A mystery needs to be solved to save the sufferers. Boy Underwater, your sixth is a page-turning part hilarious, part sad and touching story about a broken family with secrets, all from the point of view of chatty and observant Cymbeline. You have written four crime novels and a fifth novel that I loved, Blackheath. I let my children peek into Cymbeline’s world as I went along and they loved it. Voice just comes, it’s the one thing you can’t teach. How did you capture Cymbeline’s nine-year-old voice so well? Did you let your kids read early drafts? And if so, what did they say?

Were you inspired by any other children’s books or authors?Īll the current favourites are read in our house (I have three children) but Winnie the Pooh’s roundabout thinking is in most evidence here. I’ve read from it at adult literary festivals like Charleston and at a host of primary schools. I hope the novel works on several levels and is different things to different people. What age are you targeting? And do you think children’s books can and should be read by grown-ups? I loved Boy Underwater despite being several decades older than the target market. For the answers you really need, sometimes you have to go deep. Only Cym and his friends can solve it because, as usual, the grown-ups aren’t telling them anything. But he’s not ready for an accident at the pool to reveal a family mystery that turns his life completely upside down. But how hard could it be? He’s Googled front crawl and he’s found his dad’s old pair of trunks.

“Cymbeline (yes, really!) has never been swimming – not ever, not once – so he’s a bit nervous at the prospect of his first school swimming lesson ever. Here is the first paragraph of Baron’s book, which hit British newsstands in June: They discuss voice, humour, planning (or lack thereof) and writing for young readers.Įnglish novelist Adam Baron has released a heart-breaking, funny story called Boy Underwater about Cymbeline Igloo, a nine-year-old boy who must discover secrets about his family to save his mother, and himself. Elena Bowes talked to Baron about this heartbreaking, funny story about a broken family with secrets, told from the perspective of nine-year-old Cymbeline. Adam Baron’s latest book Boy Underwater, published by HarperCollins, hit bookshelves in June.

Boy Underwater by Adam Baron