meet Frank Cotrell Boyce

Here's a fantastic interview with Catholic writer Frank Cotrell Boyce, who wrote one of my favourite recent fiction finds, Framed. Hopefully I'll get a chance to say something more about it one of these days.

Really impressed by lots of the Q&A, but especially this:

How does your faith affect your work?
In every single way, I think. I’ve got a very kind of specific faith idea when I’m writing my children’s books, which comes from St. Paul about thinking on the good things (“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” Philippians 4:8). Because so much of what’s aimed at our children is about how rubbish life is. They’re always being told that life is scary and life is dark. Saying “Life is amazing, and the world is a phenomenally wonderful place and full of grace” is my starting point.


It's unspeakably encouraging to me to know that a man with this ethos is writing for children today, and with some success.

Plus, he has seven children, which in my books makes him very cool.