August 2022 - Saying Goodbye To Some Of The Greats

There has been some sadness within the last few weeks, quite a few well-known people have passed away, notably three people who had a huge impact on some aspect of my childhood.

Firstly, Bernard Cribbins was the voice of my childhood. I would always find such joy from listening to him on TV and on audio cassette, bringing some wonderful story to life. No one can forget Jackanory and The Wombles, but one of my other favourites was Moschops. He was someone who could just magically appear anywhere from Super Gran to Last of the Summer Wine, and it made me so happy as I have grown well into my adult years, seeing him in Doctor Who and Old Jack’s Boat. I don’t have any of my audio cassettes left – they were not built to last – but the one that I do remember, which was narrated by Bernard Cribbins was Bertie’s Escapade, (written by Kenneth Grahame and illustrated by Sandy Nightingale), in the first christmas editon of The Storyteller magazine from Marshall Cavendish. Everybody loves a christmas theme, and it was probably one of the magazines/cassettes that I read/listened to the most. To me, Bernard Cribbins’ voice meant great character, great humour, and comfort, and I am going to miss that very much.

We also, very sadly, lost Olivia Newton-John. What young girl has not spent at least a small part of her childhood singing and dancing to Grease? I’m not sure how old I was, maybe 10, I would watch it every Saturday, recorded on to VHS from the TV, rewinding and watching my favourite songs over and over again. I sang “Hopelessly Devoted To You” a lot, sadly, nowhere near as well as Olivia – she had such a beautiful voice. I didn’t really know much about Olivia outside of Grease, (there is a whole music career I’ve yet to discover, although I do quite like the version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” performed with John Tavolta, which switched the lyrics around), other than we shared a birthday, and she always seemed as wonderful and warm as her character Sandy. It doesn’t matter how many other people come along and play Sandy in the future, it will always be Olivia’s role.

Finally, just a few days ago, we lost Raymond Briggs. This one hit me pretty hard. I do have a confession to make though, I didn’t own a copy of The Snowman until I was in my thirties. Shocking, I know! And, what is more, I didn’t like the animation when I was a kid, but it was nothing to do with the story (which is pure brilliance), or the illustrations, or the animation, it was the damn song (no offence, Aled) – I did rather enjoy Father Christmas though. My real love and appreciation for Raymond Briggs, didn’t actually start until approximately 1992, when I was around 11 or 12, and I came across a copy of The Man (published by Julia MacRae Books), while I was spending some book vouchers, up on the first floor of WHSmith, in Coventry.

It has remained one of my favourite books ever since, and I pick it up to read or flip through, often, (Briggs and the Marshall Cavendish Storytellers, along with maybe a handful of other books are the reason I would love to create my own picture books, I feel like I always carry the magic of them inside me).

What I love about Briggs’ work is that his characters always feel so real and fleshed out, and his illustrations can express so much emotion either with or without words. His storytelling is exquisite. I love that as a reader, even when young, I never felt patronised him. His stories felt honest, and he wasn’t afraid of using humour and sadness within the same space, and that to me, felt like life, things aren’t always happy and colourful all of the time, but within sad moments, there can be some light, a smile and little moments to cherish.

In The Man, a peculiar, tiny, adult man appears in a boy’s room one night, naked and demanding to be dressed. He is rude and not the most likeable house guest, but he is also alone, and so tiny that he can’t do things for himself, and he needs help. I appreciated how Briggs examined friendship, building it up and tearing it down, incorporating themes of gratitude, responsibility, vulnerability, generosity, selfishness, companionship, anger and loss, and there was also so much humour. It is a story that makes you feel a thousand feelings, so you come out the other side a little beaten and weathered but grateful. Briggs put everything into his stories, absolutely everything, love, loss, and wisdom… whole lives, and he will be a huge loss.

Life is short, sing songs, draw pictures, and tell and share stories.

August 2020 - Gish 2020, Books and T.V.

We are almost in September and I’m feeling really confused. The year seems to be whizzing by and I can’t seem to keep up, in my head it feels like we should still be in May or June, anyone else feel like that? Admittedly, I have kept myself pretty busy in August. I’ve continued to work towards my picture book pitch, although I am really missing the weekly zoom meetings I had while on the course, it was a great way to stay focused and motivated, and while my motivation has remained high, that little voice of self-doubt has returned, so I end up spending some of my time wrestling that back into its box. At the minute I’m winning, I’m largely doing this by sticking my fingers in my ears and just continuing to ‘do’ (which is quite an accomplishment considering my fingers are in my ears).

The first week of August, for the third year running was the annual Gish scavenger hunt. It took a few days for me to get into it this year, I think my head was still thinking about my picture book, and it was quite hard to just drop that for a week and concentrate on other random tasks, but I did, and by the Tuesday I was in full Gish mode. I only managed six items this year, which was slightly disappointing, but I did spend a ridiculous amount of time on a wedding dress made from plastic bags. Other items of note included a stop-motion animation showing you planting a “seed” that grows into something unexpected, a poster of the Queen and actor Misha Collins as a famous duo from a scene in a classic film (I chose E.T.), and a cryptid created from salt (I chose a kraken).

I was really pleased with how the dress turned out, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed creating an illustration in salt. I’ve created images in spices and in pencil shavings for Gish before and they both went okay, but there is actually something really satisfying about pushing salt around, its much easier than working with powdery spices, and as I was working on black paper, I really enjoyed the contrast of black and white.

I tried to be more sensible with my book buying this month (although I say that most months and it still seems to get out of hand), so my question is, is seven still too many? I fear it might be, considering how long it has taken me to finish Girl, Woman, Other. When I was younger I always had the problem that I would race through a book and finish it far too quickly if I was really enjoying it, and then I’d be disappointed that it was over. Now I have the opposite problem, if I’m really enjoying a book, I savour it and try to make it last for as long as possible. It is a bit like Charlie Bucket when he gently unwraps his Wonka bar, although he never necessarily knew where his next chocolate bar was coming from, and I have unread books coming out of my ears!

So the books I’ve actually finished reading this month are:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo.
Brilliant, so many different stories about women, so many different lives, such great observation of people, and I won’t spoil it, but I thought the ending was wonderful.

This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews
I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog, I’ve had it for such a long time, but it fell victim to the “oh this is so beautiful I need to save it” daft method of thinking. I finally read it and it was as wonderful and as adventurous (and beautiful - obviously) as I hoped it would be.

The Fox, The Wolf, and The Woodsman by Joe Latham
I’ve had this for a while too. It is a great book split into three chapters exploring the perils faced by creatures living in a wood. The illustrations are just wonderful and I love how Joe tells the stories silently, through images alone. I have an idea in my head that I would like to write a wordless picture book, so I have found looking at these images and seeing ‘how’ and ‘what’ they communicate really fascinating.


The book I’m currently reading:

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
I haven’t got very far yet, but I am enjoying what I have read.

The books I’ve bought his month are:

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
I really enjoyed Station Eleven so I thought I would give this a go too.

Smoke by Dan Vyleta and Soot by Dan Vyleta
I have no idea if I’ll like these books, so took a bit of a punt by buying both of them, but I liked the cover designs, and I really like the concept of bad thoughts being made visible by smoke coming from the body.

Llama Glamarama by Simon James Green and Garry Parsons
A dancing llama learning to embrace his individuality? What is not to love???

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
I love Matt Haig, I follow him on Twitter and he always seems to have some wise words to share. I’ve also read most of his children’s series starting with The Boy called Christmas, which I love, but I’ve never read any of his adult books. I don’t know why, I’ve always been interested in them but I’ve never ended up buying one, until now - you put the word Library in a title and you push me to make that purchase. I actually ordered my copy from Rossiter Books as it was signed, and if you are interested, when I posted this blog (August 2020) there still seemed to be some available - here. (This was actually one of my instagram impulse purchases, after Rossiter Books posted about it on their feed).

Walking Distance and The Way to Treasure Island by Lizzy Stewart
Speaking of Instagram impulse purchases, Lizzy Stewart mentioned she only had a few copies of Walking Distance left in her shop, and I’ve been meaning to buy it for ages, (and I would much rather give my money to Lizzy than Amazon), and then I accidentally tripped and popped a copy of The Way to Treasure Island in my basket too. I’ve loved Lizzy’s work for years, I used to follow her illustrated blog/diary “Solo”. I have three zines from Solo that I probably bought back around 2012 (ish), I loved Lizzy’s combination of image and a few well chosen words that could communicate so much humour and warmth, and they were just such beautifully observed snippets of life.


What have I been watching this month:

Umbrella Academy Season 2: It feels like we had to wait such a long time for season 2, but when it was finally here, we binged it and really enjoyed it. I feel like the characters had the opportunity to develop this season. Klaus has always been a favourite (Robert Sheehan has been a favourite since Misfits), but I felt like Luther was given the chance to be really funny, and I loved being able to see more of Ben. I also enjoyed the addition of Lila, and I’m really excited to see the direction it seems to be heading in. (I haven’t read any of the comic book series and now I’m watching it, I won’t read any until it finishes, as I don’t like to mix up my TV adaptations and my reading, it’ll just lead to some kind of spoiler or disappointment, I keep them separate).

Tales From the Loop: Firstly I love that this is inspired by an art book by Simon Stålenhag. His art is so captivating, his worlds so believable and intriguing, that they made a television series from it, that is just amazing! Secondly, I love the slow, quiet pace of the episodes, how there are whole chunks without dialogue, and the story, the mood, the feelings and opinions you have for a character can be created through visuals alone. I also like how each episode is like a short story for a different character, like we are having a secret little snoop into people’s lives. I can see a lot of people not giving it a chance because it isn’t as loud and brash as programmes we are used to watching, which is a shame because I have found it to be beautiful and nuanced and really inspiring.

What is coming up? I can see September being busy. We will hopefully be seeing some of my family for the first time in months. It’ll be my birthday, although we aren’t planning anything too exciting, this year has taught me not to make too many plans or get my hopes up. I hope to work a bit more on my picture book and potentially start on another story or two. September also usually sees me start planning for Inktober. Anyone who can take part in Inktober, for every day of October without any planning has my respect, if I don’t have a plan I end up spending far too much time on each illustration each day and I fall behind. I’m also tempted to try a few prompts by Furry Little Peach this year too, we will see how I get on, I have a habit of giving myself too much to do! I also want to get back to my Little Mouse Illustrations, he has taken a back seat recently, but I have a whole load of roughs that I need to complete, I’ll let you know how I get on!



All thoughts are my own, I’m not affiliated with anyone mentioned, all purchases were made with my own money and links take you to the sites I either personally made purchases from or that at the time of posting offered the cheapest price. You may prefer purchasing books from independent retailers.

All images are my own ©Dawn Bevins-Johnson 2020

June - July 2020 – Intro to Children's Publishing Course and Buying all the Books!

So much for a monthly blog post! Here is a round-up of the last two months!

Lockdown may have eased a lot in the UK now but I’m still sticking pretty close to home, I find myself thinking that I’ll put something off for one or two weeks more just to see how things go. Maybe I’m being too cautious but I don’t feel trapped or like I’m missing out on anything yet, even though I’ve been staying in a lot. I think this is mostly down to taking part in an eight-week course during June and July, called “Intro to Children’s Publishing” hosted by editor Katy Flint. The course involved a weekly Zoom meeting and homework to continue with during the rest of the week. It was limited to ten participants, which made it feel friendly and intimate, rather than intimidating, and I felt that it was a really useful, informative and encouraging course, which helped to build my confidence.

I made many notes and sketches during the eight weeks!

The course is for both authors and illustrators and its main aim is to give you the knowledge and tools that you will need to approach agents or publishers with your children’s book pitch. In the first three weeks we looked at how a publishing house works, we were given guidance on what a pitch might look like, we looked at how words and pictures work together, and how we could spot trends and gaps in the market.

Playing with some character expressions.

The following fours weeks saw everybody start to develop their own ideas for books (fiction or non-fiction) so they could start working towards their pitch. In week five, six and seven the group then split in two, the authors in one group and the illustrators in the other, so we could discuss the progress of our book ideas in a smaller, more manageable group.

In the final week we discussed how pitching works and who you might pitch to, as well as what to do when facing rejection.

Throughout the course Katy gave a number of talks, but there were also three guest lectures with Q and As. The first was from an art director, the second was from an author and editor, and the final Q and A was with a campaigns manager. It was fantastic to hear from a range of people working in the publishing world, learning what their job role entails and being able to pick their brains.

This course included an abundance of useful information, but I think the reason why it felt so special was down to Katy herself. You can tell how passionate she is about children’s publishing, and how hard she works so she can share her knowledge and experience with those who are new to the industry. She is friendly, approachable and encouraging, allowing everyone space to grow and gain confidence, and has even offered individuals some of her time following on from the course for a month. I’ve never come across such personal dedication from someone running an online course before, she goes above and beyond, making this course a priceless opportunity for anyone interested in creating their own children’s book and pitching it to a publisher.

If you are interested you can find more information on Katy’s website here. I participated in the very first outing of this course, so it is likely to alter and develop slightly over time, but I have definitely found it to be great value for money.

Getting back into narrative drawing during the course has also motivated me to get a bit experimental with my images, so I’ve bought some Sennelier Soft Pastels. I haven’t used any kind of pastels since college because I’ve always hated the mess they make, but for some reason I’m now being drawn to them, so I’m hoping to overcome my creative nemesis!

One problem I’ve had with taking part in a course about children’s publishing has been the need to buy more books! Of course, when I say “need”, it was in no way mandatory to buy any books for the course, but I used it as a good excuse to go wild! A couple of the books in the image were mentioned during the course, but most were already on my wish list, I just decided that my wish list was a great opportunity for learning! :)

Moving on to other books, I’m finally reading “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo, (it really is taking me a while to work through my TBR pile), and I am absolutely loving it, there are so many different strong female characters and stories to explore. I admit it took me a couple of pages to get used to the lack of capital letters and full stops, and the odd line breaks, but I found I soon fell into a steady reading rhythm where none of those things seemed important anymore.

I’ve also added two more books to the TBR pile, the first is “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge. After the death of George Floyd and the wave of energy through the Black Lives Matter movement, it seemed irresponsible and callous to not sit up and listen or try to do more. I have been taking in so much information, and learning so much from people generously sharing their knowledge on instagram, but I need to do more, I need to learn and understand more and unlearn even more, as I now realise how flawed the society I have grown up in, is.

The second book I bought was The Diet Myth by Professor Tim Spector. Tim is the leader of a microbiome project which has used genetic sequencing in twins to study gut bacteria, (fun fact, my mum and aunt - twins - took part in some of Tim’s twin studies years ago, and still sometimes fill out questionnaires, apparently, according to my mother, Professor Tim was quite the dish!), and as someone that definitely has a peculiar gut I’m interested in what he has to say. This book is a few years old now (published 2016), but Tim has a new book “Spoon-Fed” being published at the end of August so I thought I’d try and get this one in first before reading the next one.

My final book purchase was a birthday present to myself, A special edition of “Pens Ink and Places” by Quentin Blake. I’ve seen this edition online before but it is pretty expensive, but The Tate Shop were selling it in their summer sale with £45 off, so I took it as a sign from the universe that I should get it, and I’m so glad I did, it is beautiful.

My parcel from Mini Gallery Box finally arrived in June, I pre-ordered it months ago, but the lockdown in France (where it was being sent from) meant that even their post offices were shut down, so nothing could go out at all. This was my second Mini Gallery Box purchase, the first featured artist Leigh Ellexson. Each box features some prints, a mini magazine about the artist and a few other items such as pins, notebooks and pencils cases. The artist featured in this box was the Ellie Vs Bear, and it was well worth the wait as it is adorable! I just love those blues, pinks and purples.

Finally we move on to my Instagram impulse purchases! Firstly we have the sensible rather than impulsive purchase of face masks. I bought a couple of plain linen masks from Helen Round for when I feel like blending in, and then two gloriously patterned numbers from Esther Blessed on Etsy. The impulse purchase was the wonderful Esther Blessed wraparound skirt, just look at those colours and the pattern. Now, I don’t wear skirts, I gave up wearing them years ago when they were either too long, or would work their way up my chest as I walked and I had to keep pulling them down. However, a wraparound skirt seems to be the answer, it stays where I put it and will keep me that bit cooler this summer.

My next impulse purchase is this beautiful shades of Indigo rainbow by Natasha Newton. I’ve loved her paintings for years, and I’ve always wanted an original. I would, one day, still like to purchase a canvas of hers, but boy do you have to be quick if you want to buy any of her work from her online shop. I felt very lucky to be able to purchase one of her three rainbows this time around.

Only two more impulse purchases to go! I’m a big believer in supporting picture book illustrators and authors, so as soon as Dapo Adeola mentioned on instagram that his personal online shop was open again for a limited time, I jumped at the opportunity to buy this bundle, a signed copy of Look Up!, a print of Rocket and a pin of Rocket – they are awesome!

And, my final impulse purchase, which was actually prompted by a stock alert email (rather than Instagram), is my new mustard Glosters mug. Glosters mugs have also been flying off their website as soon as they put new stock up, and recently I’ve either not had the money to spare at the right moment, or I’ve been too slow, so I’m so pleased to have nabbed this beauty!

Finally I’ll leave you of a few images from my early morning walk the other day. We went to Black Down for the first time since lockdown, and it was glorious! It was also my first time in the car in ages… which weirdly didn’t feel like it had been that long! I am actually really bad at getting up early, it knocks me sideways for the following four days, but nothing beats early morning air!

All thoughts are my own, I’m not affiliated with anyone mentioned, all purchases were made with my own money and links take you to the sites I personally made purchases from. You may prefer purchasing books from independent retailers.

All images are my own ©Dawn Bevins-Johnson 2020