Q&A with ‘Dear Me…’ editor Joseph Galliano

Dear Me: More Letters to my Sixteen Year-Old Self is a collection of celebrities’ letters to their younger selves, edited by Joseph Galliano. Jo Rowling is one of the people who contributed a letter to her 16 year-old self, and she also penned the foreword to the book. IHOR interviewed Joseph to find out more! If you’re inspired, you can submit your own letter to the Dear Me website by emailing myletter@dearme.org.

 

What gave you the idea for the book(s)?
I just remember the awkwardness of being 16 and how I thought I knew it all, but could have done with a bit more mentoring. Also, my partner showed me a letter received from a classmate – a painful love letter really – and it just made me want to write back  and tell them that they were okay – a time travelling hug if you will. But of course that’s impossible, but the Dear Me letter is a way of sharing some of that accumulated knowledge and wisdom up and down the generations, and a chance for the writer to reflect on who they were, where they came from and to reconnect with an earlier, perhaps purer version of themselves. It’s also seemed to me a brilliant way of allowing people who we love, and who loom large in our culture, an opportunity to share something more personal with their audience.

Was it easy to get everyone on board?  How long did it take to get all the letters?
When the contributors and their representatives ‘got it’ they really opened up and bought in. However, the contributors are all madly busy people, and so it mostly took a fair bit of chasing. I’ve been called ‘beautifully persistent’ by my publisher.

You mention in More Letters that JK Rowling got involved through Peter Kay. Can you tell us a bit more about what happened there? And how was it decided that she would write the foreword?
In the first version of the book in 2009 we featured a brief – and hilarious – letter from the British comedian Peter Kay. He is good friends with JK Rowling and also an old college mate of my literary agent (who also represents him). Peter very kindly took a letter from me to Jo with a copy of the original book with the offer of a donation to the charity of her choice if she would write the foreword and a letter. I was just over the moon thrilled when she came back with a positive answer. I was even more thrilled when I read her beautiful foreword and letter and saw the photograph of her as a youngster. All I can say is that her people have been wonderful to deal with as well, and that if the people that someone surrounds themselves with is an indication of what they are like – she must be lovely. She has been very generous to me over this project. She was the first person on our wish list.

Which letter(s) is/are your favourite?
That’s like asking me to choose my favourite baby! I couldn’t possibly – there are funny ones, sad ones, wise ones, heartbreaking ones and they all say something special to me.

Did you suggest what people should write, or just give them the basic premise and leave them to it?
I explained the concept and gave rough space limitations and then asked them to interpret that in their own way – I wanted as little of ‘me’ and as much of ‘them’ on the page as possible. I also knew that if we left it so that different people did different things, we would get a wide variety of different types of material – which is why we get a straightforward (but very funny) typed and signed note from Alan Rickman, signed letterhead from  Hugh Jackman, or fabulous drawings from Erykah Badu, or an iPad sketch from James Franco. We also asked for pictures of the contributors as youngsters – which almost everyone provided.

Did you meet any of the contributors in person or was it all done through writing?
Mostly I dealt with the person’s representatives – publicists, managers, agents – but there were a few people I was thrilled to meet – Sarah, Duchess of York invited me for tea and I also met Moon Zappa and Toby Jones – the voice of Dobby – who turns out to be a close neighbour of mine.

Which one person would you most like to contribute a letter who hasn’t already?
Paul McCartney would be amazing. Daniel Radcliffe I was very keen on but he was up to his eyes in the last Potter film. I think given how young he was when he became famous that he would have some fascinating messages for his younger self.

Are you a fan of Harry Potter?
Absolutely, both films and books. The wonderful thing is that Harry Potter helped me get back in to the reading habit, which I’d really let lapse as an adult. From Harry Potter I discovered the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials series, which I also adore.