Podcast and Interview with Spud – Learning to Fly Author John van de Ruit
“Recently his mother told him how ‘terrible’ it was when he was suspended from school – to which the bemused Van de Ruit could only reply, ‘Mom, that was in Spud 2. I was a good boy in school’.”
The Sunday Times’ Tymon Smith spends some time with John van de Ruit: read the interview, then listen to the podcast – both below.
If you scanned the programme of events at the [Cape Town Book Fair] last week, the one that jumped out most often would have simply read “John van de Ruit signs books at the Penguin stand”.
And if you went past “the penguins” at the designated time, you would have seen long queues of avid Spud fans waiting patiently to have their books signed and grab a minute with a happy-faced, spiky haired young man sitting at a table developing premature arthritis in his hand.
With reports claiming an increase in traffic for this year’s fair, it’s hard not to think that the Spud factor played a significant part, with the release of the third book in the boarding school trilogy, Spud — Learning to Fly.
The dedication and loyalty of Spud fans is surprising and encouraging even to the author, a one-time successful actor who has turned to writing full time and is in negotiations with lanky funnyman John Cleese to play the part of the irrepressible Guv in a forthcoming film.
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