We are tremendously excited to welcome Thomas Harding to the blog for an interview.  Thomas is an author and journalist.  He co-funded a television station in Oxford and has worked for many years as an award-winning documentary maker.  Thomas is the author of Hanns and Rudolf, a Sunday Times bestseller and winner of the JQ-Wingate Prize.  His book, The House by the Lake a Costa Biography Award shortlistee has been adapted by him into a truly remarkable picture book showing how homes and lives span generations and the politics of their time.  The book is powerfully illustrated by Britta Teckentrup.  Do take a look at the gallery of images which Thomas has kindly shared with us.

Can you introduce yourself a little please?

As a young boy, I loved pictures books. I still have many of my favourites on my shelves. Later, as a teenager, I spent a short time working in a children’s bookshop, and it was then that I understood the diversity of picture books. When I had my own kids, I adored reading to them every night. Safe to say, I have always wanted to write my own picture book.

I have been a journalist for more than 30 years. I have written for various newspapers including the Guardian, FT, The Times and Washington Post. I have made documentaries and ran a TV station with my wife, Debora.

In 2006, my great uncle Hanns Alexander died. I knew him well, he was the person in the family who carried out pranks, who told us children dirty jokes. I knew that he and his family (including my grandmother Elsie) had fled Nazi Germany in 1936; they were Jewish. At Hanns’ funeral a eulogy was given which reported that he had tracked down and captured the Kommandant of Auschwitz. This shocked me. I had never heard this story before. How was it possible that nobody had told me? This got me going on an 8-year journey to find out the truth and resulted in my first book, Hanns and Rudolf. Ever since, I have worked as a full-time author.


The story of the house by the lake is an extraordinary one, not least because it makes us think about what a home is and means, can you tell us a bit about how you came to write it?

When I was young, my grandmother Elsie — we called her ‘Granny’ — told us about her family’s weekend lake house just outside of Berlin. She called it her ‘soul place’. Granny was a larger-than-life character, thick German accent, shock of white hair, bright red lipstick, a cigarette always on her lip. When she turned 80, she took me and my cousins back to the city of her birth. She showed us her family’s apartment in the city centre. It had been bombed during the war and was now a high-end suitcase store. She took us to the school near the Grunewald Forest where she had learnt to speak English. And then she took us out to the lake house, thirty minutes’ drive out of Berlin and to the West.

When we arrived at the lake house I was struck by how small it was. A one-level wooden structure, perhaps 9m wide and 10m long. But it had a fabulous position, overlooking the Gross Glienicke Lake. A we walked down the sandy path we were met by a tall man with a fluffy hat who asked us what we wanted. Later we would learn his name was Wolfgang Kuhne.

Granny explained that she had lived at the house in the 1920s and 1930s. Suddenly, his mood changed. ‘Come in’, he said, ‘come in!’  We then toured the house, with Herr Kuhne showing off all his improvements and my grandmother pointing out that her parents lived in this bedroom and she in that bedroom. It was a lovely, warm encounter. But it was also deeply emotional. After all, this was the last physical trace of the family in Germany. Granny was clearly pleased, however, that even though the house was no longer hers, someone was living there, taking care of it.

Twenty years later, when I was researching my book Hanns and Rudolf, I heard from a resident in the village that the house was in bad shape. I needed to come take a look. So, I hopped on a plane — easier in those days — and a few hours later was standing in front of the lake house.

The building was now overgrown with bushes and trees. The windows were broken. Inside graffiti covered the walls, the floors were strewn with broken bottles and fragments of furniture. The back bedroom, where Granny’s parents had slept, had been used a rug den. I had that uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, when you see a child fall of a swing.

I went to the local city hall and asked what the plan was for the house. They said they would soon knock it down and then replace with new housing. How could I stop this? I asked. They said I would have to prove the house was culturally and historically important. This is what got me going on my research on the house, the 5 families who had lived there and the history it had seen. Which resulted in my writing the adult non-fiction book The House by the Lake.

At the same time, I started working with the residents of the village and involving members of my family. Together we agreed to save the house. Six years later, we had registered the lake house as national monument (a ‘Denkmal’ in Germany) and raised enough money to repair it back to its former state. The house was stunning! Its walls painted in mustard yellows and aqua blues and forest greens.

A few months after we opened the house to the public, I watched some young children as they walked around. I noticed their fascination with a hole in the wooden walls made by a bullet in 1945 when the Russian and German soldiers had fought house to house. I saw them touch the sunflower wallpaper and look out at in wonder the beautiful lake view. It was then that the question came into my head, could I tell this story for young readers? I was immediately excited. But I had never written a picture book before, I wasn’t sure how to do it.

As it happens, a few weeks later I bumped into Nicola Davies the author of many wonderful picture books. I told her I desperately wanted to write a book for younger readers about the house by the lake, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it. She turned to me and said ‘of course you can!’ and then added ‘just go for it’.

A few days later, I sat down at my desk and started the first draft. After a few more attempts and a few more after that, I sent it off to Walker Books, who to my great delight, said that they would like to publish the book. They then contacted the extraordinary German illustrator Britta Teckentrup, who agreed to join the project. Britta lives in Berlin and we immediately connected. It was the perfect partnership.


What type of research was entailed with the book?

I interviewed people in the village who remembered the house and the history it had witnessed. I spoke with my family of course, collecting letters, photographs, film and stories. I also went to various archives in Germany and the UK. The house itself held its own secrets, the fabric it was made from, the environment it was located in, the impact of history on its walls and floors.


Were you able to make contact with any of the families who have previously lived in the house?

Yes! Some were easier than others.

I spent weeks trying to find someone from the family who leased the land to my family. The Von Wollanks. As a last resort, I looked on Facebook, and found the great-grandson of Otto Von Wollank. He was an influencer in Berlin and his most recent picture was of him with Lady Gaga.

The Meisel family who lived at the house after my family were easier to track down. They still ran the same company ‘Meisel Music’ in Berlin. I met Doris Meisel, the daughter-in-law of Will Meisel, the man who lived at the house after my family. She handed me a plastic bag and said that she wanted me to have it. I thanked her and asked her what was inside. She said it was full of documents proving that her family had stolen the house from my family. ‘It’s important to me that you tell the story,’ she said ‘both the good and the bad.’

The Kuhne family still lives near the house. We met a few times and shared stories. Bernd Kuhne had grown up in the same room that my grandmother had used. I was struck by people and stories take place within the same walls, with the same views out of the window.

The Fuhrmanns also live nearby. When I visited the house with them they were overwhelmed with emotion. This is the strange thing about this small wooden house, it appears to provoke strong love and attachments with those it encounters.  


The picture book is an adaptation of your Costa-shortlisted biography, was it challenging adapting the book into such a short form?

When I started, I thought the biggest hurdle would be reduce a story that takes 120,000 words to tell in the adult version of the book to a few hundred for the picture book. I was wrong. The toughest challenge I realised was to locate the essence of the story. To ask the question: what are the characters’ key emotions and what is their narrative arc? This was more important than facts and dates. In truth, I found this tremendously helpful for my other non-fiction adult writing as well.


The book alludes to some dark points in human history, what was your approach to making these accessible for young readers?

This was the other major concern I had. How do you talk about the Nazis, the Berlin Wall, the Stasi, the bombing of Berlin and other dark events for young children?

Then I realised that children fall in love with places. They are sad when they have to leave them. They make friends with some and are bullied by others. They know what it is like to have something they love taken from them.

Most of all, almost everyone knows what it is like to have a home. Whether it is a tent, a flat, a house or a palace. A home is different from a building. A home is somewhere we make memories. A place we are attached to. Somewhere we leave and come back to. Have family celebrations. A place we retreat to our favorite spot, where we feel safe. Where we feel ‘at home’.

This is why I chose to put the little house by the lake, with its own personality and journey, at the centre of the story. I felt that perhaps that was a way for younger readers to connect.

And I hope the book will encourage young readers to think about what is their favourite spot, what is their ‘soul place’?

There are some very poignant explorations of barriers and borders, what kind of resonance do you feel exist with current geo-politics?

The Berlin Wall was an example of a society locking its citizens in, like a city-wide prison. This was a government trying to stop their people leaving. They were not trying to stop others coming in.

Though this is different from many other walls, the impact is similar. There is an ugly tall structure made by humans dividing one community from another.  Whether it be the Berlin Wall, or the wall along the Mexico/ USA border, or the so-called ‘peace wall’ in Jerusalem or the wall dividing the Catholic and Protestant areas in Belfast.

When I asked the people who lived in the house during the time of the Berlin Wall ‘what it was like?’, they said it was ‘normal’. They got used to it. This despite the Wall being less than 10m from the back door, with its watch towers, search lights, barking dogs, machine guns and ‘death strip’. It is a reminder that we humans can find a way to live in even the darkest of situations. Of course, this comes with a terrible cost, which those I spoke with were quick to explain.


What were your thoughts on Britta Teckentrup's illustrations?

I cried when I first saw the pictures. She has so perfectly captured the characters and the house and the story. The way the colours shift, the tone and movement. Granny would have loved these illustrations!

Can you tell us about how the house by the lake is used now?

The house by the lake has been renovated and tours and activates that take place at the house are managed by a German charity called ‘Alexander Haus’. It operates as a centre for education and reconciliation, welcoming tours from the public, schools and other institutions. We run workshops, training sessions and other similar activities. The house is open, when you are next in Berlin please come visit !


Would you be interested in writing anything else for the children and young people's market?

As it happens, I have written a book for young adults called Future History. I like to say it is a non-fiction history of the next thirty years. It has been published in Germany, will be released soon in France, we are currently looking for an English publisher. I would like to write other picture books. I have a couple of ideas… Let’s wait and see if the stars align…

Image Gallery

Image 1 book cover of The House by the Lake, by Thomas Harding illustrated by Britta Teckentrup

Images 2 and 3 Interior and Exterior of the house, 1927 photos copyright Lotte Jakobi

Photos 4 and 5 Interior and exterior of the house, 2013 photos copyright Thomas Harding

Photos 6, 7 and 8 Interior and Exterior of the house, 2019 photos copyright Andre Wagner

Photo 9 Photograph of Thomas Harding outside Alexander Haus, photo copyright Cristian Jungeblodt

Images 10, 11 and 12 spreads from The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding illustrated by Britta Teckentrup, published by Walker Studios 2020 

Massive thanks to Thomas Harding for so generously sharing his time, images and expertise through this interview.

We are delighted to welcome Rob Ramsden to the blog and to speak with him about his picture book series, In the Garden and his approach to illustration.  Rob's new book with Scallywag Press We Planted a Pumpkin publishes in September.

Please can we ask you to introduce yourself giving some background about your career and publications to date?

I began creativity as a fine art painter and printmaker, I turn a 90° angle and became a comic book creator, which evolved into being an animator and Illustrator, and now as a picture book maker I think I use a little bit of all these experiences in what I do. Alongside this I’ve worked as a lecturer and I’ve run workshops in schools and events, as well as spending a whole year in a school as an animator in residence working with years 2 - 7.

I had been making picture books, sending them off to publishers and I received lots of encouraging rejection letters. The encouragement suggested that I was doing something right, and the rejection told me that something wasn’t quite there. Then I heard about the Children's Book Illustration MA at Cambridge, which transformed my understanding of what a picture book story can be. After graduating I spent a few years showing my portfolio of dummy books to publishers, and spent time developing books with some of them, although nothing got published in this period it did teach me a lot. Then a friend, Rose Robbins, introduced me to a new publisher who were putting together their first book list, who turned out to be Scallywag Press. I sent them my dummy book for I Saw A Bee, and a week later Janice Thomson rang, she suggested some edits, we talked about the story and she was genuinely interested in where the story had come from, and I immediately thought – so, this is editing, I like it. Shortly after this I showed Sarah Pakenham, the publisher, my portfolio which had an early version of We Found a Seed in there too, and by the end of the meeting we were talking about a contract to publish I Saw A BEE. What started as one book has turned into a series of books called In the Garden, which includes BEE, SEED and now We Planted a PUMPKIN which is out this September.

There’s a joyous sense of exploration of the natural world in your books and its fun looking out for and tracing the different minibeasts and plants. Are you much of a naturalist yourself?

I wouldn’t call myself a naturalist, in fact I haven’t got the kind of memory needed to remember all those Latin names, and many insects don’t have common names. What I do have is the patience and curiosity to sit and observe minibeasts, and I’m often rewarded by what nature teaches me, for instance watching pollinators reveals why flowers look the way they do. I’m now paying more attention to my garden, and doing things like leaving big piles of leaves, sticks and small logs to make areas wilder, and encouraging minibeasts to take up residence over winter too! 3 years ago I changed my gardening habits and planted for pollinators. The unexpected effect of bee friendly gardening is that there are now many more mini beasts, lots of birds, and I’ve even spotted a hedgehog. Before I began gardening for bees I wasn’t aware of just how many different varieties of bee there are, and last year I began photographing them and I’ve collected more than 25 different varieties of bee including the tree bumblebee, red-tailed and white-tailed bumble bees, mourning bees which are eerily black and white in colour, leaf-cutter, mason and mining bees and of course honey bees.

I Saw a Bee feels almost like a fable with wide-reaching comments around friendship, difference and the importance of respecting the environment around us.  There’s a wonderful visual and verbal rhythm to the book.  It has so many different applications, have you had much feedback in terms of how it has been used and how readers have responded?

The feedback and uses of the book are quite diverse. The story itself comes from different experiences and observations, firstly it came from a rhyme I made up with my son about an amazing bee that kept up with us as I was driving the car, there was something exciting about racing a bee! Then, when picking my son up from his first years at school, we’d be talking about his day, and some of this was about the bumpy rhythms of the highs and lows of friendship. At the same time in the media, there was an increasing amount of concern about the decline in bee numbers. Finally, I have vivid memories of bees being something to be afraid of, which I probably learnt as a very young child from adults with rolls of newspaper chasing them, this fear was something I had to unlearn. Each of these were light bulb moments, and although not overtly mentioned in the story, they give me the route and focus to shape the story.

I’ve seen a whole range of activities and uses for both the BEE and SEED books spring up on social media, and it’s much to the inventiveness of others that these activities happen. The books have been used for exercising motor skills by following the paths of the bee, the life cycle of bees and seeds, collecting and identifying seeds, sowing seeds and caring for the plants, making pollinator friendly areas. Perhaps the most interesting discussion I had was when I had the opportunity to meet with teaching assistant Janine Woolston, who’s a qualified Thrive practitioner. Janine told me about how she had been using I Saw A BEE to support social and emotional development with the younger children, and this really resonated with me. When I heard that one boy kept going back to the book box and reading it himself, it seemed to me that Janine had struck just the right balance between the story and her use of it. I eventually asked Janine to write the teacher notes for both BEE and SEED, which are now on the Scallywag Press website, and I couldn’t be happier with them.

The production values are extremely high with the embossed cover, quality matt paper stock, did you have input into this?

I’ll be honest here, I was asked on many occasions about all aspects of production, but I knew my book was in the hands of those with much more experience than me, and I trusted that they would make the right decisions. When I received my advance copies of I Saw A BEE I wasn’t just excited that is was my first book that I was holding, on a tactile level it felt wonderful to hold and the pages are great to turn, I love the way they sound.

Can you introduce us to We Planted a Pumpkin which publishes this year?

It features the same two children from SEED and builds on the theme of growth, this time the story follows the children as their patience is tested, they encourage and care for the pumpkin plant, and there are surprises and rewards. Patience and anticipation are there too, they need a big ripe orange pumpkin in time for Halloween. I’m attempting to grow pumpkins this year and I can safely report that there’s a little worry that goes along with growing pumpkins, and lots of anticipation too as it’s just began to show signs of turning orange.

Can you tell us a little about how you approach creating a picture book?

I keep an eye and ear alert for catching things of interest, as well as recalling experiences and keeping a sketchbook close by to makes notes and drawings, to capture it. These notes and sketches might become an idea, and then I begin to explore these ideas by expanding the drawing and writing, to see if the idea might take the shape of a story. I’ll draw the characters a lot to test their emotional range, free from the story to get to know what they’re capable of, recalling my observations of children, as well as my own memories. The growing sequence in SEED is straight out of my memories of dance lessons in primary school. Thumbnail storyboards help to test the structure and pace of the story. Eventually, I’ll begin drawing more solid characters, acting out the scene, to accompany the text, which I use to make the first dummy book. My backgrounds at this stage are still very rough, so I begin visually researching in order to draw the backgrounds. The final illustrations in the book are a mix of materials to create hand-made textures, and I trace around my drawings in Adobe Illustrator and it’s all brought together in Photoshop as a kind of digital collage. My first ever version of BEE was all made as lino-cut block prints, and some of it’s still visible in the published version. I have two studios, one has been taken over by screen printing equipment, and the other “studio” is a series of tables in my home, and a main desk for my computer. I have been known to work in the garden and kitchen too.

You’ve been involved with teaching illustration – what level/s have you taught this at and what has it entailed?

I began by teaching animation as a subject, and this is where I’ve taught at the widest age range from year 2 primary to master’s degree level. This entailed adapting the essentials of movement and narrative to each age and educational level, and for the most part the subject skills are still the same, it’s the teaching method and expectations of the learner that changes. I’ve always used paper-based animation techniques in my own work and when I teach, devices such as a flick-books, zoetrope and mutoscope. In our digital age, people are still fascinated to see individual frames blend into movement as they flick the frames with their own hands. I have a draw full of ideas for an animation book as an alternative to an ever-increasing digital culture. Since 2016 I’ve been the Illustration Lecturer on the Graphic Design degree at the University of Suffolk, where I teach illustration within the discipline of graphic design, which I find to be a great blend of skills and ideas at work. One of the projects explores the design of books, drawing attention to the physical aspects of the book to give structure for the student to explore their ideas. I don’t specifically teach children’s picture books, but I do point out that they are a rich playful source of ideas and invention.

You were longlisted for the 2020 Klaus Flugge prize, how important are prizes for new illustrators?

It’s exciting to have been longlisted, and just by looking at the other longlisted books, I feel really proud that my book was selected alongside such a list of amazing books. I think all prizes are important in shinning a light on the good work of everyone who’s involved in producing a picture book and celebrating it, and one of the things I appreciated about the Klaus Flugge prize is that the editor and designer are also credited for their part in shaping the book. When I see all the great books by authors and illustrators being published I think “there can’t be enough shelf space to hold them all”, so I do think that it’s particularly important to shine a light on those who are entering the publishing world. To introduce them and let them take centre stage for a little while so we can get to know them, their names and their books, and make sure they don’t get lost on the shelves.

Which illustrators did you enjoy as a child and are there any that have helped influence your style or approach?

One of my earliest memories of illustration is the animated series Noggin the Nog illustrated by Peter Firmin, and even when very young I was aware that these were drawings that moved, and by that I mean even today you can really see the drawing. Next, are comics like Monster Fun and Shiver & Shake which were full of crazy ideas and had a great range of characters and stories. Comics were my reading material, and I’ll always be thankful to my parents for my weekly comic. I have vivid memories of the Illustrations of Jill McDonald, whose work still excites me today, and I can see why I loved looking at it as a child, every mark is worth looking at. I did a Fine Art degree and felt a bit lost when I graduated, and what re-engaged me with creativity was the artwork and narratives explored in comics, animated cartoons and picture books. I had no idea that I wanted to make picture books, but all my interests pointed towards illustration, then animation, and eventually picture books. It’s a far reaching and eclectic list of illustrators and animators who’s work really excites me, so I’ll just name a few here for how they’ve influenced me in some way – The animator Chuck Jones and his layout artist Maurice Noble, if you watch their cartoon What’s opera, Doc? you’ll see how the background holds as much of the emotion of the scene as the main character. Although I wasn’t directly referencing this at the time, this cartoon and another called Duck Amuck are two of my favourite works of art, and after BEE was completed I saw some stills from What’s Opera, Doc? and I realised I must be absorbing potential influence all the time. Maurice Sendak and Pat Hutchins, both for their sense of movement in the characters, as well as how they construct space on the page, a bit like a stage. Jan Ormerod’s books Sunshine and Read play so wonderfully with the pacing and passing of time. As a child I really do remember being aware of the passing of time, from the first time I took notice of the second hand on a clock ticking away, to the incomprehensible amount of time to my next birthday, as well as noticing the shadows moving and how that really was time passing.

My first published books happen to be a series, and it makes sense for this to be consistent in the style of the artwork. But, I do feel nervous when I think of the idea of style, and in a similar way to how one might think of an actor being type-cast in a series, I think that one style might not be the right style for other stories that I want to write or illustrate.

What is next for you?

Scallywag Press thought that I was going to be working on a different book outside of this series, but we all became excited about a new title and concept for another book for the In The Garden series, so this is what I’m currently working on. I’m probably not allowed to say anything about it, but I’ll just say that I’m excited about working on this book because it’s about experiencing the garden in a completely different way.

A big thank you to Rob for his time and expertise answering our questions.  Rob has also generously allowed us to share a wealth of images, information on these is below.

BEE-01

Original dummy book for I Saw A BEE, and the published Scallywag Press hardback edition.

BEE-02

One of the first thumbnail storyboards for I Saw A BEE, looking at the page count and the pace of the story.

BEE-03

Comparison of two spreads from the published I Saw A BEE, and the original (below). My first idea was that the reader would have to circle around the book in order to read it, and therefore join in the “buzzing around”.

PUMPKIN-01

We Planted A PUMPKIN with the original text, storyboards and a sketchbook. I mostly draw and write on loose copier paper, so I can pin them up or spread them out, and my ideas and drawing seem to flow much quicker across less-precious paper.

PUMPKIN-02

Early ideas, sketches and words for We Planted A PUMPKIN. Nothing is edited out, I try to capture as many visual ideas and words before the story begins to settle into a line-by-line text, and this is typical of how I work to shape the story.

PUMPKIN-02b

Exploring one of the characters in We Planted A PUMPKIN, and looking for the right emotion for the scene.

PUMPKIN-03

Early storyboard comparison for the “We know you’re trying…” spread in We Planted A PUMPKIN. Once the whole story is written, and each spread is drawn, then I give the insects all of my attention, I think of them as ‘sub plots’ such as the ants harvesting seeds (on this spread), or a spider spinning its web to catch a fly (which gets away!), and I have fun thinking of where the ladybird should be in of the spreads.

PUMPKIN-04

Early storyboard comparison for spread 5 in We Planted A PUMPKIN. You can see that one idea has been edited out to strengthen the focus of the scene.

PUMPKIN-05

Nature studies for We Planted A PUMPKIN, with character ideas for “we were the rain”.

Shelves.

Organising all the different stories in development is something I have had to learn to do, and this is how I organise stories which are being developed or as in the case of PUMPKIN, just finished.

Bees

A selection of bee photos, all taken in my garden.

Ronda and David Armitage's The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.  We are delighted to be joined by Ronda and David Armitage who have written a guest blog about the latest title in the massively popular series, The Lighthouse Keeper's Mystery and are lucky enough to be able to provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the development of some of the book's artwork.  

In 1974 accompanied by two young children Ronda and David came to London for a working holiday expecting to be here for a couple of years.

Six months later they moved to East Sussex and soon the family found itself standing on the top of the famous white chalky crumbling cliffs  looking down at the Beachy Head lighthouse near Eastbourne.  Previous to this trip David had been looking for work calling on assorted publishers initially clutching some of his book design work. He observed that the queue for those carrying illustrations was shorter so illustrated several well known fairy tales to show what he could do.

An editor at Hamish Hamilton, then one of the great children's publishers, liked them and suggested that if Ronda could write a story and David could do some run up illustrations he could be very interested.

Ronda had always loved reading and as an adult taught young children just as the wave of wonderful and less expensive picture books came onto the market so although she thought it was a ridiculous idea she didn’t completely dismiss it.

As the family stood on the cliffs our son noticed a line running down to the lighthouse. ‘Whats that for Dad?’ he asked. David likes to amuse, so his reply was that the line was for the lighthouse keepers lunch.

Ronda might have ignored that throwaway line if that editor had not suggested writing a story. So Ronda stored it away and in her head began to work out a tale.

‘The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch has been in print since 1977 and Ronda and David  have lived in East Sussex ever since.

David and Ronda come from Tasmania and New Zealand respectively.  Ronda’s parent  bought a farm in the ‘back of beyond’ when Ronda was 12 years old. From the verandah we could see a beautiful bay surrounded by hills and cliffs. Further out was an island and at night Ronda went to sleep watching a lighthouse light way in the distance.The sea became part of our lives.  We swam, we fished, we played in boats and raced round the rocks seeing who could leap most skilfully.

Ronda discovered her first octopus and tried to carry it to show the friends but it wriggled so much that she returned it to a pool.

Although a number of people camped or visited the bay in the summer holidays rubbish was not a problem.  Now photos from around the world show the horrendous piles of rubbish in rivers, lakes and of course in the sea with many creatures mistaking it for food.  Life in the sea is in danger.

In 2002 The Lighthouse Keeper's Christmas was published and after eight books about  Mr Grinling, he retired from being a Lighthouse Keeper.  David and Ronda thought they had written their last Lighthouse Keeper title.

The books have remained popular, particularly in schools for topic  work with Key Stage One. David Wood who has written many plays for children rewrote the first book  as a musical which was  first performed in Oxford Playhouse in 2000 but there have been many performances based on the eight lighthouse books shown around the world.

So Ronda and David  settled to doing different things. There were already other books that they had worked on together but David decided he would like to spend more time painting and the books Ronda wrote were illustrated by others. They were so used to working together that at first Ronda would insist on helping the illustrator just as she and David had done as they worked through a story. But this is not what usually happens.The illustrator and the writer very rarely meet until perhaps the illustrations are completed. Fortunately before too long she realised perhaps that was not a good idea. An illustrator needs to have their own ideas about the illustrations.

As we know climate change is having a massive affect on our world and is already causing many changes to the environment and to peoples lives.

Attention has focused on people such  as Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough who have spelt out very clearly what needs to happen to avoid catastrophe.

When Scholastic suggested another story about the Grinling family, it seemed to David and Ronda a possible way to introduce some aspects of the contamination of the sea with characters who are already known to many children and in a way that they could understand.  It also encourages children to play a part in keeping the seaside clean.  The emphasis was on rubbish rather than just plastic for obvious reasons.  We also wanted to show the disasters that can happen when the sea becomes contaminated.

It is a pleasure to welcome Natalie Ramm to provide an insight into her picture book, Man in the Mountain, and the way her career and life have fed into the creation of this.

Six years ago, I took a three month sabbatical from my job in publishing to set off on a road trip across Europe with my husband. The plan was to check out of work entirely – but no sooner had we hit the end of week one, than I felt a sudden urge to write.

Perhaps it was the peacefulness of the surrounding landscape, or just the sheer desire to still be working, but each day I would sit down excitedly to write for a few hours. When our trip came to an end, I filed the stories away and thought little of them for years. This is largely because I work in publishing.

After spending seven years at Penguin Press, I now work freelance – as a copywriter and marketing consultant – for some of the best publishers in town. I love my day job, but there is nothing like it for reminding you of all the reasons never to get your hopes up of being published: there are just too many books – excellent books – being published already, most of which barely anyone has heard of.

Each year, the market seems more crowded, and the space for capturing readers’ attention increasingly small, and contested by all kinds of media. At the same time, in the children’s world at least, big brand authors continue to dominate much of the landscape.

And yet, last year, I started to think about my stories again. And in a fleetingly hopeful moment, I sent a few of them to some smaller publishers who accept submissions directly from authors. I was pretty sure it would come to nothing, so when Ragged Bears said they were interested in publishing Man in the Mountain, I knew not to get my hopes up. I didn’t think about whether the book might be a success or not, because I’d worked in publishing long enough to know that it couldn’t be. 

When you work with books (and especially in marketing), you can get fixated on sales figures, and other standard measures of success. But what if ‘success’ just meant you’d written something that people (who aren’t just your mum) actually want to read? What if success was a finished book you were proud of, kind words from respected colleagues, a spring in your step?

Over the past year, as I’ve worked alongside the amazing illustrator Gaia D’Alconzo, my friends and family have often asked ‘aren’t you excited to be having a book published?’. My response was almost always ‘well, it’ll probably sell about three copies’. They would look perplexed, and rightly so – because this is not the attitude to have if you’re writing a book, or creating anything for that matter. Feeling excited and hopeful is an important part of the creative process.

So now, upon publication, I’m allowing back those feelings of hope and excitement I felt when I first sat down to write.

And it’s a thrill.