Little Home Bird

All my books are conceived from real life events and memories with a sprinkling of exaggeration and imagination, combined with my love of nature. The original idea for Little Home Bird is based around my experiences as a child of having quite a few different homes, my Dad was in the Royal Air Force and so moved around a lot and lived both in the U.K and overseas and when I was very young my parents separated. I wanted to express that home is where your heart is and it is the loved ones in your life that create ‘home’ wherever you are, and not material things. This book went through many cycles and about six drafts before I was happy with the final story. The final version is quite different to the first draft, mainly because I was trying to cram too much into one story, so I set it aside for a while and really thought about what was the message I really wanted this book to convey and then things started to flow much more clearly and I simplified the story right down to the core of the message.

I always start by doing lots of sketches from both life / nature and also watching wildlife videos.

My favorite time reading Little Home Bird aloud was during The Children’s Bookshow, which is a wonderful organisation which hires theatre spaces so hundreds of school children can see an author perform a reading from their book. I have a super talented friend called Liza Stevens who is a fabulous puppet maker. She made me the most incredible Little Bird puppet which flies across the stage carrying his nest of favourite things and with the help of children from the audience dressed up as the dog, the shepherd and the porcupine, we all act out the story of Little Home Bird. It brings the story alive and having the children taking part makes it very special to me.