Dear Mr. Stroud,

I am a 21-year-old student from Germany studying English literature (and art). Due to my studies and the fact that I've been working part-time in a library for 8 years, I have read a huge amount of literature. I must say: I really love the trilogy. Above all - concerning books - I hate conventions and the restrictions that come with them: genre conventions, age conventions, etc. Basically spoken: if a book is good - it's good no matter for which age it is written or to which 'genre' it supposedly belongs. In my eyes you wonderfully achieved leaving all restrictions of conventions behind and wrote indeed a very good book. I like how Nat walks the path of the traditional hero without becoming kitchy, how he, Kitty and Bartimaeus are absolutely plausible and authentic, without becoming stereotypes.
And I really like the ending.. as you said in some earlier topic: it wouldn't work if Nat an Kitty were walking together into the sunset just now.. An ending is in my eyes one of the most critical points in a story.. and your ending works... it does the story justice.

Now after this long speech ;) ... my questions:

1. Is there any possibility that you might come to Germany in the near future for a reading or a conference or such things?

2. Did you have a voice in the decision of the book-covers? And are you happy about how they turned out?

3. If a magician is the master to a sprit (as his slave) can't he simply command him to tell the truth? (this way Nathaniel yould have gotten the answer from Bartimaeus concerning the one time when Kitty summoned him)

Thanks in advance for taking time off your writing and answering this :)

Best regards
Rieke

Dear Reike,

Many thanks for your message - I'm really pleased that you enjoyed the books. I liked your analysis too: I definitely tried to avoid the conventional genre cliches, and make the book accessible for all ages. Glad you liked the ending too - I often get beaten up about that decision!

As to your questions...

1. I hope to come back very soon. The nearest I've been this year is to Austria recently, but I haven't done much travelling in 2007 as I've been writing. With luck I'll be back in Germany, maybe late in 2008, or early 2009 when the new book is translated... Keep an eye on my website www.jonathanstroud.com for details...

2. With the original UK and US covers I was given approval, and we went through several different versions before everyone was satisfied. In fact, there are elements that I don't like, but ultimately I have to allow the publishers to do what they think will sell. I rather like the German adaptations - which mix elements from the UK and US, and are very stylishly coloured. In general, getting good covers is a nightmare.

3. 'Truth' is a tricky concept and very hard to pin down. A magician may very well command a slave to tell the truth, but he or she would not be certain exactly what perspective on truth they were getting. Conceivably it might be completely 'true' as far as it went, but miss out some hugely important detail that utterly changed the implications. Magicians realise this, so they tend to require physical proof from their slaves, or resort to threat of torture to minimise risk of misdirection.

Sorry to be slow replying!

Cheers,

Jonathan