Local author on plinth

Jan Needle

Rochdale born author Jan Needle, who did his A levels at Rochdale College before he went to Manchester University to study drama, has heard that his latest book, Wagstaffe the Wind-Up Boy, is to be read aloud from Antony Gormley's fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square next Wednesday. It has been chosen by Julie McCarthy, who works for the Arts Council, and is the mother of two young children. The book is a riotous comedy set around Rochdale and Oldham, and has recently been performed as a play at Colchester's Mercury Theatre, in Essex. Before that it was toured by the world-famous Kneehigh Theatre Company.

Mr Needle, 66, who writes serious books for adults and children - My Mate Shofiq and The Bully are probably the best known - is pleased that a comedy book has been chosen. It tells the story of a boy who is so naughty that his parents run away from home to join a circus. After a series of mad adventures, he has to save them from an evil circus owner who wants them to go over the Niagara Falls in a pedalo.

"My only worry is," he said, "that Julie might fall off the pedestal with laughing. It really is a very silly book!"

His next book, due out next year, is a much more serious affair. It is a modern thriller, loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island.

"My feeling is that children deserve all kinds," he says. "Adventures, comedies, and serious looks at life in Britain and the world today. As long as children want to read it, almost anything goes. I wrote Wagstaffe because one of my own children didn't want to read books at all. Luckily, this one made him change his mind."

Mr Needle recently visited Rochdale:

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news/22975/author-pays-a-visit-to-rochdale-sisters