As Custodian of Charlie Small’s Journals, I was lucky enough to be able to speak directly to the lost boy adventurer on his crackling, hissing mobile. I put Tilda’s questions directly to him, and here are his answers:

Describe the place where you write/draw.
I write up my journals wherever and whenever I can. I might be a prisoner of the great apes of Gorilla City; I could be on a mission with Snipe and his rodent-like, pickpocketing gang in Fortune City, but if I get a moment I’ll scribble down all my latest adventures.

What is your most treasured possession?

My rucksack! It contains my explorer’s kit – all the things that might come in useful on my amazing adventures. I’ve got a tube of instant super-glue, the skull of a Barbarous Bat, the bony finger from an animated skeleton, a penknife, the glass eye from a steam-powered rhinoceros, the tooth from a monstrous megashark, and loads of other stuff!

What times of the day do you work?
I’m on the go 24/7, unless I’ve been taken prisoner of course – like the time I was turned into a performing marionette. I spent ages trapped in my own skin, which had been petrified by the dastardly Puppet Master!

Read the rest of this entry »

I was a bit daunted when I read that the topic of this new round of blogs was to be an experience had, or some research  done, in order to write about it. Research? Blimey, I thought. That sounds a bit serious for the sort of books I write! Then, thinking more closely, I realized that I do sort of research my books, even if it’s on quite a superficial level. I am often getting to a point in a story when I realize I have strayed into an area I know little about, or I get halfway through an illustration before I wonder what the thing I’m drawing really looks like!

Then, it’s a trawl along my bookshelves or, more frequently now, a session on the internet that can supply me with visual reference, (sometimes dubious) historical facts, or just a feel for a place or people.
When I wrote about Jakeman’s Patented Steam-powered Rhinoceros in Charlie Small’s first adventure, Gorilla City, I had the image of Durer’s famous woodcut of a rhino at the back of my mind. I had always admired this anatomically inaccurate beast (Durer never actually saw a rhinoceros) and when I came to illustrate my mechanical rhino, I used his incredible drawing as reference.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have never tried to rewrite or adapt a classic book, but characters from classic stories and nursery rhymes have certainly made many a guest appearance in my picture book work. Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Bears, the Big Bad Wolf, the Three Little Pigs and others, have all had walk-on parts. Their presence has leant these stories a certain familiarity and made it seem as if all these nursery characters, whether mine or somebody else’s creation, inhabit their own, real world where new stories may be happening all the time; much as the cartoon characters inhabit Toon Town, in the film Roger Rabbit. I find that idea quite reassuring. One only has to enter that world to discover a completely new adventure.

It sometimes takes a long time for a book to worm its way into my heart. I have to re-read it and flick through its pages again and again, savouring sentences and studying illustrations, seeing how the ink sits on the page. Then it becomes like an old and trusted friend.

One of my favourite classic books is Treasure Island, but I didn’t fully appreciate its brilliance until the right edition came along and everything clicked. I first became familiar with Treasure Island through the film starring Robert Newton who, with his greasy beard and rheumy eye, created the archetypal screen pirate. ‘Arrr, Jim lad!’

When I did eventually turn to the book, I was a bit disappointed. I have the same problem with music – it takes me years, sometimes, to appreciate what many people seem to get straight away! Anyway, the book didn’t quite work for me, until I found an edition that I fell in love with.

This was illustrated by one of my heroes, Mervyn Peake, where everything seemed to be right – the design and layout, the quality of the paper and, of course, Peake’s wonderful illustrations. Here was a pirate that enhanced the character on the page, and surpassed the screen version, which now began to look rather cartoony. Peake’s Long John Silver is so real you can almost smell the salt and sweat on his clothes. Read the rest of this entry »

I really can’t think of any bad luck I’ve had lately, which is a good thing, although it makes continuing a rolling blog based on funny ‘bad luck’ or unfortunate misunderstandings rather tricky. I recently had a spot of good luck, though; a most fortuitous find that has helped shape the look of my latest book, but might have set me an impossible task for the future!

With the last of Charlie Small’s adventures just published, I was starting to think about the exciting escapades of his younger cousin, Alfie. The books are to be the adventure journals of a very young explorer, and I really want to include photographs of some of Alfie’s finds.  Maps will be no problem, and a handful of fur from a Stone Age boy’s clothing might be had, courtesy of a moth-eaten coat handed down from my wife’s great grandmother (or even next door’s long-haired cat if I can coax it over the fence!) But some things are not supplied so easily.

I had written the outline of the first of Alfie’s stories, which stars a hook-nosed, cutlass-wielding pirate called Bonedust. Here’s a sketch of the dastardly buccaneer:

Read the rest of this entry »