suite francaise

I have just finished reading Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky, published more than 60 years after her death in a Nazi concentration camp. The book itself is perceptive, sad and, at times, very funny (the author character, Gabriel Corte is hideous and hilarious!) but Appendix II is heartbreaking - letters from Irène before her arrest and then from her husband - wondering what has happened to her, trying to get her out and, in desperation, to swap places with her. Many are written, unknown to him, after she was already dead, only a few weeks after her arrest. Her husband was himself arrested a few months later and sent straight to the gas chamber, while her two small daughters managed to evade capture by hiding in various cellars aided by familyfriends. Horrible. I can't imagine what it must have been like to live through those times.

Juno

The Juno illustrations for March. One took a couple of days, one a couple of hours - and I

think the quick one is definitely my favourite! Spontaneous is sometimes better, I guess...

Hamish homework

Jack got his nursery school bear home for the weekend - a huge responsibility! He took it very seriously on the first night, with lots of kisses and cuddles and long, whispered conversations to the bear. He even introduced Hamish the bear to his teddies, Sid & Brian.

We took the bear for a walk on Saturday but then forgot about him completely - he spent the night in the buggy in the porch (oops!). There was a lot of making up to do on Sunday...

Part of the responsibility was to write a letter 'from' Hamish to the other children, which the teacher reads out in the story corner on Monday morning when the bear is returned to school (aarghh, and I had the Science Festival deadline looming!!!). The illustrations are from the letter we did - easier to draw doodles of the events than try to make a quiet weekend sound exciting!

Also, I'm not quite sure if this has developed into a full blown imaginary friend, but Jack seems to be 'talking' to an invisible someone called 'Carrot'!

magnifiscience

Echo the Bat (above) for the Fife Science Festival. There are eight panels telling the Scottish story of the evolution of ultrasound.

I hate January

It's the longest, coldest, most miserable month. Really. I'm always sorely tempted to leave my Christmas lights up until I see the first green buds of spring to cheer up the greyness of January. Most days it's been hard to tell when the day ends and night begins; I feel like I haven't seen sunshine for weeks.... So, I'm hibernating... and drawing... and waiting for spring. Roll on.

the graveyard book

Ooh, how exciting, a new book by two of my favourite collaborators - Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. It occurred to me today, when speaking to Jackson, how unsurprising it is that authors are inspired by their children. Apparently the germ of the idea for The Graveyard Book appeared when Neil Gaiman used to take his 18 month old son over the road to the graveyard to ride his tricycle. (He lived in a flat with lots of stairs and no garden). It lay dormant for a long time before emerging. While speaking to Jack today he told me "polar bears would like to live in trees".... it got me thinking....

lantern walk

The 'lantern walk' illustration for the winter issue of Juno.

I'll be attending the 2008 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books on Tuesday 18 November (not as a nominee unfortunately!!)