I want it to go to a much bigger place in terms of narrative, in terms of emotion and in I need to go back and I need to start again and I need to configure this. And so I thought I don't think this is right or fair. The readers far enough, it wasn't giving us enough of a journey to enough of a conclusion to something big enough. Genuine conclusion and I felt that the story wasn't taking There should be a sense that some of the storylines have reached some After all, you will have been through almost a quarter ofĪ million words and 250 illustrations. Wasn't enough delivery as I saw it and I wanted the second book to give you a genuine sense of fulfilment.

I realised the book was teasing people, my first version was teasing people too much. And it came from a profound desire, on my part, not to. 'It is a 600 page manuscript, the first book, and there's nothing - there's names in common, but the islands that are visited are different, everything is prettyĭifferent. So there's nothing in the second volume of Abarat as it now stands which faintly resembles that first version. 'I wrote the book, finished the book in November, read the book and didn't like it and threw it all away, the whole thing, andīegan again - which I've never done before. and I'm also laying out the plot for Abarat 3 asīy Amy Cox Williams, Children's Advance, October 2002. Writing the second book has been more fun than writing the first book,īecause in the first book I was finding a style and finding a rhythmĪnd now with the second one, I'm going back to this world, back to theseĬharacters and it's just - this is not an exaggeration - this is my 20thīook, I don't think I've ever had so much fun writing a book as I have 'I'm writing right now, and it's incredible fun. And on that day I'd like to be standing right beside you and saying - '

Meaning we can only hope to understand a tiny part of it in the seventy or eighty years we live with breath in our bodies? But oneĭay, it will all come clear. Don't you see we're born into a pattern so huge and beautiful and so full of See every minute a hundred reasons to believe. Whatever it is - I mean to show you that you just have to open your heart and look - you hear me, look! - and you'll And I mean to show you, in the time we have together - whether it's an hour or a day or 'Listen to yourself, you damn fool! Anybody can shrug and say life is just some accident of mud and 'Maybe they're right,' Henry said bluntly.

Afraid the end will come and they'll be in terror, because they won't believe they have a heaven to go to.' But for these people - these poor, confused people who don't believe that their lives have the least meaning - yes, I'm Nothing's certain after this.' She caught hold of his hand. 'We're at the very edge of things, Henry. Clive on Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War

Abarat book 2