Children’s author Lauren Child came to the Hay Festival with mathematician Marcus du Sautoy to discuss their collaboration on the Ruby Redfort series.
Child is known for her experiments with style and format, combining writing and illustration in the Ruby series, and asked acclaimed mathematician Marcus du Sautoy to work on the project with her. He created a series of original puzzles for the books, relishing the opportunity to get young children to engage with maths. “If someone is good at my subject they’re generally seen as an outsider,” he said, adding that he was happy to “sneak maths in".
The puzzles each correlated to a sense, with fourth dimensional maths used to convey taste, and benzene rings used as clues to evoke smell. What could have baffled some, was delivered in a fun and entertaining way to the many children in the tent.
Child told the children about the inspiration behind the Ruby series, and discussed the characters and style. The enthusiasm of the crowd suggests that du Sautoy’s plan to expand maths through the books is right on track.
If you missed this you might enjoy event 363, The Great Unknown, featuring Marcus du Sautoy, on Saturday 2 June at 11:30am.
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