The Arvon Centre – New Writing Course, gives students the opportunity to learn from published writers, and on our course Clare Pollard and Nikesh Shukla were teaching us. We not only had morning seminars, but also the opportunity to talk individually with these authors.

The course advertises who will be the tutors, and as every good student should, I bought Clare’s book of poetry Look! Clare! Look! (2005), and Nikesh’s book Coconut Unlimited (2010).

The general advice they give to any budding author is to begin a blog. Which in itself appears fairly straight forward, but in the typical procrastinating manner of a ‘shy to share’ writer my journey here has been a long one!

In addition I had shared with them my desire to write a children’s book. 

As an Early Years Teacher I’ve gained huge pleasure and enjoyment from reading many picture books. My favourite authors include Judith Kerr, Martin Waddle and many, many more.

In my career, at the end of the day, surrounded by a group of three and four year olds I have found myself making up stories, either of what has happened during the day, or a cautionary tale, especially at the beginning of a holiday. 

This is where ‘Humphrey Molegart’ began. Initially it was a group of hedgehogs attempting to cross ‘the black river dragon’ (a road) to get to the other side. As you can see from my drawings ‘Humphrey’ emerged. As a huge fan of film, and especially old black and white films, Humphrey Bogart was one of the greats, and one of my all time favourites.

Clare and Nikesh were both generous and supportive in their role as tutors, they both signed their books for me. In his comment, Nikesh mentions that he is looking forward to reading my first children’s book. Daunting yet doable!