Joseph Coelho on his new children's book, magical worlds and poetry

Black British writer, playwright and performance poet Joseph Coelho’s children’s books explore themes of joy, self-love and acceptance and adventure—he discusses his latest, Our Tower, set in an urban high-rise

The majority of your children’s books have an enchanting and fantastical quality to them. Why are these elements important to you?

Those are the elements that got me hooked on fiction across books, films and TV when I was a kid. Things like Narnia. I found this idea that you could disappear into a magical world totally enchanting. It’s what interests me but also I wanted to put it in the context of the places I grew up or the families I recognised, because I always felt quite annoyed as a kid that I didn’t grow up in a big house with a massive wardrobe, therefore it felt like I didn’t have access to magic—as silly as that may sound now. So as an adult, I try to create stories in lots of different contexts, including working-class families where magic is possible and accessible.

Speaking of adventure and magic, your latest book, Our Tower, follows three children living in a tower block on an adventure. In my experience, there can be a stigma associated with living in public housing like tower blocks. How did this story come about?

It was a desire to connect with the magic I was able to find on my estate growing up. I grew up in Roehampton in London. I really disliked waking up in the morning and seeing the sun reflecting on concrete. Then as I got older, I found lots of [leafy] areas around my estate—it was a very green area. There was one tree that bordered the row coming up to my block. It had a face in the crown. I liked to pretend that if I could find it, I could enter this magical world. The book grew from that memory and wanting to give the kids the opportunity to find the tree and a way into this magical land.

The children in your stories appear courageous and curious. Do you see yourself in your characters?

Yeah. I want to be as courageous as them. I’m not sure if, when I was a kid, I would have followed a deep, dark hole in the centre of a tree trunk. So I think I also write what I aspire to be.

When did you first understand yourself as a poet?

A massive breakthrough moment was when the wonderful poet Jean “Binta” Breeze visited my school [Breeze died in August 2021 in Jamaica].  I think it was seeing a poet in action and realising that this was something I could do. Writing brings a lot of things to the surface that need to be processed. I think it can be very therapeutic. Things that I wished had gone differently. Or I wish I had the resources [I needed] at the time. I can give those resources to my characters.