Families Education
Book Club
As winter rolls around again my favourite place to be is cuddled up on the sofa with a good book and a roaring fire. The colder weather offers us the perfect excuse to cosy up with a hot chocolate and it’s the ideal time to encourage a love of reading with our children. Books make great Christmas gifts and sharing in those adventures is a great way to enjoy some peaceful family time. This month Rachel Bailey chats to picture book legend Nick Butterworth whose brand new book A Flying Visit, is the latest in the famed Percy the Park Keeper series and Families have two hardback copies to give away!
Who first inspired your love of books? Do you have any treasured memories of reading stories growing up?
My mum used to read bedtime stories every night without fail. I add that because she was a very busy mum, as the corner shop I grew up in was open 6am to 7pm six and a half days a week. There was always time for a story, and my gran, who lived nearby often visited and if ever I seemed at a loose end during the day, she’d say (in her northern accent), “Come on chuck, find me a book. Let’s have a story.” Even though I grew up surrounded by stories, I was slow learning to read. My mum never gave up and read to me longer than most parents would expect to read with their children. So we read longer books together, like Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick and Kipling’s Just So Stories. I can still hear my mum’s voice in my head as she described, “The great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees…” relishing every word!
Although you are best known for your Percy the Park Keeper stories, you have created many other lovable characters such as Q Pootle 5 and Albert le Blanc. Do you have a favourite?
It depends what mood I’m in – and to some extent, how long it might be since I revisited one of my own books. If I haven’t read THUD! In a school for some time, I might flick through and come across Ralph the rather timid lion or Humphrey the crocodile with toothache, and these will be at least a temporary favourite. But then, in The Whisperer, I have a soft spot for Old Ginger Tom (I even gave him a guest appearance in the second Albert Le Blanc book Albert Le Blanc to the Rescue). I even like the rat character, The Whisperer himself. That’s probably a bit like actors liking to play villains!
Is it true that Percy has his own picnic spot in a real-life park?
Yes, perfectly true. Raphael Park in Romford, where I used to live, had become quite neglected and run down. It was even in danger of being sold off for development as a leisure centre. Luckily a group of enterprising residents formed The Friends of Raphael Park and waged a strong campaign to keep and renovate the park. When they discovered that it was in this park that I’d first had the idea for Percy the Park Keeper, it provided them with an extra reason to keep the place as a park – suddenly, it had Literary Heritage! The park has now been beautifully spruced-up, the lake is clean, and there are more facilities, lots more planting, and a café. And Percy’s Picnic Spot, complete with carved wooden sculptures of Percy and his animal friends.
My children loved watching One Snowy Night at our local theatre. How did it feel to have your work adapted for theatre as well as animation?
It is immensely gratifying to think that enough people have responded to one of my ideas to make it viable to jump from page to stage or screen. To sit in a theatre with a large family audience all happily responding to a story that came to me one day walking in a frosty park with only our dog for company, is wonderful. Shirley Hughes once told me she had been approached by people wanting to animate one of her stories. “You’ve had your work animated, Nick,” she said. “What’s it like? Is it beastly?!” I told her no, but adaptations have to be accommodated for a different treatment. It’s important to choose the right partners.
Do you have any family Christmas traditions?
We do have very strong traditions at Christmas time, mainly carried on from my mum’s side of the family. Like a lot of families, on Christmas Eve, we hang up stockings and leave a glass of sherry and a mince pie for Father Christmas and a carrot for Rudolph near the hearth. Then we’ll have a time of carol singing by firelight, candlelight and the lights of the Christmas tree, always finishing with at least two renditions of ‘Tis Christmas Eve’, a song that goes back to my grandparents’ time, the words of which are written at the front of my book Jingle Bells.
Families have two copies to give away!
For your chance to win, all you have to do is answer the question below and email your answer to admin@familiescambridgeshire.co.uk
Which series is ‘A Flying Visit’ part of? A. Q Pootle 5 B. Percy the Park Keeper C. Percy the Pilot Closing date for entries is 13 December 2021
A Flying Visit is available from November 11 in hardback priced £12.99. www.percytheparkkeeper.co.uk Facebook: @officialnickbutterworth
10 Families Oxfordshire familiesonline.co.uk
