Ben Miller: On the Benefits of Reading Fairy Tales
Ben Miller is the bestselling author of magical stories for the whole family: The Night I Met Father Christmas, The Boy Who Made the World Disappear, The Day I Fell into a Fairytale, How I Became a Dog Called Midnight, Diary of a Christmas Elf, and The Night We Got Stuck in a Story. He is an actor, director, and comedian best known for “The Armstrong & Miller Show,” the Johnny English and Paddington films, BBC’s “Death in Paradise”, and recent Netflix smash “Bridgerton.” Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Ben Miller
Photo by David Reiss
In this interview, Ben discusses how his daughter inspired his new middle-grade fantasy novel, The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale, his hope for readers, and more!
Name: Ben Miller
Literary agent: Luigi Bonomi at LBA Books
Book title: The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release date: April 23, 2024
Genre/category: Middle grade/adventure/fantasy/humor
Previous title: I’ve had 10 middle-grade books published in the U.K. and internationally, but this is the first one to be published in the U.S.
Elevator pitch: When Lana discovers a magic portal in the sweet section of her local supermarket, she enters a world where fairy tales are real, and she and her brother Harrison must change their endings to save the day.
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What prompted you to write this book?
I wanted to write a story for my daughter, Lana, where she could take part in her favorite fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took about 10 months from the first germ of the idea to the finished story. I wrote it without a plan, having zero idea how I was going to end it! I also had COVID in the middle, which may be why it’s so trippy.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
The research was great fun, reading lots of fairy tales in their oldest forms. I always loved the Grimm Brothers’ stories, and I decided to name the supermarket Grimms’ in their honor.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
The biggest was COVID! I had just started my first draft when the world went into lockdown. I was on holiday with my family in Morocco at the time with another family, and we ended up stuck there for four and a half months. I used to sneak out to the little gym in the garden to write.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope it will inspire them to read more fairy tales! Children get so much from reading them: the main lesson being that when the chips are down, they can count on themselves to win the day.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
I think it’s fun to create a space to work that fits the style of books you write. My writing cottage in Gloucestershire is in the middle of a woodland, and looks like a witch’s cottage from a fairy tale. When I was writing this story, a rose briar grew in through the window, and twirled its way around my desk, just like the ones that surrounded Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
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