Benjamin Zephaniah: people all over the world are living in fear and to me all those people are being terrorised Your new book Terror Kid is really deep, it has a lot of meaning. Is there a hidden message that you would like to project? There are so many messages, I'm not sure if they are hidden as they are integral to the book. Young people now are much more aware than older people think they are. One of the messages in all of my books is to think about about how the media reports things. The real message in Terror Kid is that when you hear headlines about terrorist suspects, please think. Don't jump to the conclusion that all people who are Muslim are terrorists. There are also bad acts of terrorism committed by people from other faiths. Terrorists are terrorists; it doesn't mean that the religions are bad, you just have people who manipulate it. When you hear these things in the media don't automatically agree. Sometimes you have to think for yourself and do your own research. It's this theme which runs through all of my books. What, in your definition, is a terrorist? A terrorist is simply an individual or an organisation that terrorises people, capable of making people live in fear. They make people scared of going outside. They could be bombing, they may not be - it's the threat which they create. When you look at terrorism like that, one could say that there are some governments that are terrorist governments. Somehow the media portrays that terrorism is only done by people who don't have a government - if you have a government, then it's a war and it's ok. But people all over the world are living in fear and to me all those people are in one way or another being terrorised. By writing your books are you trying to change society indirectly? I really just want to change the world, you know. I just want us all to wear flowers in our hair and dance around to reggae music. Yeah, I seriously do but I realise that that's not possible.What I can do is make individuals think. I can make individuals think about the issue a bit deeper than they would have if they'd just heard it on the news. A lot of those people go on to being in positions of importance and in that way I'm - indirectly - I'm helping to change the world. So yes, I kind of write for the good of mankind. But I know my limitations. Was there anything in your life that personally inspired the book Terror Kid? Well... God, there's so much. Something did happen to me once - well, happened to two friend of mine. It's a very sad story. One of them had just come from Jamaica - his name was Neil March and the other guy was called Paul Davis. And we were about 17 or 18. My brother and I should've been somewhere and we didn't actually go, so they went in our place. They were walking past a pub and a bomb went off. This was a long time ago and it was a bomb planted by an organization called the IRA. It was the first time I'd ever heard of terrorism - I didn't really know what was going on at the time. Suddenly, the police came to us and said, you know, we've got to watch out - it was all about Irish terrorism. So that was a major experience in my life. To this day I still have a photograph of Paul Davis on my website. We didn't have a picture of Neil - he never wanted photos taken of him. He'd not been in the country long, you know, only for about four weeks. That had a big impact on me and it was the first time I really understood - or began to understand - what terrorism was like. Are any of the characters based on anyone you know or even you? I think all my characters are based on people I know - but they wouldn't recognise themselves in it because I take a little bit of them and a little bit of someone else and a bit of someone else and mix them into one character. I think most novelists do that. If you don't, it's just a matter of research and I don't really do a lot of research when it comes to characters. I just know so many interesting characters. I think I've got about 10,000 in my head that I can put into novels - it's finding the right novel. Do you want young people to get up off the couch and do something about the injustice in the world - like change something? Yes, absolutely, because they're not changing some other world - it's their world which they have to live in. I think it's really important to be an activist. If you see things in the world that you don't like and you're not happy with, you can't complain if you haven't got up and tried to do something about it. If you've tried to do something and even if you've failed, you can say I've trying my best to help. I think if we all got up and did something - especially young people - the world would be a better place. Does Terror Kid express your emotions and your political feelings? Some of them, yes. But these are characters, so sometimes there are emotions or feelings expressed that aren't mine. I mean, when I'm writing a novel, it's my job to create other characters and sometimes those characters will do things that I won't do. I'm a vegan - I don't eat meat - but it would be crazy if all my characters were vegans. So I have to create characters that also eat meat. But when I do my poetry, that's me. In my novels, I kind of want to get away from my voice: I want it to be the voice of the characters. My protagonists are usually, you know, fourteen or fifteen year old kids right. I don't want to write them as an adult - I want to get into their heads. I want to go back into my imagination, imagine what it was like when I was fourteen or fifteen and if I can't imagine it, I'll talk to my friends" kids or go out and just watch them. To make it realistic and make it feel genuine, I've got to sometimes forget Benjamin Zephaniah's point of view and find the point of view of the character. If you had the power to start a revolution how would you go about it? Well, first of all, I'd get lots of chocolate cake. The first thing I would do is call together all the civil servants, the politicians, the bankers and I would say, "right, I don't want to put you out of your job, as such, but I want you to work for the good of the people - not for profit. There's nothing wrong with making a profit but your first priority must be the good of the people. So I want to know that the children of our country and the adults, who go to school and work go on good clean buses and trains, I want to know that if they're on their way to work and they have an accident, they can go to hospital without taking out their credit card or going to get some plasters or health insurance. I want to know that if the kid is in school and is dyslexic, like I was, they can get help. You know, very very basic things would be my revolution but they are missing, I think, from what politicians are talking about now. The most important thing for me would be a fair, just society with lots of books and lots of cake. If you could change just three things about society what would they be? Wow... One of the first things I would do is get rid of the army. I mean, that would have to be done with some cooperation from other countries but, you know, I've seen some countries lately who have got rid of their armies because they're too expensive and aren't invading anybody, so what's the point? Or have the army help build life in other countries: make houses, roads and things like that rather than prepare for war. I'd make sure that all schools have equal standards of education and funding and everything else. That way, you could live wherever you want and have a good education wherever you are. Finally, I'd probably get rid of cars. They take up so much space and they're just so polluting. I don't want to sound hypocritical because I drive a car, but I just look at cities now and they're just so chock-a-block with cars and there is little space to walk. I would turn it around so there's a little place for cars and people could walk through cities and enjoy it. I've also got to say cake! If someone wants to be a writer, what are the top tips you could give them? Be honest; don't try to be anyone you're not. I'd certainly advise you to do poetry. When you're doing novels, the first one especially, try to make it something you know a lot about. You don't want to spend a lot of time in a library researching. For your first novel, you just want to get it out. Enjoy - writing your first one especially; people will appreciate the writing more if you're a good writer. So, that's the biggest tip really. Terror Kid didn't really have a straightforward ending. Is there going to be like a sequel? Um, I didn't think of a sequel. I don't like a happy ending where everybody has a happy ever after, because real life isn't like that. One of my favourite childhood books, A Sailing Boat in the Sky, the last words were "and the rest of the book you'll just have to imagine." My book, Refugee Boy, ends with "this is not the end." There is no sequel to it but life continues, you know? He came here and it's about his struggle to get refugee status and though he gets it and is able to live in Britain, it's not a happy ending. He's still got struggles of coming to terms with life in Britain. This character's lost his mum and his dad, his life's been turned upside down - I couldn't just end it by saying this is the end.