It’s a privilege to be joined on the blog by Nicola Davies, Jackie Morris and Cathy Fisher to talk about their books and, in particular, their stunning illustrations. Later this month, they will be discussing their creative practices and the importance of the natural world as part of two exciting free events, live from Jackie’s kitchen:  ‘Picture Perfect’ and ‘Marking the Page’.

Nicola, Jackie and Cathy – welcome and thank you for taking the time to join us on the blog.

Your books are absolutely stunning, not only in terms of the illustrations, but also the perceptive use of vocabulary and the additional imagery they conjure in the mind of the reader. In your opinion, what makes picture books so special?

Nicola: SOOO many things! Picture books are a unique art form very undervalued and underestimated by most adults. They can speak about the most complex and difficult issues in ways that reach out across barriers of age and culture. The subtle marriage of picture and words communicates through mind and heart and makes a sum much greater than its two parts. We focus so much on literacy that we forget about that other very important kind, visual literacy, and the way information and emotion can be carried pictorially. I would argue very strongly for schools and parents to keep reading picture books to children - and adults - across all ages.

Cathy: Picture books are absolutely vital. I’ve been very lucky to illustrate Nicola’s stories as all her stories are fabulous, inspiring, beautifully written, thoughtful and have important messages. Good pictures add layers of visual narrative and meaning to a story and can make it more accessible. Good picture books for young children are the beginning of a love for stories, a growing imagination, a love for reading and appreciation for art - all vital for our well-being.

Jackie: It’s the space between the images and words, where the reader lives, with their imagination. That’s what makes the picture book a special country to visit.

As a society, we view picture books as being predominantly for young children yet your work seems to challenge this concept. Are picture books just for children or are they as equally important across all generations?

Jackie: Picture books are for anyone who wishes to read them. They can deal with challenging subjects, leaving space for conversations to arise around them. In many ways they are art books, or the best of them are anyway.

Nicola: Picture books speak across ages. They cut out the noise and get to the heart of what really matters. The Day War Came was used to lobby MPs who had voted against the Dubs Amendment; just as children’s clear sense of fairness sometimes calls adult morality to account, so picture books can offer a clear lens through which we can all see the world as it is and how it could and should be. 

Cathy: It’s my belief that picture books should be for all ages. I wish there were more good picture books for young and old. As an illustrator I don’t think pictures for a story should be trivialised or over simplified for young children - ’dumbing down’ an illustration is an insult to their intelligence.

Nicola, as an author, many of your books include sensitive and important messages, not just about the natural world but also about emotional experiences. Perfect addresses disability, The Pond focuses on the loss of a loved one, The New Girl depicts exclusion and acceptance, whilst Last awakens readers to the importance of extinction and conservation. Why has it been so important to you to utilise the picture book format to portray these stories?

Children are often excluded from conversations about big things, things that affect their lives. Adults exclude them to protect children from the darkness of the world, but also to protect themselves from having to explain and discuss uncomfortable things. I experienced this as a small child and it was incredibly distressing. So, I’m passionate about openness and inclusion for children. I hope what my books do is open up conversations, support adults to talk with their children and support children to understand and to ask questions. All things can be talked about if you have the right context, framework and language - fears, shames, terrors, monsters, mysteries – they are all better brought into the light and looked at, especially if you have a story to hold your hand.

When you get the first seed of an idea, how do you nurture and develop it into a finished project? Does your creative process focus entirely on the book and the message you want to convey or do you have external influences on the direction of the piece?

Nicola: Sometimes it just comes. I cook it quietly, almost sub consciously, and then the finished text arrives in a very short time; The Promise, Last, The Day War Came, The Pond and Perfect all came that way. But with others like Grow and Lots, where complex science has to be distilled, the process is much longer. The hardest thing with those books is finding the thread, the single most important message that the books must deliver and the idea, image or concept that delivers it. Sometimes that takes weeks and lots of very, very careful word by word construction. As for external influences - well the problem with non-fiction is that everybody has an opinion so the editorial process can be excruciating! 

Jackie: All my writing and painting revolves around either trying to tell a story or trying to understand something. It’s my way of investigating things, from the shape of a kingfisher, it’s colour, its flight, to the meaning of death and loss; apart from Can You See a Little Bear? and the Classic Nursery Rhymes book, which are both just fun.

Cathy, your illustrations are so full of emotion and understanding for the experiences of the characters. I was particularly drawn to the illustration of anger and grief in The Pond when the young boy ran upstairs screaming at his Dad for dying. Similarly, in Perfect there is the sense of frustration in the imagery when the boy realises the new baby isn’t as he expected. What techniques do you use in your illustrative process to achieve this?

I am only interested in illustrating pictures for stories that are beautifully written and inclusive, which open minds and hearts and offer shared conversation for children, adults, parents, and teachers. Books that bring comfort, are supportive, give insight and help readers to express emotions that are often hard to talk about - books that inspire. I pour my own emotions into the pictures. I use colour, layers of tone and texture and the body language of characters in the stories to express emotion and atmosphere.

Jackie, The Lost Words was awarded the Kate Greenaway medal in 2019 and was also recognised as the most beautiful book of the year by UK booksellers. It is a collaboration with Robert Macfarlane about the loss of nature words from the lives of children, but has become a much larger discussion on the loss of nature to the whole of society. The large-format and style of the book is exquisite and emphasises not only the spell-like qualities of the poetry inside but also that books like this should be on proud display. What techniques did you use in your illustrative process when developing the book and why do you think it has been so successfully received, not just by the Greenaway judging panel, booksellers and children but by society as a whole?

The illustrations are worked in watercolour and gold leaf. Each piece was worked as a soul song to the very best of my ability at the time. A soul song. Why it caught in the minds and imaginations of others I can’t say but it is an honour to have one’s work recognised and our readers have taught us many things and told us many stories about our book. The only thing I can do is to continue trying to do the best that I can. I learn from each painting and hope to improve each time. I love to play with different ideas and materials.

The mission of the Carnegie and Greenaway awards is to ‘inspire and empower the next generation to create a better world through books and reading’, something which all of your books do through intricate illustration and powerful, yet accessible narrative. By creating connections to the natural environment in young children, what impact do you hope to have on the future?

Nicola: Well of course I want to bring down the patriarchy and bring about a green revolution! What I hope is that my work is quietly but significantly subversive, strengthening children’s innate fascination with nature, giving them a connection that offers them personal solace and perhaps, just perhaps, inspiring them to become advocates for the natural world. I need to do more. I feel I can never do enough. I have a new novel for older children coming out in November that I hope will more directly inspire green action and change through approaching the subject of capitalism’s assaults on the natural world in clear allegory. 

Jackie: It’s an influence on the now that I am after, not the future. I hope that children will show their parents the books, spend time in the pages, then go out into the world and realise what we stand to lose if we continue to live the way we do.

As well as a shared passion for creating beautiful and profound works of art, you are all very good friends. How does your friendship contribute to the work you produce?

Cathy: I met Nicola because she asked me to illustrate Perfect after seeing one of my pictures. I loved her straight away. I met Jackie through Nicola and loved her straight away too. They are incredible women - deeply imaginative, creative, skilled, knowledgeable, thoughtful, supportive, perceptive, brilliant women. Illustrating their stories, working with them, being in a bubble during lockdown, has influenced my artwork and makes me feel very blessed.

Nicola: Jackie and Cathy are my first audience for things, nearly always. Cathy’s work directly inspires the words I write for her and Jackie’s clear divergent thinking often sparks new thoughts and ideas. We support each other. Publishing is no bed of roses, especially for women and especially for women who are older, who don’t live in London and who do not have sharp elbows. So, we fight for each other when we are not able to fight for ourselves. And we laugh and walk and talk – it’s wonderful to have such friends, such colleagues, such soul mates.

Jackie: We might get more work done if we weren’t such good friends, but it wouldn’t have the heart that it does. The support of friends is what you need in life, in work, always.

I know you are all busy working on lots of incredible projects – what can we look forward to next?

Nicola: I have a new novel The Song That Sings Us (with Jackie’s cover!) coming out in the Autumn. I’m going to work hard to publicise it because it delivers a message about our need to prioritise nature that I really want people to hear. I’m also starting work on an opera based on The Promise. I have a collection of poems three quarters finished for Petr Horacek – I’m writing to his pictures which is a fabulous way to work. The book is going to be wonderful and will really show off Petr's extraordinary art.

Jackie: I’m working on a Book of Birds with Robert Macfarlane and working with Spellsongs on the next album, with a tour coming up in January, all things being well. I have two backlisted titles coming out in October - East of the Sun, West of the Moon and The Wild Swans. I am also still finishing Feather, Leaf Bark & Stone and James (Mayhew) is illustrating Mrs Noah’s Garden. Meanwhile, I have a few illustrations to do for Nicola’s The Song that Sings Us, and a two-book contract with Cathy.

Join Nicola, Jackie and Cathy for ‘Picture Perfect’ and ‘Marking the Page’. Presented by Lancaster LitFest in partnership with Graffeg Books, and hosted by Jake Hope, these events will delight those with an interest in illustration, nature and children’s books, whilst being of particular interest to the Kate Greenaway shadowing groups.

‘Picture Perfect’ is on Thursday 20 May at 12.30pm, whilst ‘Marking the Page’ is on Friday 21 May at 7.30pm.

A big thank you to Nicola Davies, Cathy Fisher and Jackie Morris for the interview, to Graffeg for the opportunity and to Laura Jones for conducting this.