Daisy May Johnson
My name is Daisy May Johnson and I’m an author and researcher of children’s books. Welcome to my world of books, buns, and cake-obsessed nuns…
I love
Public libraries, Burt Lancaster, Gene Kelly, dogs with Good Ears, Jenny Holzer, bookshops, old MGM musicals, massive dance numbers, Powell and Pressburger films, small and hairy ponies, Barbara Kruger, houseplants, Playmobil, cake-stands, and crumbly fudge. Not the squishy sort, the crumbly sort. This distinction is V Important.
Daisy May Johnson can be found at:
Website: didyoueverstoptothink.com
Bluesky: @chaletfan.bsky.social
Instagram: @daisymayjohnsonbooks
Tell me what inspired you to write your (debut) book?
How To Be Brave and the companion novels – How To Be Free and How To Be True – are inspired by boarding school stories, adventure stories, and best friends forever. They’re a tribute to everything I adore and believe in and my love letter to the books and the women and the friendships which made me the person that I am today. (Also, cake).
What came first the characters or the world?
I’m very person-led in my writing so I tend to find the characters first, their conversations and moments and then have to build the story and the world out around them. With How To Be Brave, I got the first line of the story and then went both forward and back from there to build it out until I had a complete book.
Do you have a writing playlist? If so do you want to share it?
I am driven by nineties pop, iconic divas, musicals and girlbands (bonus points if you spot the Girls Aloud pun in my books) and Amy Poehler’s ‘Good Hang’ podcast. I’m listening to a lot of girli right now, just discovered Lady Blackbird and could listen to the Sugababes on repeat for the next three hundred years.
How many publishers turned you down?
I didn’t keep track (I have enough to worry about!). It’s a hard gig getting published but equally, you want the right people behind you. If you’re not working with people who believe and understand in what you’re trying to do, then you need to find the people who do. And also, as much as being turned down can suck, it’s all part of the journey and your work becomes better because of it (you do, it sucks, but you do, I promise).
How To Be Brave
Do you take notice of online reviews?
I do and I don’t, if that makes sense? I will fight for your right forever to review literature and talk about it so I’m very comfortable in having people write about my work. If you tag me in, I will tend to have a look and if you don’t, then I won’t. I come from a blogging and reviewing background so I think there’s incredible value in reviewing and I love it when people do (and I am so honoured when people look at what I’ve done!). Please review and write about books. It’s the coolest thing.
What did you do before (or still do) you became a writer?
I worked in libraries, public and academic, and they remain incredibly important to me in all that I do. I love libraries and librarians and I will will always defend and shout up and celebrate everything amazing that they achieve.
Which author(s) inspire you?
I fangirl KM Peyton, Michelle Magorian, Philippa Pearce and Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. Also, also, I will fangirl people who do cool and fun and innovative stuff on the page – I love writers who take risks and experiment and push at the edges of what things can do.
Which genres do you read yourself?
I read a lot of girls’ boarding school stories and children’s literature from the early twentieth century. I also research juvenilia so read things from books written by young authors through to Queen Victoria’s childhood writing. Alongside that, it’s anything from literary fiction through to historical and biography.
What is your biggest motivator?
Hope? God, is that a lot? But I guess it is: I believe a lot in people and what they can do and how they can do it. I think a lot about how the greatest thing in the world is to simply be yourself – and also how this can be one of the most complicated things to achieve. The world can be a horrible and difficult and challenging place but in the middle of it are people who are remarkable and beautiful and deserve to endure, to persist and to thrive.
What will always distract you?
Everything. I will sit down for the day and write nothing and do anything but write and then in my last half an hour, write everything. This is the way. It’s the circle of life. I am ready for it now.
How much (if any) say do you have in your book covers?
I had a lot of input into the detail with Pushkin for sure, so could advise on character and content and detail while also providing some ideas for poses, and I am utterly delighted with Thy Bui’s lovely, lovely covers.
Were you a big reader as a child?
Yes! I’m bookish through and through. I read anything I could get my hands on and would often have three or four books going on at the same time. Books have proven to be a constant for me since day one and I am so lucky to be able to do what I do now.
Do you have any rituals when writing?
I like to round out a 500 in terms of word count (so, let’s say, ending on 2000 words rather than 1800) but that’s about it.
What is your current or latest read?
I am currently reading A For Effort by Jarad Greene, a very sweet and genuine middle grade comic about the value of the journey rather than the end result, and I’m building up to The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel having thoroughly enjoyed the other two in the series.
Any events in the near future?
I do have some things in the pipeline which I’m not sure I can talk about yet – but! I regularly teach online courses in creative writing and children’s literature at the University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education and you can always find me there: https://www.pace.cam.ac.uk/ms-daisy-may-johnson.
and finally, what inspired you to write the genre you do?
God I love children’s literature. I love the infinite potential of it, the richness of it, and the amazing, inspiring, radically brilliant people who read it. It is a space in which anything can happen and life-changing adventures can be had, and everything can be done in time for tea. How can you not be inspired by that?