British Children's Literature in Japanese Culture: Wonderlands and Looking-Glases

[steepholm]

I considered asking for this to be blazoned on my new book, thinking it might attract attention in Waterstone's, but in the end we went with a shot of the charming (but I suspect unlicensed) Peter Rabbit-themed shop in Yufuin Floral Village, Oita Prefecture. You must wait until the final chapter to makes its acquaintance in the text, but it's worth it.



Either way, my book is finally published! (At least in electronic form - the physical lags by about a month.) Will it do well? Will it languish? I've been in this game long enough to know that commercial and even critical success are unpredictable and bear only a slight relation to my own estimate of a book's worth. (Why was The Lurkers, easily my worst novel, the only one to win any sort of prize - albeit a very small one?) At any rate, if it does sell, it will be only partly due to me. There are always people hungry to read about Japan, and Studio Ghibli has its own draw, so they will deserve a lot of whatever credit there is to be shared round.

Despite, that, I intend to take it all.

Comments

[sovay]

Either way, my book is finally published!

Congratulations! I hope many people want to read it. I certainly do.

[steepholm]

Thank you. I hope it will be cheaper at some point. Actually, it definitely will - but not until Spring 2025.

[kalypso]

The good news is I'm a Bloomsbury employee, so can get it for a quarter of the price. The bad news is that means you don't benefit... Is Arthur Ransome in it? I seem to remember Swallows and Amazons was very popular in Japan when I was young.

[steepholm]

I wouldn't worry about my benefitting - I don't think academics rely on royalties (God help them if they did). But I'll admit that your 75% discount does make me jealous - I only get 40%, and I wrote the thing! And of course, writing a book like this one racks up a lot of favours, to be repaid in free copies at about £50 a pop.

Arthur Ransome gets a mention (as one of the authors translated by Teruo Jingū), but not really more than that. This needs further investigation...

Anyway, if you do read it, please let me know what you think.

[kalypso]

Having checked, it looks like it's a mere 70% off, but it does seem outrageous that I can get it more cheaply than you can! I can buy more if you like... If it's a novel (eg Piranesi) that I think my friends will like, I buy several. I can't promise to read it very soon, as I have a huge TBR pile and not much time. But I do have a vague plan to tear out my fireplace (I am now off the gas grid so the fire is useless) and replace it with a special bookcase for Books by My Grandfather or People I Know (I didn't know my grandfather as he died in 1936), which would give it a better home in the meantime than the dusty towers of books in my bedroom. Roll on retirement and reading time!

I have a very vague memory that I once attended an event somewhere on the shores of Coniston Water involving the Arthur Ransome Society and its president Brigit Sanders (nee Altounyan) - Brigit was the youngest of the family and played the smallest role in the books, but seemed more comfortable with the legacy than her siblings. Anyway, I am trying to remember whether there were Japanese fans present; there must be some reason why I have the Japanese-Ransome connection so firmly established in my head. I see there is a Japanese Arthur Ransome Club (not sure if that link will work, my copy-and-paste doesn't seem to like the Japanese characters).

[steepholm]

I've DM'd you re. the first bit.

I have a glass-fronted bookcase (inherited from my father) for my family books, an ever growing collection as there appears to be few Butlers who haven't at least dashed off a tract or pamphlet. Putting it in order is my retirement project, but I fear I stand about as much chance of finishing it as Mr Casaubon his Key to All Mythologies.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were phalanx of Ransomites somewhere in Japan - in fact, I shall make it my mission to seek them out!

[steepholm]

(The link works fine - thanks!)

[kalypso]

Maybe your browser is more accustomed to kanji, or katakana, or whatever they are!