• RLF News
• Video

My Writing Life: Cerrie Burnell

Cerrie Burnell is an author, actor and activist, best known for work on CBeebies. During her time on CBeebies she has broken down barriers, challenged stereotypes and overcome discrimination to become one of the most visible disabled presenters on kids’ TV. Cerrie has worked closely with a number of charitable organisations linked to childhood and diversity. Cerrie is the author of thirteen children’s books including Snowflakes, which she adapted for the stage with Oxford Playhouse in 2016, and the Harper series, which was a World Book Day title in 2016.

Cerrie is an RLF grants beneficiary.

1. What book should every writer read?

I’m a huge advocate for the lasting power and enchantment of children’s books. They can colour our childhoods in wonder, and open doors to possibilities we didn’t know existed. In some ways I think every writer is trying to capture that sense of heart-stopping awe, regardless of genre. For me, Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights felt astonishingly beautiful, bleak and glorious all at once. Or more recently I’d recommend anything by Katherine Rundell; her writing can startle you with hope and move you tears in the same moment.

In the adult space, I fell completely in love with The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey1, the smooth combination of folklore, magical realism, culture and heritage felt like a lesson in wonderment. And Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors is fabulously contemporary, with a depth and elegance that makes it feel like a classic.

2. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started your writing career?

That resilience is more important than talent alone. Having the dream is wonderful, but dedicating, your heart, hopes and every stolen moment of your time to realising that dream is where the craft begins.

(Also: remember to stay joyful.)

3. Who has been an influential figure in your writing career?

The person who has been a rock in my ever changing, stormy sea of a career, is my beloved agent Claire Wilson. I think I was the first person to sign with her, when she was just beginning her journey (towards stardom). And I was yet to be published. Knowing that she has my back, and I can trust her with all of my ideas from the wild to the whimsical to the utterly unreadable, is everything.

4. What is the best advice you’ve ever received about your writing?

That there is no set pathway, everyone has to find their own way through the woods.

As someone who is wildly dyslexic, structure can sometimes be the death of an idea for me. I have to give it freedom, let it breath, find its way into my mind gently or urgently but always authentically. Trying to do something that’s formulaic doesn’t help me. This means I would rather write the entire book than a synopsis, because I need that curiosity and sense of adventure to exist.

5. What was the proudest moment of your writing career?

There have been many lovely moments, from being a World Book Day author to adapting a picture book for the stage to appearing at my favourite literary festivals – which I love! But I’m a really optimistic person, and I think the best is yet to come.

6. What is your typical writing day like?

I’m an early riser, as this is the only time I truly get to myself (with my two cats). So, most days start with yoga, meditation and fresh mint tea – unless I’m on a deadline, then I’m up at 5 trying to draw words down from the clouds and onto the page.

On a typically peaceful day, when an idea is fresh and magnetic, I’ll get my daughter to school, then write in a local café between 9 and 1, after which I’ll attempt the horror of tackling the admin.

7. What are you reading right now?

Self Help by Gabby Bernstein. It’s succinct, accessible and a welcome dose of healing and brightness for the beginning of the year. And I’m re-reading Tove Janson’s The Winter Book. I love seasonal stories, and this is just gorgeous for dipping in and out of.

8. Bookmarker or page-folder?

I am a page turner – still, despite my beautiful friend, the author Natasha Solomons, begging me to use bookmarks for years during our youth. There is something special to me about a slightly weathered book, and I’ll often highlight my favourite moments in the story this way.

My grandmother pressed flowers between the pages of her Shakespeare collection, which was suitably heavy. And I love that little roses or violets mark the text. I think it’s magical that someone could pick up a book many years later and see which pages or chapters touched the reader’s heart.

This article originally appeared on our Substack.

Photo by Tom Zibell.

You might also like: