place as well? Maybe that’s where all the magic was.

L: From there, Ben wrote a hugely detailed encyclopaedia of a magical world called The Midnight Hour and all its inhabitants. It was packed full of exciting characters and creatures, but the acorn had become a huge oak tree and we needed to narrow it all down in order to find our story. After banging our heads together and some great chats with our publisher and editor at Chicken House, the story of The Midnight Hour appeared from the mist.


Tell us about the process of co-creating a book. What are the best bits and what are the hardest parts?

B: It’s all hard. (Joking!... Kind of). I find ideas to be easy, too easy. It all tumbles out and there’s so much of it.  So, getting it all down in the first place is straight forward. Carving that into something worth reading is the challenging part. It’s an old answer, but writing is easy. Re-writing is the hard bit. The best bit though is getting to work with one of my best friends. We just do the ‘making each other laugh game’ that we do most the time anyway, and turn those gags into something that people seem to want to read. Who knew that would ever become our job?

L: What he said! The best part is definitely working together with Ben to dream up magical things. Co-creating is really special, because you get to see your ideas evolve in a way they wouldn’t if you were working alone. The hardest part for me is the rollercoaster of it all. The book is just starting to come together and look good, when you realise it would be better if you changed this or that. Then you have to unpick the whole thing and it all seems terrible again. It’s going to feel really messy for a while, like you’re back at the starting line, but you know it will end up better for it.


What were your favorite books as a kid that turned you into lifelong readers and writers?

B: Oh god, all of them. In terms of really junior influence, I’m from a certain generation of British fantasy readers who were spoiled, so The Hobbit (obvs), all of Narnia (despite my growing suspicions about the lion), but also Alan Garner’s Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Masefield’s The Box of Delights, and Susan Cooper’s haunting The Dark is Rising books.

L: I’m very lucky in that my dad read to me every night as a child. Sometimes from books, sometimes from his imagination. My favourites were the Frog and Toad tales by Arnold Lobel, anything by Shirley Hughes, The Monster Bed by Jeanne Willis, and an anthology called Monster Stories For Bedtime (illustrated by Jane Launchbury). Once I moved up to middle grade books I didn’t read much. I absolutely adored The Secret Garden and Harry Potter, but for some reason this didn’t inspire me to try other titles. It wasn’t until I got a job in a bookshop (aged 19) that I truly fell in love with books. I’m quite sad when I think about all the amazing stories I missed out on as a kid, but I’m making up for it by reading them all now (and creating a few too).


What food would you take on an adventure to make sure you never knowingly under-snacked?

B: Scotch eggs, for easy spherical packing purposes. Sarnies because they are the ultimate in food design. Crisps to put in the sarnies. And humous because I have had to accept that I have become addicted to it.

L: I would pack these oaty cookies that my husband and I like to bake. We usually take them on long walks, or especially exciting trips to the cinema. Crisps (chips) are also a must for a good adventure! I also love houmous and bread, so perhaps I’d just let Ben do the packing and then steal all his snacks.


What is up next for you both?

B: Midnight Hour II!!!! Then sleep like a hibernating bear once it is handed in.

L: I’m so excited that we’ve very nearly almost finished the second book in the Midnight Hour series! Then I need to draw all the chapter header illustrations. Then it’s on to book 3!