My Name is Mina

My Name is Mina Synopsis

A message from Author David Almond about why he wrote My Name is Mina.

For me, Mina was always the most important and most interesting character in Skellig. When she popped up behind Michael and asked ‘Are you the new boy here?’ it was as if she was asking me the same question. She jumped into the book with her own life and interests. Until she arrived, I had no idea that William Blake would figure so strongly, or that birds would be so important, or that ideas about education would be such a strong theme.

Without her, the book would have been a rather frail thing. Skellig would probably never have flown. Mina wasn’t just a character she was a kind of muse as well.

Skellig was published over ten years ago. Mina has stayed with me ever since, and I’ve often wondered about her. Where on earth did she come from? Did she ever go to school? Did her father really die before she was born? Did she know Ernie Myers? Why does she spend so much time in a tree? And what is in those notebooks and sketchbooks?

Then last year my American publisher, Beverly Horowitz, asked if I’d consider writing a little ‘extra’ to put into the 10th anniversary US edition of Skellig. I played around with a few ideas, then I thought of trying to write a page or two from Mina’s notebooks. As soon as I started, Mina – as both character and muse – leapt into life again.

It was like she was saying ‘About time! Why has it taken so long? Let’s get on with it.’ So I got on with it, and pretty soon I was able to tell my UK Editor, Anne McNeil, that the little extra was growing quickly and organically into a whole new book with its own Mina-ish form.

My Name is Mina was a lovely book to write. I hope you enjoy reading it.

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There's an empty notebook lying on the table in the moonlight. It's been there for an age. I keep on saying that I'll write a journal. So I'll start right here, right now. I open the book and write the very first words: My name is Mina and I love the night. Then what shall I write? I can't just write that this happened then this happened then this happened to boring infinitum.

I'll let my journal grow just like the mind does, just like a tree or a beast does, just like life does. Why should a book tell a tale in a dull straight line? And so Mina writes and writes in her notebook, and through her stories, thoughts, lessons and dreams, Mina's journal and mind grow into something extraordinary.

In this stunning book, David Almond revisits Mina before she has met Michael, before she has met Skellig, in what is a thought-provoking and extraordinary prequel to his best-selling debut novel, Skellig - winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. David Almond is also winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen award.