Nosy Crow's Blog, page 14

Read an exclusive extract from Wren by Lucy Hope

This October we’re absolutely thrilled to be publishing Wren  – a dark, gothic adventure set on the island of Anglesey in North Wales from Lucy Hope, author of Fledgling.

And today we’re very pleased to be sharing the first few chapters of the book – you can read an extract below!

Wren lives in an ancient castle in the mountains near the sea. The wind whistles through it and the walls sing to her. Wren is busy inventing things, and her father is busy disapproving.

But the castle contains a mystery and as Wren is drawn further into it, she realises the answer lies in the very foundations of her home, foundations that are being shaken to their core…

Take a look inside:

Wren will be published on October 6th – you can order a copy from Waterstones here, Bookshop.org here, or from Amazon here. Do let us know on socials what you thought of the first few chapters when you’ve finished reading!

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with all of our latest book news, including exclusive previews, giveaways, award news and more, you can sign up for our newsletter here.

The post Read an exclusive extract from Wren by Lucy Hope appeared first on Nosy Crow.

Read an exclusive extract from The Big Book of Mysteries by Tom Adams & Yas Imamura

This October we’re absolutely thrilled to be publishing The Big Book of Mysteries  – a captivating new gift title featuring over 100 real-life mysteries that might just give you goosebumps, from Tom Adams & Yas Imamura. With atmospheric artwork, compelling case studies and a seriously stand-out neon cover, this is a haunting collection of mysteries that you won’t be able to put down!

And today we’re very pleased to be sharing the an exclusive extract from the book – you can read the preview below!

Does the Loch Ness monster really exist? What ever happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste? And where exactly are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

Get ready to be amazed as you uncover the world’s greatest mysteries, from Bigfoot to the Bermuda Triangle. Including alien abductions, haunted houses, mind-blowing natural phenomena and much more, this book will explain the extraordinary – unless the extraordinary can’t be explained, of course. Then you’ll just have to make up your own mind . . .

Take a look inside:

 

The Big Book of Mysteries will be published on October 6th – you can order a copy from Waterstones here, Bookshop.org here, or from Amazon here.

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with all of our latest book news, including exclusive previews, giveaways, award news and more, you can sign up for our newsletter here.

The post Read an exclusive extract from The Big Book of Mysteries by Tom Adams & Yas Imamura appeared first on Nosy Crow.

Dive into The Wide, Wide Sea

In The Wide, Wide Sea, published in collaboration with the National Trust (their very first non-fiction picture book for children), a young child befriends a seal on a trip to the beach and learns about the importance of caring for the ocean.

 

The National Trust spoke to author Anna Wilson and illustrator Jenny Løvlie about creating the book, their relationship with the sea and the future of the coastline. Anna also gives her top tips for families wanting to tackle the problem of plastic pollution together.

—

Anna, we heard you’re a keen wild swimmer and swim at your local beach. Is this what inspired you to write the story?

Anna: Between May and September, a friendly seal always pops up in the bay where I swim and has a good long look at me. Once I was swimming and I heard a loud snort behind me – the seal was almost touching my feet with his nose, as if he wanted to chase me back across the bay.

I felt as though he was reminding me that the sea is his home and that I’m lucky to be allowed to swim in it too. This made me think about how we share our oceans with so many creatures and how we have a responsibility to keep the seas clean.

Anna was inspired to write The Wide, Wide Sea after swimming alongside a friendly seal in her local bayJenny, what were your first impressions of the story? Did it spark ideas straightaway?

Jenny: The first time I read the story I had to have a little weep. It’s so beautiful and tender – and a subject close to my heart. I grew up on Ekkerøy by the Barents Sea in Northern Norway and, out of all the creatures in the ocean, I loved seals most of all.

The ideas flowed pretty freely. I love drawing animals and landscapes – and working out the colour palette for each book. The human character development was actually the most challenging task for this one.

Artist Jenny Løvlie used this photo of herself with a seal at her childhood beach as inspirationSpeaking of the characters, the story is written from the child’s perspective – and we never learn the child’s name. Anna, can you tell us more about this?

Anna: I wrote it from the child’s perspective as I wanted young readers to see the beach and the seal and the effects of the storm from their point of view – to think about how they’d feel if their favourite places were destroyed by litter.

I didn’t want to give them a name as I wanted any child to be able to read the story and see themselves in it. This is also why I’ve not settled on the gender of the child – and nor has Jenny Løvlie in her incredibly beautiful illustrations.

Jenny Løvlie’s early drawings of the main character in gender-neutral outfitsJenny, what was your creative process of bringing the story and characters to life? Are they based on real-life people and places?

Jenny: I do a lot of research before I start drawing. I like to cast a wide net and let the research shape the visuals. If possible, I really like meeting the author and the team – it’s lovely to get to know each other and talk the story through. I work in a sketchbook to start with and then draw the final artwork in Photoshop using my trusty drawing tablet.

The landscape is a mix of the landscape on Ekkerøy, where I grew up, and the Cornish coast where Anna lives. The underwater scenes are largely from my imagination. The grandmother character is based on my old neighbour, Jack. She taught me a lot about nature and animals when I was a child.

Early sketches of The Wide, Wide Sea by artist Jenny LøvlieSo, you’ve both lived near the coast. What’s your relationship with the sea? Do you think the coast has changed over the years and do you worry about its future?

Jenny: The worry for the ocean has always been present in my life. My father was a fisherman until the seas went black in the 1980s due to overfishing by commercial trawlers and he had to find other ways to make a living. A lot of debris from trawlers would wash up on the beach where I lived.

We had a big beach clean every year to make sure it was safe for humans and animals to use. I’m hopeful that we will be able to make the changes that are necessary to turn the tide on plastic pollution.

Anna: The coastline where I live has also changed a lot in the past 25 years. The land is slipping into the sea, and the sea itself is rising. This is going to have an impact on humans and non-humans alike. Some people are going to have to move out of their houses as the land falls away beneath them, and many birds and other animals are going to lose their homes as well.

The thing that makes me most worried – angry, actually – is plastic pollution. Animals eat litter that is left behind and it makes them sick. We humans end up eating it too, as it finds its way into the food chain. It is all rather depressing once you start to think about it.

The Wide, Wide Sea explores how people can come together to protect natureFinally, what do you love most about the book?

Jenny: It’s so difficult to choose! I love the whole book, but if I had to choose just one thing, it would be the big double page with all the different birds. I had a fantastic time drawing them all.

Anna: I love Jenny Løvlie’s depiction of the beach, the birds and the ocean creatures – and the seal, of course! It was wonderful seeing her early sketches. It was as though she’d read my mind and saw exactly how I’d hoped the book would turn out. I particularly love the illustration of the sea birds, and where the child seems to turn into a seal in their imagination.

Anna Wilson’s top tips on tackling plastic pollutionReduce your consumption of single-use plastics. Try to avoid buying things that come in the kind of packaging you’d throw away. Take a reusable water bottle out and about with you instead of buying bottled water, or use a resuable container to pack your picnic.Reuse old packaging. If you have bought something in plastic or tin foil, see if you can wash the packaging and use it again and again. Tin foil pie dishes can be used for baking, and plastic trays can become seed trays if you are a keen gardener.Recycle as much as possible. This means separating out packaging and recycling it in special bins. You can also take old clothes and toys to the charity shop so that someone else can enjoy them, instead of simply throwing them away.Go on a ‘clean-up’ adventure. Take a bag with you on a family walk and collect any litter to recycle when you get home. Or get involved in a community beach clean, like the people in The Wide, Wide Sea.

—

This post first appeared on the National Trust books blog

The post Dive into The Wide, Wide Sea appeared first on Nosy Crow.

We’re spreading our wings! Nosy Crow Inc to launch in North America

We are really delighted to be launching Nosy Crow Inc in 2023. We feel it’s time to spread our wings and engage directly with the amazing and very different market that is North America. It’s a wonderful natural extension of our strongly international perspective on children’s publishing. 

The new business will be led by John Mendelson, formerly SVP of Sales at Candlewick Press, and will publish the full range of formats that have been key to Nosy Crow’s international success: innovative board books; warm and witty picture books; beautifully designed and engaging non-fiction; and compelling chapter books and fiction. It will be sold and distributed by Hachette Book Group, effective immediately. We will also bring to North America our award-winning Stories Aloud audio programme, which has been such a success in the UK and export markets: all board and picture books will feature free, downloadable audio recordings so children and families can listen to the books wherever and whenever they want.

We are hugely grateful to the US publishers, particularly Candlewick, who have been such supporters of the Nosy Crow full-colour lists in the first decade of our existence. In fact, John Mendelson is someone we got to know very well through Candlewick, as he previously led the sales team there. 

We will be focusing on the Americanisation and publication of titles from our full-colour lists in the next year or so, but looking ahead, we are keen to explore the publication of our fiction titles in the USA by Nosy Crow Inc too. 

It’s important to say that existing series and picture books that feature the same characters will continue to be published by those US publishers who have already launched them. This particularly applies to Candlewick, who publish a number of our pre-school series and character-based picture books brilliantly, but also to fiction series where titles from the start of the series have already been sold to other publishers in the USA.  

We look forward to bringing our great books, our reputation for sustainability, and our commitment to diversity and inclusivity to this vibrant market with a new company under the leadership of John Mendelson, whose customer focus combined with an intelligent engagement with books, authors and illustrators is unparalleled.

 

The post We’re spreading our wings! Nosy Crow Inc to launch in North America appeared first on Nosy Crow.

Press Release: Nosy Crow takes flight in North America!

Nosy Crow, the UK’s fastest growing children’s publisher with a string of awards to its name, is launching a United States company, Nosy Crow Inc, in May 2023. The new business will be led by John Mendelson, formerly SVP of Sales at Candlewick Press, and will publish the full range of formats that have been key to Nosy Crow’s international success: innovative board books; warm and witty picture books; beautifully designed and engaging non-fiction; and compelling chapter books and fiction. It will be sold and distributed by Hachette Book Group, effective immediately. Nosy Crow will also bring to North America its award-winning Stories Aloud audio programme, which has been such a success in the UK and export markets: all board and picture books will feature free, downloadable audio recordings so children and families can listen to the books wherever and whenever they want.

The launch of Nosy Crow is already being warmly received by the key figures in the bookselling world.  James Daunt, CEO of Waterstones and CEO of Barnes & Noble says:

“Over the years, Nosy Crow has been a phenomenal partner to Waterstones in the UK. We look forward to more of their magic here in the States and wish them the very best of luck.”

John Mendelson, President of Nosy Crow Inc (pictured) comments:

“I am delighted to lead Nosy Crow Inc, building a varied, commercially powerful, creatively distinct and fully Americanised list. Our first year of publishing will showcase 30 amazing books from illustrators and authors that will reach a wide audience across North America. Over the next few years, we’ll add chapter books and fiction and we’ll increasingly originate books in North America too, featuring art and words from a diverse group of creators.”  

Todd McGarity, Hachette’s VP of Corporate Business Development and Strategy says:

“We’re thrilled to welcome award-winning children’s publisher Nosy Crow to our Hachette Client Services family of clients. For the last ten years, they’ve really made their mark in the UK, and I’m excited to see how we can help them build upon their impressive track record of success here in North America.”

Kate Wilson, Group CEO of Nosy Crow, will oversee both the UK and US companies. She comments: “We are so excited about this new venture! It’s such a natural extension of our creation of books that are published around the world. We are hugely grateful to the US publishers, particularly our long-time partner, Candlewick Press, who have been such amazing supporters of Nosy Crow’s full-colour books in the first decade of our existence.

But we feel it’s now time to spread our wings and engage directly with the amazing and very different market that is North America. We look forward to bringing our great books, our reputation for sustainability, and our commitment to diversity and inclusivity to this vibrant market with a new company under the leadership of John Mendelson, whose customer focus combined with an intelligent engagement with books, authors and illustrators is unparalleled.”

Everything Possible by Fred Small and Alison Brown is Nosy Crow UK and Nosy Crow Inc’s first joint acquisition and will be published simultaneously (and in Spanish in North America) for Pride Month 2023.

The post Press Release: Nosy Crow takes flight in North America! appeared first on Nosy Crow.

Nosy Crow takes flight in North America!

Nosy Crow, the UK’s fastest growing children’s publisher with a string of awards to its name, is launching a United States company, Nosy Crow Inc, in May 2023. The new business will be led by John Mendelson, formerly SVP of Sales at Candlewick Press, and will publish the full range of formats that have been key to Nosy Crow’s international success: innovative board books; warm and witty picture books; beautifully designed and engaging non-fiction; and compelling chapter books and fiction. It will be sold and distributed by Hachette Book Group, effective immediately. Nosy Crow will also bring to North America its award-winning Stories Aloud audio programme, which has been such a success in the UK and export markets: all board and picture books will feature free, downloadable audio recordings so children and families can listen to the books wherever and whenever they want.

The launch of Nosy Crow is already being warmly received by the key figures in the bookselling world.  James Daunt, CEO of Waterstones and CEO of Barnes & Noble says:

“Over the years, Nosy Crow has been a phenomenal partner to Waterstones in the UK. We look forward to more of their magic here in the States and wish them the very best of luck.”

John Mendelson, President of Nosy Crow Inc (pictured) comments:

“I am delighted to lead Nosy Crow Inc, building a varied, commercially powerful, creatively distinct and fully Americanised list. Our first year of publishing will showcase 30 amazing books from illustrators and authors that will reach a wide audience across North America. Over the next few years, we’ll add chapter books and fiction and we’ll increasingly originate books in North America too, featuring art and words from a diverse group of creators.”  

Todd McGarity, Hachette’s VP of Corporate Business Development and Strategy says:

“We’re thrilled to welcome award-winning children’s publisher Nosy Crow to our Hachette Client Services family of clients. For the last ten years, they’ve really made their mark in the UK, and I’m excited to see how we can help them build upon their impressive track record of success here in North America.”

Kate Wilson, Group CEO of Nosy Crow, will oversee both the UK and US companies. She comments: “We are so excited about this new venture! It’s such a natural extension of our creation of books that are published around the world. We are hugely grateful to the US publishers, particularly our long-time partner, Candlewick Press, who have been such amazing supporters of Nosy Crow’s full-colour books in the first decade of our existence.

But we feel it’s now time to spread our wings and engage directly with the amazing and very different market that is North America. We look forward to bringing our great books, our reputation for sustainability, and our commitment to diversity and inclusivity to this vibrant market with a new company under the leadership of John Mendelson, whose customer focus combined with an intelligent engagement with books, authors and illustrators is unparalleled.”

Everything Possible by Fred Small and Alison Brown is Nosy Crow UK and Nosy Crow Inc’s first joint acquisition and will be published simultaneously (and in Spanish in North America) for Pride Month 2023.

The post Nosy Crow takes flight in North America! appeared first on Nosy Crow.

A Nosy Crow Tribute to the Queen by Kate Wilson

I was born 12 years after Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, so, like so many of us, my whole life, until yesterday, has been lived during her reign. As the daughter of a deeply committed civil servant, who took his duties as an employee of the Crown (as every civil servant is) very seriously, I grew up understanding the important role of the monarch as head of state. My maternal grandparents, like so many, rented a newfangled television set and invited their neighbours around to watch the coronation. It’s hard to reach for anything other than the words that so many people are using: this feels like an ending of more than an remarkable and dutiful life: it feels like the end of an era. I am moved by the response of so many to the Queen’s death, and that response is such a powerful reminder of the way that she stood for so many different things to so many different people.

Last summer, we began thinking about what the Platinum Jubilee, and the Queen’s remarkable 70 year reign could mean to the children, families, educators and librarians we publish for, a process of reflection that led to the publication of Great Elizabethans: HM Queen Elizabeth II and 25 Amazing Britons from her Reign. We felt that that one defining aspect of Queen Elizabeth’s reignwas the extraordinary changes that she had witnessed and embraced. We thought about the move from Empire to Commonwealth; about profound and enriching changes in the population make-up of the UK; about deep changes in social mores impacting on, among others, women and the LGBTQIA+ community; and about changes in the visibility and accessibility of The Royal Family. The Queen, and her reign, linked so many changes and so many people together.

Today, I was reminded by Catherine Stokes, our Sales and Marketing Director, of the Queen’s resonant words on the death of her own mother:

“I hope that sadness will blend with a wider sense of thanksgiving, not just for her life but for the times in which she lived — a century for this country and the Commonwealth not without its trials and sorrows, but also one of extraordinary progress, full of examples of courage and service as well as fun and laughter. This is what my mother would have understood, because it was the warmth and affection of people everywhere which inspired her resolve, dedication and enthusiasm for life.”

The post A Nosy Crow Tribute to the Queen by Kate Wilson appeared first on Nosy Crow.

From Strawberry to Clementine: The Inspiration for Always, Clementine

This month we’re absolutely delighted to have published Always, Clementine – a funny, wise and heartwarming story, with a truly one-of-a-kind hero. And today we’re very excited to be sharing a guest post from Carlie!

—

Growing up, there was a rabbit living in my kitchen. Her name was Strawberry. She had sleek white fur, pinkish eyes (hence the pinkish name), and one black ear – with a small, perfectly circular hole in it.

My family adopted her under unusual circumstances. Let me explain.

When I was in elementary school – many years ago, in suburban North Carolina – my teacher brought in a rather afraid rabbit in a black, wire cage. Like Clementine, the main character in my new novel, the rabbit was recently liberated from a local science lab – and she didn’t quite belong in the classroom. We already had a hamster as a class pet. Someone needed to adopt the rabbit. And fast. The school was a little anxious about having a research bunny on the premises: who knows what chemicals she had been exposed to?

Now, my mother is an animal lover – and at that time, also had a profound inability to say no to well-meaning elementary school teachers. The rabbit came home with us. That first night, I named her Strawberry, and the next day, we took her to the vet to have the research tag removed from her ear.

“You don’t need to do that,” the vet said, glancing between me, my mother, and Strawberry. “The tag can stay in. It’s not hurting her anymore.”

But my mom was insistent. The tag was more than symbolic. This rabbit was going to feel free.

The bill would come to just over a hundred dollars with tax, which was a whole lot of money for my family in those days. I distinctly remember how the vet brought out the bolt cutters from the back; nothing else could cut the tag. I remember the quick chomp through the metal, and the way Strawberry easily twitched her ears after the tag was gone; the white plastic square with her number on it – her former number – went promptly into the bin.

I could hold Strawberry in my lap. She liked to cuddle. She’d press her nose into my palm. That trust was precious to me – and looking back, it was a real leap of faith for a rabbit like her.

Two weeks after we adopted Strawberry, my family went on a short holiday to Myrtle Beach – and asked our next-door neighbour to feed her for the weekend. Could he let her out in the kitchen so that she could stretch her legs? Sure, he said. He wasn’t worried about it. Perhaps he should’ve been. Strawberry tried her very bunny best to attack him, shrieking and biting and lunging. She meant business. Our neighbour very gently fended her off by shielding his feet with a frying pan.

Strawberry was okay with my dad, but as we discovered, had a tremendous fear of most men. Of people who were like the researchers who tested her.

I didn’t fully understand this as a kid. I knew that something sad had happened to Strawberry in the time before us. I knew that my parents were trying to give her the best life possible for however long she had left – but any more details than that were a mystery to me. My dad built her a wooden hutch in the backyard, under the shade of my favourite tree. She loved the crunchy kind of lettuce. She loved rolling around in her hay.

As an adult, I’ve been able to put together the pieces of what she endured – and when it came time to write my third middle grade book, I knew I wanted to focus on lab animals. To help give Strawberry, and other animals like her, a voice.

That’s where Clementine comes in. She’s an optimistic little mouse for an optimistic little book. Even though Always, Clementine focuses on the plight of lab animals, I wanted to highlight the absolute joy of freedom – what lab animals’ future could look like, what they deserve. The story may have sad parts, but it is by no means a “sad book.”

One of the things I love about children’s books is their boundless capacity to see the good in the world, even amongst the bad. I hope that’s what this book does, too. I hope you can glimpse how much love I’ve poured into it – for Strawberry, and for all the animals who might choose different lives than the ones they’ve been given.

—

Thank you, Carlie! You can order a copy of Always, Clementine  from Waterstones here, Bookshop.org here, or from Amazon here.

Read the first few chapters below:

The post From Strawberry to Clementine: The Inspiration for Always, Clementine appeared first on Nosy Crow.

The British Book Design & Production Awards are back, with Four Nosy Crow books shortlisted for a prize!

The shortlist for the 2022 British Book Design & Production Awards (BBD&PA) have been announced and we are absolutely thrilled to see that four Nosy Crow books have been recognised this year!

Huge congratulations to the incredible authors, illustrators, editors, designers, and production staff involved in creating these books! It’s unusual to have the mechanics of the creation of a book honoured in this way, and it is lovely to have the work of Nosy Crows Leila, Sophie, Anna, Nia, Zoe, Holly, Tina, Rachel, Victoria and Tegen recognised.

What is the BBD&PA?

Established in 1901, The British Book Design and Production Awards are hosted by the British Printing Industries Federation and are the premier recognition event for British book design and production.

The winners of each category will be announced at the award ceremony on Monday 7th November. You can find out more about the awards, and view the full shortlist, here.

The following books have been shortlisted this year:

Children’s Trade 0 to 8 Years

Recognised in the Children’s Trade 0-8 Years category is Christmas Street, illustrated by Ingela P Arrhenius, creator of the bestselling Felt Flaps and Peekaboo series, with a clever rhyming text from Jonathan Emmett.

With two big sturdy flaps on every spread, this is a charming Christmas alphabet book that little ones will return to again and again.

Get Your Copy of Christmas Street

Tiptoe Tiger, a delightful interactive story written by Jane Clarke with artwork by award winner Britta Teckentrup has also been shortlisted in this category. With its vibrant neon artwork, this is the perfect bedtime story for any lively child who needs a bit of help settling down at bedtime.

Get your copy of Tiptoe Tiger

Educational Books

A History of the World in 25 Cities has been shortlisted in the Educational Books category.

Co-authored by award-winning children’s authors by Andrew Donkin, and Tracey Turner with vibrant and beautifully detailed artwork from Libby VanderPloeg, this ambitious book tells the story of human civilisation throughout history and is published in collaboration with specialist curators at the British Museum

A gorgeous, large-format gift where readers can visit cities from every inhabited continent on Earth, from the walled city of Jericho built over 10,000 years ago, to the modern-day metropolis of Tokyo, the most-densely populated city in the world today.

Get your copy of A History of the World in 25 Cities.

Also acknowledged in the Educational Books category is The Tree Book, By Hannah Alice. With overlapping see-through diagrams of a tree throughout the year, together with the minibeasts and animals that live in it, the book builds up to provide brilliantly layered first look at nature for curious children everywhere.

From leaves changing colour to underground root networks, The Tree Book is an exciting way to explore all the amazing things trees can do.

Get your copy of The Tree Book.

The post The British Book Design & Production Awards are back, with Four Nosy Crow books shortlisted for a prize! appeared first on Nosy Crow.

Once Upon a Time – a guest post from Mouse Heart author Fleur Hitchcock

This month we’re absolutely delighted to have published Mouse Heart – an atmospheric thriller, full of daring stunts and sinister villains. And today we’re very excited to be sharing a guest post from Fleur!

—

I wasn’t a theatre child. I certainly wasn’t desperate to act. It came by accident when I was 18.

I’d gone through clearing to do an English degree and it was only when I arrived that I discovered I had to take three subjects in the first year. I didn’t have the qualifications for the sciences, or it turns out, anything else. After an awful day of trekking from one department to the next and being turned away, the tutors at History of Art and Drama both shrugged and said I could join their courses.

History of Art was fine, I’d been dragged round galleries from an early age, but Drama? That meant acting, didn’t it? After trust games, farty yoga and howling like wolves (all fine) I found that we were doing a module called “History of Theatre”.  Instead of a lecture theatre, we were taught in her eccentric house by an elderly white witch.  She saw it as her mission to entrance us with recitations of early English plays, dressed in appropriate garb, dancing over sticks where the proscenium arch ought to be.  It was bizarre and wonderful and I became fascinated by the idea of all these lost theatres.

Then there were the performances themselves. Somehow, I found a backstage role from day one, but I watched enthralled as my fellow students stepped into the lights and were, for a moment transformed. All the tawdry clipped together costumes, the clunky makeup, the cardboard shoes became real and wonderful and I fell in love with that magic.

Scroll on a couple of decades, and waiting for a ferry, I met a dutchman who worked on the building of the Globe theatre, and who told me that he had placed coins under the huge pillars on the front of the stage, and that sometimes he was the last to leave and would sit on the stage and imagine a long ago audience.

Another decade and my niece and her family were living near the Globe and I passed regularly, eyeing the flags on the roof and wondering about the other theatre, the Swan, that was there in Southwark and was destroyed by fire. Somewhere under one of those huge modern office buildings are the remains, and they began to scratch at me as if there was a story of a theatre by a river, but I didn’t know what it was.

As the first lockdown eased, I looked for a place for my theatre. Not London, it was too well documented, and this wasn’t going to be real history.  Also, I needed a place I could visit. We couldn’t travel far, but we could just about make Bristol without needing a wee, which was a serious consideration. My daughter, 18 at the time, was desperate to leave the house so we drove to take a walk around the deserted city.  We wandered the harbour side, the Backs, Bristol Bridge. Up to St Mary’s Redcliffe and down to St Nicholas Market. It was eerily quiet.  It felt as if we might at any moment turn the corner to see the tall ships, still there, bobbing on the oily water.

At home again, I read about the harbour. Every sort of ship, all wooden, but all transporting different things. Sugar, cotton, timber, wool, wines, and people. It must have been a toxic mix of everything unruled and unruly. Even Blackbeard had started here.  I pored over maps of the city. I read about the awful gaol at Newgate, the gibbet on St Michael’s Hill, and my incoherent notes began to take shape, as did my protagonist.

Her name came first, Mouse, and she appeared in my mind dancing with a sword in the sunlight on the stage. She was small and strong. Her beloved family was a patchwork of theatrical figures, actors with better pasts than futures, jealous children she had grown up alongside.  She had skills and would be taught by people who lived by deception and enchantment. But in spite of that, she would always want to know the truth, even if it led her to terrifying places. And then she would be afraid, but brave.  The thing I wanted for her most though, was that she was real. A modern protagonist, in an almost historical setting, because I thought that was the best way to make a modern child connect with her.

In the end, I wanted the reader to care about Mouse as much as I do.

And so Mouse, the Moth Theatre, and the Company of the Moth Theatre came alive.

—

Thank you, Fleur! You can order a copy of Mouse Heart  from Waterstones here, Bookshop.org here, or Amazon here.

Read the first few chapters below:

 

The post Once Upon a Time – a guest post from Mouse Heart author Fleur Hitchcock appeared first on Nosy Crow.