A TINY SEED OF AN IDEA THAT GREW INTO A BIG BOOK

My Big Book of Outdoors is a big book, it’s 128 pages, all fully illustrated, that’s the equivalent of four standard picture books! It was a huge undertaking and my first own non-fiction title, so I was definitely diving in at the deep end. But its starting point was small. A few scraps of paper, on which I scribbled some thoughts about curiosity and how curiosity is what drives us to want to find out more about the world we live in. A tiny seed of an idea that over the next three years grew and grew.

I asked myself lots of questions; some I knew the answers to and some even at my age approaching sixty I still didn’t know. What do worms do all day? What does the inside of an ants’ nest look like? What’s the difference between a frog and a toad? Why do leaves turn orange in autumn? How does an acorn grow into an oak tree? Why do some birds fly in a V formation, and where are they flying to? Why are some clouds grey and some clouds white? How can we tell the weather by looking at the clouds?

The structure of the book, split equally across four seasons, came much later, a logical approach suggested by Denise and Louise at Walker Books. Dividing the questions and information I’d gathered across the four seasons and giving each season equal importance it became clear where the gaps were, what important topics had been missed. As I filled in the gaps and moved from pencil roughs into colour artwork each season started to come to life in its own way.

“It’s not a colour palette chosen by me the artist, but a colour palette created by nature itself.”

When you flick through the pages of the finished book the colour palette for each season really pops out at you. It’s not a colour palette chosen by me the artist, as would normally be the case, but a colour palette created by nature itself.

Do I have a favourite season? I think this has changed over the years. I think when I was little, springtime was my favourite. The newness of everything and the bright bold colours were very appealing. In my teens and early twenties it was the heat of summertime when the days are long. Nowadays autumn is my favourite time of year: misty mornings, the wind sweeping summer away, the trees a blaze with colour and a general sense that the natural world is preparing for winter.

My Big Book of Outdoors (Walker Books UK, Candlewick Studio US) is available to pre-order now from your favourite bookshop or online at all the usual places.