by Johanna McCalmont
When Josephine Murray – a fellow translator who is on the Translators Association committee at the UK Society of Authors – recently invited me to take part in a conversation about translating kid lit with Scots translator Thomas Clark, naturally I jumped at the opportunity!
We only had 45 minutes, but still managed to cover many of the things we love about translating books for children. We shared how we got started, discussed a few tricky problems, like adapting rhyming counting poems (me) or deciding how far to go when coining new terms in Scots (Thomas), and had a chance to share short readings from our recent translations. The conversation wrapped up with a short but lively Q&A with the audience.
So if you’re curious about the Scots language or want to hear an extract from a story with a sizzling hot summer theme from me, click on the image below or follow this link to catch up on the recording.
The Line-up
Thomas Clark is a writer and translator who works mainly in the Scots language. His work for children includes Scots translations of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, and ‘Peppa’s Bonnie Unicorn’. He also runs (alongside fellow translator Matthew Fitt) the Scots language schools resource provider ‘Scots Hoose Yaldi’.
Johanna McCalmont was born in Northern Ireland and now lives in Brussels, Belgium. Her translations for children have been published by Blue Dot Kids Press & North South. As a co-editor at the World Kid Lit blog, she helps champion global literature for younger readers. She also works as a conference interpreter.
Josephine Murray is a translator from French to English and a journalist. Her published translations include Suffusion, Anne-Sophie Pic’s food memoir/manifesto with recipes for Hachette Pratique and three non-fiction illustrated children’s books by Manon Bucciarelli for Harper Collins, Nature and Cities which were published in 2025 and Myths which is due to be published in September.
