Sprinkling a little magic on girl’s polar adventure
MY head is full of ideas, or as my friends at Glossop Rugby Club might say, full of magic, but hey I know what I mean and the following will hopefully give readers a glimpse into to the state of creative flux that can be found under my greying, actually, very white locks.
These are book ideas, which came up in my creaky lift over the past year or so and they will be illustrated by my daughter, Niamh and illustrator, Chellie Carroll, from Glossop.
Firstly, Chellie, while mentoring all the regulars at my Laughing Badger Gallery workshops last year, came up with this beautiful sketch of a polar bear hugging a native Sami girl above the Arctic Circle in Lapland. I know, it was out of her head and straight onto paper, – how does she do that?
As soon as I saw the finished article I said, ‘That’s a kids book right there, let’s call it, ‘There’s nothing quite like a bear hug’.’
I went on to explain that in my book idea, the little girl travels all around the world to try the hugs of many different animals, just to see if that assertion is true and that it should be written in rhyme.
So off I went on my travels, obviously in my head, and here is where we are up to. pronounced ‘sealeacanth’ was thought extinct for millions of years, until discovered on a fish market slab in East Africa by one Margaret Latimer in 1936, just had to be in the book.
As for the living fossil’s cuddle-value...nah, it’s not happening.
Regular readers may recall my mention of the Ailwee Cave in County Clare and how the maze of underground passages, were discovered in the 40’s by farmer Jacko McGann when his dog chased after a hare.
Now a wonderful show cave, with very rare long eared bats in residence and the amazing skeletal remains of a brown bear from 2,000 years ago; it’s bones still curled up where it died during hibernation.
This book telling the story is one for all ages and illustrated by Niamh and there will be a CD and an Itunes link to the song.
It was in the year of 44 when Jacko lost his dog.
It was herding time when up shot a hare and the dog forgot his job....and so on.
Other ideas for children include a long time friend of mine, Colin Cuckoo,and from my dark comes... ‘Santa Was A Viking’, brilliantly captured by Niamh.
Not sure parents would be too keen with the storyline though, and yes I should definitely leave the drawings to the experts.