Children's Express reviewers report from Cinemagic, the World Screen Festival for Young People in Belfast. Here's Children's Express reporter Orlaith Graham Wood's exclusive interview with Meg Cabot, author of Princess Diaries.
| Wizards rock but don’t ever underestimate the power of a princess. |
New teen chick flick, The Princess Diaries has been a huge box office success in the US, grossing over 100 million. It opens here on December 21 but Cinemagic is screening a sneak preview this weekend.
You never really know what persona of Meg Cabot's you are talking to. The versatile Indiana-born author not only writes children's novels but has carved herself a successful niche in the adult market as well. But Meg Cabot is best known for the Princess Diaries series, which comprises three novels. The first book, which the film is based on, centres around fourteen-year-old New Yorker, Mia. Just when Mia thinks life cannot get any worse, she discovers she is a real-life-princess.
Phenomenally successful in the United States, the books seem most popular with young female readers. Was Cabot trying to corner that edge of the market?
"I write all my books for myself. If you try to write something to please one market or another you will end up driving yourself insane." Though I must say, I don't hear from a lot of male fans. The ones I have heard I admire tremendously for having the courage to carry a pink book around," she replies.
Cabot's strength according to critics and fans alike is her ability to write from a young person's point of view.
"Almost everything in my books has happened to me at one time or another," she explained. "I was never a princess, but when I was in high school I had a crush on an older boy - lots of them actually - who didn't seem to know I was alive."
"I had a bossy best friend and I flunked algebra, several times, oh my mum was dating and is now living with one of my teachers. It was and still is excruciating!" she said.
The author lives in Greenwich Village, New York but she is still proud of her connections to Northern Ireland.
"My great-great-grandfather John lived in Keady, Armagh. He emigrated to American in 1849. He was a weaver and I feel as if I have carried on the family tradition… only instead of linen, I weave stories," Cabot said.
Will blockbuster Harry Potter eclipse Princess Dairies?
"Harry Potter is popular with boys and girls. So I predict it will get at least twice the audience as Princess - and probably a whole lot more," she said. Although it doesn't have any magic wands or broomsticks, Cabot thinks the Princess Diaries will appeal to anyone with a good sense of humour.
"Wizards rock but don't ever underestimate the power of a princess."
About the team
Interview by Orlaith Graham Wood. It was published on the Cinemagic website.
