Eight hours, four trains and a delay in what has to be one of the ugliest train stations in the country.
That was what I had to endure this week to travel down to Oxford to see Philip Pullman at home for an exclusive interview for the Yorkshire Post.
Totally worth it.
The author made for a fascinating interview. Fairly disengaged initially, he swi
tched on when I expressed an interest in theology.
During the couple of hours I spent at his beautiful and sprawling ancient cottage he was, eventually, very funny, passionate, learned and very, very interesting.
Although we talked about much that I would like, but don't have the space, to write about here, one of the really interesting subjects was the simplicity of storytelling.
He told me: "There are three steps: think of some interesting events, put them in the best order to bring out the connections between them and relate them as clearly as you can."
This from the man who created the amazing alternate world in which His Dark Materials is set. Sorry if you were expecting some sort of magic key to unlock the secret of storytelling.
He went on to say (and I have censored some of his language here): "The best films and novels do that. This is not interesting or sexy to a young storyteller because they always want to do something new, something original, they always think no-one before them has thought about using the present tense or using a handheld camera."
This little outburst was prompted by a discussion of the Billy Wilder film The Apartment, one of Pullman's favourites and one which I happened to watch for the first time the night before I went down to Oxford.
We also discussed the film Gomorrah which Pullman, it is not too strong to say, hates. He bemoaned that fact that every new scene appears to begin on a close-up and the audience has to try to work out what is going on before the camera pans back to reveal the scene.
It was interesting to realise that there is a line and on one side we have storytellers like Billy Wilder and Pullman and on the other we have those who want to innovate.
Now, there's nothing wrong, when it comes to storytelling – be it on stage, in literature, or in film – with innovation. But if it's innovation for its own sake, then why bother? Like Pullman says, the important thing is to keep it simple – and tell the story.
The much loved theatre company Kneehigh is coming back to Yorkshire next week, bringing its telling of Noel Coward's Brief Encounter to the stage of Bradford's Alhambra and then the Sheffield Lyceum later this month.
The company is hugely innovative and its re-imagining of Brief Encounter is exceptional. The reason it works, however, is not because of the innovation, but because of its commitment to telling the story.
Young storytellers should follow the example of Kneehigh – if you're going to innovate, do it for a reason – and bear in mind the advice of Pullman – if you're telling a story, do it simply and clearly.
Worth those eight hours just for that simple lesson.
