Image Credits:-
Many thanks to Sophie Neville for supplying book and author pics. Other images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos or are from Pixabay directly. Images from Sophie Neville’s website are used with her express and kind permission. Thank you, Sophie.
It is a huge pleasure to welcome fellow member of the Association of Christian Writers, Sophie Neville, to Chandler’s Ford Today. Sophie is best known for her role as Titty in Swallows and Amazons, that well loved children’s film classic. She went on to appear in The Two Ronnies, Doctor Who, Animal Magic, Songs of Praise, Crossroads, and Nationwide, and these are just a few of her TV and film credits. For a full listing do visit her website.
I remember Swallows and Amazons and The Two Ronnies in particular. I loved their Charley Farley and Piggy Malone, in which Sophie appeared. For full details of Sophie’s extensive TV and film work, do check out the link.
Sophie went on to work in television production including on Doctor Who (I am a life long fan) and ended up working on well over 100 different programmes. She has also worked as a freelancer for the BBC Natural History Unit.
These days she is an incredibly gifted writer and her non-fiction work includes The Making of Swallows and Amazons. She also won the International Rubery Book Award for Funnily Enough (Resolute Books). For a full listing of her written work, please see her book page.
Do also check out her YouTube book trailers. Links given at the end of both parts of this two-part interview.
Sophie also gives talks and has spoken at the Southampton International Boat Show many times. See the link.
Hot off the press too, she has just won First Time Screenwriter Award for a feature length screenplay at the Best Script Award (A Boy Called Freddie) in London at the London Director Awards on 16th February 2024. She also received an Honourable Mention for her historical screenplay, The Meeting House.
This year, 2024, sees the 50th anniversary of Swallows and Amazons going out on general release so, understandably, Sophie is being kept pretty busy giving talks on that.
Sophie describes herself as becoming “inadvertently well known” thanks to Swallows and Amazons, but that has led to an incredible acting and television production career, which, in turn, has also gone on to develop her writing career. She is also a very talented artist too having had many exhibitions of her work.
If anyone could be said to fully embrace the creative life, it is Sophie Neville.
Welcome, Sophie, to Chandler’s Ford Today.
1. Sophie, your incredible career exudes creativity. What are the joys of creativity for you?
I’ve always enjoyed making things and feel called to leave a legacy of illustrated stories.
2. What have been your favourite things about your acting and production work?
I loved being on location with a creative team of designers. Having worked with the Oscar-winning set dresser, Ian Whittaker, as a child, I enjoyed working with props at the BBC. These included a number of animals from an Indian Elephant on board a ferry in Harwich to a tortoise that made rather a mess of my unit car.
3. How have the different aspects of your work fed into one another?
Acting in films and in television as a girl gave me invaluable experience when it came to writing screenplays. I spent so much time in rehearsal rooms in my twenties I find script writing easier than putting novels together. It was my job to time each scene with a stopwatch and report back to our script editor who would compare lengths with the read through. I’m guilty of writing rather short scenes now and wish that I’d kept some of our old scripts, which show the edits.
I have two copies of the original Swallows and Amazons script adapted by David Wood. All the added jeopardy he must have worked so hard to include was cut along with a scene that featured Virginia McKenna, but stories take on their own pace and most of the best scenes can have no dialogue at all.
Swallows and Amazons is a landscape movie with a little girl saying, ‘I’ve got her, I’ve got her.’ Those words were never scripted. They exploded from my mouth after lying alone in a damp dinghy on Derwentwater. It’s often the simplest lines that make a movie. The best line of all time in any movie must be, ‘My daddy, my daddy!’
I first wrote for television at the age of twenty-two when working on Russell Harty’s Christmas Party. It was a disaster. My idea for a pantomime theme was accepted, and worked well, but I only took a rough draft of the dialogue to the rehearsal room.
Nicholas Parsons re-wrote it on the spot, which was mortifying. Esther Rantzen carried the musical number for me by sheer force of character. I’d asked her to arrive in Dick Whittington costume, which was a great success. No one knew what fabulous legs she had until the moment she came on to sing with the studio audience. No one knew that the lettering on the song sheet lowered was still wet. I’d had to grab a paintbrush and improve it within minutes of going on air. It was literally a matter of writing for television – 7.00 pm on BBC One.
4. There is a lot of preparation behind-the-scenes for talks. Do you find this easier to do now?
Preparation, preparation, preparation, with an extra speech up your sleeve. I needed I.T. lessons in how to load up a Point Presentation but soon learnt to gain momentum and dramatic effect by pre-empting my slides. This requires memorising the order. I can use up to 120 for a 45-minute talk but the images release me from the need for notes.
I use a couple of short films or book trailers while people are taking their seats if I need to establish an atmosphere in a large venue. Simple things like asking for blinds to be drawn or testing the mic is vital.
I always ask what colour the seats are. I once turned up in a dress that merged me with the curtains and tablecloths until I became almost totally camouflaged. All you can see in the photos is my head. I once wore a baby-pink coat to venue where all the walls were orange. I thought it would be safe to wear navy blue and white for the next yacht club talk only to find myself standing in front of blue and white striped curtains that matched what I was wearing exactly. I should have worn the pink.
5. What have you found are the most useful tips for public speaking?
I am a volunteer speaker for Bible Society who give us media training, which is invaluable. It’s good to have three points lined up and a couple of funny stories when you are interviewed on the radio. It’s best if you can prepare the presenter by providing them with bullet point information about books or events you are publicising, otherwise the best opportunity for plugging something is right at the beginning of the interview.
I had the opportunity to appear on BBC Antiques Roadshow in 2021 and simply answered the questions. What I should have said was, “I kept a diary that I felt compelled to bring out as an illustrated paperback. It’s now available online….” Of course advertising is forbidden, and will almost certainly be cut out, but I could have kept one of the books in my hand. Visual aids are always effective. Prepare a basketful.
6. Did the pandemic get in the way of giving talks or have things like Zoom made more things possible?
Lockdown introduced me to Zoom, which has been a blessing, although I’ve had my fill. While Covid restrictions swept away my plans for public speaking, I gave a number of author interviews that are now on YouTube, and read a children’s book for BBC Radio Suffolk.
7. You are a patron of the UK Wild Otter Trust. How did you get involved with this?
My family kept tame otters for forty years. Our mission was to raise awareness about the need for pure water and undisturbed habitat. I began talking to crowds of people at country fairs, which is good experience for any speaker as the questions can be bizarre. The otters we were asked to hand-rear acted as ambassadors for their species while we delivered facts by telling stories in whatever ways we could, a bit like a safari guide. I ended up being photographed with the Prince of Wales and a naughty otter for the front page of The Daily Telegraph.
I was able to write about living with otters in Funnily Enough. This amused the editor of iBelieve magazine who published double page extracts for eleven months. The tame otters appeared on a huge number of television programmes from detective serials to movies such as Scottish Mussel, a rom-com written, directed by and starring Tallulah Riley. We made that on location near Dunoon in 2015. Otter wranglers are not given much credit but it got the conservation message across to audiences who might never watch wildlife programmes. The film is now streaming online. You can guess how wet I got chasing otters through the woodland.
8. What does the Trust aim to do?
The UK Wild Otter Trust is based in North Devon where they look after rescued otters and orphaned cubs before releasing them back into the wild. The Trust offers advice to fish farms, anglers and game keepers, helping landowners to build holts. It’s a great charity to support. Back in 1982, wild otter populations in England and Wales had dwindled to about 150 pairs. You now need to take care when driving by rivers at night as young males are expanding into new territories. They don’t like swimming under road bridges.
9. You kept a diary of your time while filming Swallows and Amazons. Can you recall how easy or otherwise it was to keep that going? What drove you to keep a diary? Also do you keep a diary related to your work now?
Swallows and Amazons was made during the summer term, so we girls kept diaries on location as part of our schoolwork. My mother was very keen on this. I started writing a journal when we went to Tanzania in 1972 and I kept diaries whilst at boarding school. Perhaps I should type them up, but I fear they are not terribly interesting. “Alex was sick in needlework,” is about as sensational as it gets.
My granny taught be how to sew. I find it helps to compare the craft of constructing stories to embroidery or knitting with different colours. You can stitch in extracts from diaries or letters. I’m darning a few holes right now, but once accomplished the garments will be ready to wear straight away.
Conclusion
Sophie, it has been a joy talking with you about your incredible career and I look forward to resuming our conversation next week.
Next week, Sophie will share her thoughts on which authors have influenced her, about writing about ME, her love of travel, and her scriptwriting career, with much else besides. She has won awards for her scriptwriting, some of which are hot off the press, so to speak, but delightfully have arrived in time to be included in this interview.
Sophie: Thank you very much for having me. It’s been thought provoking.
SOPHIE NEVILLE – NEWS
Book covers and links
The Making of Swallows and Amazons is available direct from the publishers, The Lutterworth Press, from Waterstones, or all the usual online retailers.
Sophie Neville Amazon Author Page
Sophie narrated the audiobook copy. The paperback, illustrated with maps, film stills and behind-the-scenes photos is similar to the multimedia Kindle copy entitled The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons, which includes links to home movie footage taken on location.
Sophie loves hearing from readers and appreciates reviews on Amazon.
News
Resolute Books are re-releasing Funnily Enough in June 2024:
Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th June 2024 – Swallows and Amazons Festival at Windermere Jetty Museum near Bowness-on Windermere in Cumbria:
The Arthur Ransome Society are hoping to have:-
● John Sergeant, President of The Arthur Ransome Society
● Members of the original cast and film crew
● Flags, film posters, and other film memorabilia
● The dinghies Swallow and Amazon used in the film
● Steamboats Osprey and Lady Elizabeth that appeared in the Rio scene
● The original Amazon brought by members of the Altounyan family
● Titmouse, the dinghy used in the BBC serial Coot Club
● Arthur Ransome’s dinghy Coch-y-Bonddhu, his model for Scarab
● Trips on MV Tern and The Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway
● Watch the original film Swallows and Amazons (1974)
● Watch traditional charcoal burning in the Grizedale Forest
SOPHIE NEVILLE – YOUTUBE LINKS
Funnily Enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPRTwceQj-A&t=33s
Ride the Wings of Morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77KCJtpzpfk&t=52s
The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXkQ8m8tKM&t=37s
SOPHIE’S SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Sophie Neville – Linked in
Sophie Neville – Pinterest
Sophie Neville – TikTok
Sophie Neville – Facebook
Sophie Neville – Goodreads
Sophie Neville – IMDb Profile
Sophie Neville – Twitter
Sophie Neville – YouTube
sophienevilleauthor – Instagram:
Ride the Wings of Morning is a big, fat illustrated paperback that will take you to southern Africa where Sophie tells of her adventures working as a safari guide and wildlife artist. It looks fabulous in ebook form as her watercolors are back lit on colour screens. (This is yet to be recorded as an audiobook.)
Sales link for the Kindle ebook that sells at £2.99
Sales link for the large illustrated paperback
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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Beautiful interview of Sophie! Really enjoyed reading through. Blessings.
Many thanks, Olusola. Look out for Part 2 next Friday.