It has been a quietish kind of August. But one recent highlight has been the arrival of another Charlie Small manuscript, The Hawk’s Nest, courtesy of curator, Mr Nickelodious Trumpery Ward. He visited the office earlier today, so I took the opportunity to ask him a few pertinent questions.

Have you and Charlie Small ever met? No, I have never met Charlie, but I feel as if I’ve got to know him very well. I was lucky enough to find the very first volume of adventures on the muddy banks of the River Wyre.

It seems that Charlie is getting closer and closer to home. How does his mum feel, bearing in mind she sent him out for a pint of milk 400 years ago but he’s not back yet?  Luckily for Charlie’s mum (and for Charlie),  it seems as if she is stuck in time at the very moment that Charlie crossed over into the strange world of his adventures.  

The Hawk’s Nest, the manuscript we’ve just received, reads like a cross between Hound of the Baskervilles and Scooby Doo. Do you think Charlie Small’s adventures will ever be made for the small or big screen? A media company is developing Charlie’s stories into a live action series for TV with computer generated special effects, to appear in 3D. I will keep you informed of this very exciting development!

My favourite characters are Braemar, the arctic wolf from The Puppetmaster’s Prison, followed by Bella the dancing SAS badger in The Forest of Skulls (for obvious reasons). Who is your favourite character? I really like the pea-brained bullying gorilla, Thrak; Charlie’s brave friend, Philly; but I think my favourite character is one of Jakeman’s incredible inventions, The Steam-Powered Rhino. Although he is only a machine, he has a real personality and sacrifices himself to help Charlie.

When is the next book coming out? Land Of The Remotosaurs is out on  September 2nd – it’s a full-on battle against robotic dinosaurs in a life-sized gaming stadium where Charlie meets his Nemesis and befriends a tribe of wild boar troopers. The recently discovered journal The Hawk’s Nest will be published in February.

Thank you very much, Mr Ward! And we hope Charlie gets home for tea as soon as possible…