I had no intention of writing a children’s book really.
I spent most of my school holidays with my grandparents and loved every minute of it. Listening to their stories, being taught unwittingly the core values that see us through life, gaining knowledge on all sorts of topics, absorbing their wisdom that helped shape my young life and having fun; lots of fun.
As my granddaughter starts to read, I thought it would be nice to write some short bedtime stories, spend time with her through the pen as it were and give her own children’s book to read. We could do anything we liked together in a story; just 10 pages or so, on little adventures for all my grandchildren.
I started writing and couldn’t stop; before I knew it I had written 30 pages, created loads of characters that just appeared on the page in front of me and wanted to write more. I had so much I wanted them to see, hear, experience through different characters. I wanted to share adventures and be as happy as I was when I was a child. I found it very therapeutic and needed to build this into a better story and hence ‘The Adventures of Poppy and Lord Ted’ was born.
The first book, The First Summer, introduces characters and has a foundation of those core values I learned as a child – love, responsibility, honesty, and respect through family, fun and children’s adventure. Not that they couldn’t get these anywhere else of course but the only place they could speak to animals, make friends with fairies and royalty would be through imagination.
As my granddaughter gets older and her reading improves, the book needed to change from my initial 10 page idea to a story book that helps her imagine a world that is good, where people are respectful and demonstrate what’s right and wrong. As my
grandsons get older I need to create story books for them too.
And so, to the first story of Poppy and Lord Ted adventure set in the summertime. I’ve had so much fun writing a story about an extraordinary girl called Poppy who just happens to have the same name as my granddaughter. She visits her grandparents every week in the village of Diddlesdale in Derbyshire. After listening to stories involving her grandpa and his teddy bear, Lord Ted, she discovers that Lord Ted can talk, and they embark on a series of adventures. After the shocking news that the crown jewels have been stolen, Poppy and Lord Ted with the help of the very brave fairies, find themselves involved in solving the robbery of the century.
The story continues in a further book as Poppy and Lord Ted have to risk their own safety to save the future of the monarchy.
It’s funny how things turn out.
T.M Jorden