Frances McKay Illustration

Literary Festival at St Mary's Lower School in Colchester

On July 8^th St Mary’s School had their book festival, several local authors were there to talk to the children and in the afternoon four illustrators from FMI went to educate and entertain the girls; Bee Willey, Tom Morgan Jones, Elys Dolan and Nicola Pontin, all volunteered to come to Colchester.

Click on images to enlarge

Bee had copies of her new book Dreamer, soon to be published by Otter Barrie Books. It is a wonderful, lyrical story written by Brian Moses, with a boy dreaming of a world free of pollution and trouble.

In the Art Room, Bee read Dreamer to a group of girls and then helped them create a frieze using the themes from the book. Considering the short amount of time available, it was a terrific result. Colourful and exotic animals spread across the wall, they all had a great time.

Tom, Elys and Nicola were all in a large marquee, busy with different age groups. They read from their recent books and then got the children to join in with different activities.

Tom’s group all drew portraits of Shakespeare, based on the book, The Boy at The Globe, that he has recently illustrated for Barrington Stoke.

Elys read them her best selling Steven Seagull Action Hero, and then had an observation quiz for the girls based on the book.

Nicola, read her book about the Baker Troll and then had all the children designing their own Troll characters.

A local photographer took some great shots, which appeared in all the local papers.

It was a really fun afternoon and the local Colchester bookshop, had a pop up shop, selling copies of all the new books to the children and parents at the end of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darkmouth

Author Shane Hegarty tells FMI about his hugely exciting debut from HarperCollins, illustrated by our own James de la Rue.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a book. Darkmouth is the story of a boy who must follow 50 generations of Legend Hunters in a town plagued by monsters. HarperCollins offered to publish it. I picked myself up off the floor and accepted their generous offer.

"We'd like to illustrate it," they said.

"Well, ok," I replied. "I mean, I'm not very good at drawing, but I could give it a go..."

"Not you," they said. "A proper illustrator."

"Oh, thank goodness for that," I said, putting down the hurriedly purchased ink pot and quill.

Off the book went, and I thought little of it. There would, presumably, be a cover image. Maybe a detail or two to kick off some of the chapters. Sure, hadn't I described it all so perfectly that no pictures would be needed.

Then a selection of illustrations came back. James de la Rue was the artist. We had never met. Never even spoken. Yet, it was if he had rummaged around my head and seen exactly what I saw.

I was just a little freaked out.

But I was delighted. Utterly wowed by it. And I had learned one particular secret of just when the collaboration between illustrator and writer works best: where James had added details, he had put them in all the right places.

I knew then that the illustrations running through the text were going to bring the book onto a whole other level I had never envisioned. The characters and the action have been brilliantly shown, but James had also captured something very important in the story - which is that it is contemporary but should feel timeless.

Ultimately, it's incredibly satisfying as a writer, having imagined this world, tried to grab hold of it in my mind, lived with it for so long, to see it be brought to life in an extraordinary way. And, because Darkmouth is a series, it is great to know that the words are in very safe hands. Literally.

On a couple of early school visits, the reaction to the illustrations have been immediate and resounding. The young readers love them. They see the text and pictures working perfectly, as if one springs organically from the other. As the writer, it is wonderful to feel the same way too.

Although, in retrospect, it would have been fun to have had a go at the illustrations myself. Stick figures are very big these days, apparently.

 

Shane Hegarty

 

Darkmouth (HarperCollins) is published on January 29th.

 

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Small Change for Stuart

Last February I finished illustrating a book by author Lissa Evans called Small Change for Stuart. I drew on A4 drawing paper, a pad of which I bought from Trago Mills (a department shop in Falmouth) about 4 years ago. It was going slightly yellow, and I spilt Ribena on it a while back. I used a pen also bought from the same shop – I stockpiled, as they were going really cheap at the time.