"Tiden publishing co. calling:

Finally you can speak to the author Inge Borg, but he's only here for a brief stay, so please hurry...

A nervous, pale face, a sharp gaze behind the glasses, chain smoking...

- Why do people believe that Ingeborg Refling Hagen is the author behind the name Inge Borg?

- There are several reasons, but everything can be explained. It is true that Inge Borg is a pseudonym, but am I the first author publishing under a different name? Then there is the dialect of my books, which Ingeborg Refling Hagen certainly did help me with, and I am extremely grateful. We do come from the same part of the country, but all my travels have removed my dialect...

Last time I actually met her is many years ago, at the ferry to England when she went to Newcastle to work. Finally, it is true that I have used herself and her family as models for my books, but is that an offense or a crime?

- What are your plans with these books - to continue the series?

- Yes, I'm planning a big cyclus for working class children, about working class children. I want to follow the children from "Mostua" through wartime and crisis up to today. I want to give Norwegian working class children a literature which they will see as relevant to them. I have already met lots of understanding, funny things like the little girl writing last year that the book was "worth its weight in gold". It was one of the first books she ever read!

- So the "Mostua children" really exist?

- Definitely, but today they are far apart, around the world. The third book, due next year, is set in England. One episode, "What happened to Mina" recently made me cry when I started recalling her tragic life...

- So reality in the twentieth century is tough enough?

- And hard to write about! But at least you don't have to come up with some fantastic story, reality is enough. When Ingrid meets socialism in England in miners on strike, the subject is real - working class readers understand this. Describing reality can be harder than fantasising...

- And the "Mostu-children" stick to their independence?

- Absolutely! They are not given any support from the burgoise society. And do remember that the best children's books become people's books. One all-time favourite with children is Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic "Uncle Tom's cabin" - but it was not written for children, it was a burning beacon in the fight against slavery. Today it belongs to all people's children's books. Neither were books like "Synnøve Solbakken" and "En glad gutt" originally intended for children.

- But isn't writing for this generation different from writing for earlier generations of children?

- Of course. Today the children are so close to the adults fates that a father's tragedy becomes their own. If, for instance, a father is criticised by the newspapers, his children will have a hard time in the school yard the next day. The children have all the disadvantages, socially, economically, erotically...

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Working class children who choose Inge Borg's books will be in the best of hands. Today, when "children's literature" consists of sweet but reality-avoiding fantasies, Inge Borg has given himself a huge and beautiful task. Of course the better children know the realities, the more fit they are to survive under circumstances as hard as those the "Mostua-children" went through. Happy work, Inge Borg!