A fiddle fairytale, a handbag full of blackberries, and a happy heart dance

Story Street #14

One of the very satisfying things about being an illustrator is getting a lovely shiny bundle of proofs to check – though I think fellow illustrators would agree that this is precisely when you tend to spot approximately 1,000,000 tiny things you wish you had done differently.

My new picture book, ‘Mabel and the Big Wide World’, is coming out in June 2024 with Otter Barry Books. It’s written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by me, all in collage. The story is about a little mouse who’s frightened of going outside.

I had a ball making tiny berets, neckerchiefs and handbags stuffed with blackberries for the mice, as well as miniature landscapes featuring castles, cottages and lighthouses for the background scenery. All the secret ingredients illustrators are allowed to add – the power!

Here’s a little glimpse of the proofs – I particularly enjoyed making these mice sleeping inside a glove, and Mabel saying ‘hello’ to a snail…

Come and buy some collage

‘Mabel and the Big Wide World’ is the fourth book I’ve illustrated using collage. I’ll be selling some of the actual original artwork from previous books at the Putney School of Art Christmas Fair this Sunday, 3rd December. I’ll also have comics, prints, and books for sale. There will be plenty of lovely things to buy from other makers too, from screenprints to ceramics, all at very reasonable prices.

You’ll find all the info below – the school is very close to East Putney tube station (District Line) and Putney mainline station. I’m going to donate 20% of my takings to Save the Children’s Gaza appeal. Hope to see you in Putney!

Happy Heart Dance

Recently some delightful bundles have been arriving on my doormat – it’s the Zines from my online comics students, for our termly swap. Once the Zines have all arrived, I bundle them into complete sets with every student’s work, and post them back out around the world. This term there were two themes, since there’s a morning and an evening class now – here are my Zines responding to the prompts we chose together:

There were so many brilliant and completely varied responses from everyone, including tales about an Alaskan wilderness, a German funfair and a potholing postbox.

This class is honestly one of the highlights of my week – all the students are so inspiring, and it’s wonderful to feel connected through Zoom to people all over the world, from Japan to the USA.

Here’s a comic made by one of my students at the start of term – and I can tell you it made my heart dance too when I read it. Thankyou for letting me share this, Kana!

If you’d like to join us next term, enrolment is now open – we start on Wednesday January 10^th, for 10 weeks with a half term break on Feb 14^th. You can choose between 11-1 or 7-9pn UK time, and the price is still a complete bargain at £164. You can find all the details here:

Here’s what the students say:

“I get questions all the time about this comics course I keep raving about, and I highly recommend it if you're looking for some creative fun! – Martina, Switzerland

“It's been truly life-giving to be with you and everyone and creating together weekly. Thankyou” - Kana, Japan

I’ve been wondering about introducing a beginner-level online comics class – if you think you might be interested in something like that, do let me know and I’ll see what I can do…

A sad fiddle story - with a fairytale ending

When I was growing up, there was a fascinating but never-used object in our house – I used to gaze at it from time to time with great curiosity.

The object in question was my Scottish great-grandfather’s fiddle. As far as I know, no-one had played in since 1918, when his oldest son (my grandfather’s older brother), who was a Private in the 7^th Gordon Highlanders, was killed in action near Arras in the first World War.

The family story is that my great-grandfather was too heartbroken to play the fiddle ever again. Here he is as a young man - probably about the time the fiddle was made:

Almost 100 years after my great-grandfather stopped playing, I was inspired by all the musicians and sessions at a folk festival on the Isle of Colonsay to try and learn to play myself. I took the family fiddle, which had no strings at the time, to a rather fancy violin shop in West London, where I was told it was a worthless ‘Shed Job’, and that I should throw it in the bin and get a ‘proper one’ if I wanted to learn.

The man then swung it around like a cricket bat and when I mentioned the word ‘folk’ and ‘fiddle’, he said “Ah!” and offered to set it up after he’d been to the pub. I made the full sad story into a comic, which you can read in full here:

That fancy, snooty shop also took off my original tail-piece with a mother-of-pearl inlay heart, and replaced it with a modern plastic one with fine-tuners fitted. After a while I tried to swap it back, but with wonky results.

Learning to play has been hard work. Making a beautiful sound takes years and years and years.

With the words “Shed Job” ringing in my ears, I eventually started to wonder if an upgrade would help – so I bought a brand-new Chinese-made violin and started playing that instead. My great-grandfather’s fiddle rested in its box once more.

BUT…

There’s been a fairytale happy ending to this story!

At Blazin’ in Beauly in October, I met Helen and Tim Wright, from Tim Wright Fine Violins in Edinburgh. And when I told Helen the ‘Shed Job’ story, she said their passion was Scottish fiddles, and they would love to have a look at it. When I got home, I emailed some photos, including the hand-written copperplate inscription on the inside, which reads: ‘George Gallow, 12^th October 1885’.

Helen replied in great excitement – she knew about George Gallow, an Aberdeenshire maker, and said his work is rare and special! (my great-grandfather was born and grew up near Turriff, Aberdeenshire). It is definitely NOT a Shed Job.

A week later I hopped on a train to Edinburgh and had a delightful afternoon in the shop. Helen and Tim handled the fiddle with such reverence and respect – and even put an endoscope through the f-hole so we could see inside properly.

They were so informative about every aspect of fiddle-making, it was a fascinating afternoon. Here’s me with Helen and the fiddle…

And here it is (on the left) meeting some of its long-lost Aberdonian relations!

The icing on the cake was when Tim (a professional violinist) played it, making it sound wonderful. And the piece he played was Niel Gow’s ‘Lament on the Death of his Second Wife’ – a tune both beautiful and pertinent: my great-grandfather worked as a gardener in Perthshire, and he is buried in the same Birnam churchyard as Scottish fiddle legend Niel Gow. It brought tears to my eyes!

I’ve left the fiddle up in Edinburgh for some expert restoration, and I can’t wait to be reunited. It’s good to have an excuse to return to this lovely shop.

I know which approach to running a business I prefer! Note to self: don’t ever let yourself be bullied like that again. Thank goodness I didn’t put my precious fiddle in the bin as suggested…

Measure twice, cut once

I’m gradually edging closer to starting work on the violin I am making at Merton College – but the policy of making us students develop a meticulous approach on lower-stakes tools has proved to be a wise one. (If you’re new to this newsletter, you can find out more about this project here)

This is my ‘neck setting gauge’ – can you spot the terrible mistake (and I’m not just talking about the spelling)? I fully absorbed the ‘measure twice, cut once’ philosophy -except that the thing I measured twice was the wrong thing. A tiny wedge of wood has saved the day, but I’m glad I learned this lesson now, not later! Now it’s all finished and polished, I’m rather proud of it anyway…

1.5 giraffes and a hearty dose of highwaymen

Now for a couple of children’s book recommendations: two brand-new releases. ‘Giraffe and a Half’ by Nicola Kent is deceptively simple and works brilliantly on many levels. Giraffe has six legs and three ears, and is terribly self-conscious about being different. He hides himself away, until a bird with three wings and three legs shows him how to live joyfully and not worry about what others think. The author’s note at the back explains how Nicola herself has damaged airways resulting from a childhood operation, leaving her with very little voice – and it’s this experience that gives this beautiful new book such deep emotional resonance.

‘The Legend of Ghastly Jack Crowheart’ is Loretta Schauer’s first mid-grade fiction book, and it’s an absolutely hilarious romp set in the Squawking Mackerel coaching inn, where the signature dish is cauliflower and pigeon-liver relish. Loretta’s inky black and white drawings are sprinkled throughout, and the book also features one of my favourite things – a map in the endpapers. Perfect for 8-12 year-olds.

Picture a Story

You can see some of the artwork from Loretta’s book, as well as some artwork by me from the book ‘A Little Bit of Hush’, including these sleeping squirrels…

…at the ‘Picture a Story’ exhibition at the Half Moon Theatre in Limehouse until December 22^nd – there’s more info about visiting here. Do pop in if you are in the area.

There’s an associated event on Thursday December 7^th – ‘Celebrate and Investigate’’. It’s a panel discussion on picture book publishing with Q&A featuring author/illustrators Ken Wilson Max, Steve Antony and Bridget Marzo together with agents Lucy Craig and Becky Wilson - and it promises to be a fun and informative night.

This would be absolutely perfect for anyone reading this who is keen to break into the industry – I’ll be going along, come and say hello if you’ll be there too!

Malorie Blackman exhibition

There’s a brand new exhibition at the British Library, all about the work of Malorie Blackman, and also about other Black British children’s authors and illustrators, from the 1960s onwards. I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening, where I got a special preview of ‘Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories’. It’s a free exhibition and well worth a visit – if you are a teacher, why not take a class along? I would add a link but the BL have been hacked and the website is still down! But it is most definitely OPEN.

Give a book

I hope you’ll be giving books this festive season to all your friends and family – but if you have a little cash to spare, do think about supporting Booktrust’s Christmas appeal, which sends book parcels to food banks and to children in care.There’s a link to donate below.

“It’s so much more than a book parcel. It’s joy. It’s wonder. It’s discovering worlds unknown. It’s making sure children feel special this Christmas. It’s magic, when it’s needed most.”

If you like art (and you probably do)…

One final thought for you – did you know about Art UK, an organisation dedicated to democratising access to art? Their website has high resolution images of every single piece of public art in the UK, all free to look at and enjoy, as well as lots of excellent learning resources. Not enough people know about this national treasure! There’s also a brilliant online shop where you can support museums and galleries by buying lovely things.

Enjoy the festive season, and I’ll be back with more snippets from my world in the new year. Last weekend I was busy lino-printing my Christmas cards – I’ll show you the finished item in my next newsletter, but I’ve been told I have accidentally made a ‘Friends’/Matthew Perry tribute card, even though I’ve only ever watched it about twice! If you know, you know, as they say…

Don’t forget, if you need any picture book presents for any young people in your life, I have lots of suggestions here (and you can buy my books through this link too):

If you have enjoyed reading, do share this newsletter with friends who might enjoy reading my rambles about picture books and fiddles.

And if you are not already subscribed, all you need to do is click this button!