Over the years, and with a growing family, poems and short stories have always been part of my life. However, story telling took on a whole new dimension with the arrival of my three granddaughters.
Firstly, they had to be made up stories and not just one of the classics that I had been brought up on. The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Andersen, no longer cut the ice.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, there had to be continuity. Each bed time story was an adventure and had to follow on from the previous episode. Names. places and locations had to be correct and ‘Dampa’ would be very quickly put in his place if he got it wrong.
While the little ones seemed to have an unlimited capacity to absorb and remember each detail , it ultimately required me to start making copious notes in order to keep up.
Over time, these notes formed the basis for my first extended four thousand word rhyming fairy tale called The Blue Fairy and the adventures of the three Princesses, which was illustrated and then hand bound, ready to give to my granddaughters for Christmas. It was met with appropriate excitement and I thought my work was done.
This was not the case. Boxing day was met with the simple statement:
“For your next story can we have more words”
This launched the four of us, now called the writing team, into extensive research for a suitable story theme, which just so happened to occur as my eldest granddaughter started Key Stage 2 history at school, and fell in love with ancient Egypt. Obviously this required a collective visit to the Egyptian rooms at the British Museum, where the gruesome mummified remains, decorated sarcophagi and enormous sculptures begged a thousand questions. What was it like in those days? What did they do? How did they dress? What did they look like? Back home that night the obligatory bed time story focused on ancient Egypt and a young girl’s adventures through time, which over the following months developed into novel called The Blue Crown.
