Geri Halliwell-Horner has revealed she took writing advice from the twice Booker prize-nominated novelist William Boyd and the bestselling children’s author Jacqueline Wilson when working on her latest children’s book.
The former Spice Girl said Boyd, the author of Any Human Heart, told her to think more about structure – “it’s like a spine to a body”, he said.
Wilson gave Halliwell-Horner’s new book, Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen – the first of a planned trilogy of adventure novels – a quote for its cover, describing it as a “brilliant read, so inventive and exciting”.
Halliwell-Horner said she met the Tracy Beaker author at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, of which Wilson is an ambassador.
“I started sharing how I wanted to write and I gave her my first draft [of Rosie Frost],” the singer said. “I slightly cringe at what I gave her [but] God bless her, she gave me her time, she gave me notes … there was no criticism, but it was encouraging.”
Halliwell-Horner described Wilson as “kind and generous and decent”, adding how grateful she was that the writer “has been one of my greatest advocates”.
The singer was speaking at a children’s event at the Hay literary festival in Wales, her first public appearance since allegations of inappropriate behaviour were made against her husband, the Red Bull Formula One boss Christian Horner, by a female employee.
Halliwell-Horner has previously published two autobiographies, as well as a series of children’s novels about nine-year-old Ugenia Lavender.
Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen is set during the reign of Henry VIII and follows its young heroine as she is sent to an island that is home to both a school for extraordinary teenagers and a sanctuary for endangered species. It is about “finding the courage you never knew you had”, Halliwell-Horner said.
She added that she felt the world needed “a new hero, someone that’s not perfect, someone that we can identify and connect with and I had this urge within me to do it”.
She compared novel-writing to writing song lyrics, describing both as forms of storytelling. “You can tell [a story] in three minutes in a song … like an espresso shot of coffee, or you can tell a story in a novel which is like a long meal.”
Both are “different ways to connect with the power of word”, she said.
A friend Rosie makes on the island, Charlie, is a character Halliwell-Horner “adores” she said, adding that if she had to cast him he would be like “if Tom Holland had a younger brother”. The Spider-Man actor does in fact have three younger brothers.
