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Barkbelly was my first book. It took me three years to write it! Many authors take years to write their first book. It's because there's no one waiting for it. No one pushing you to get it done. I was so busy with storytelling work, months went by without me writing anything! But eventually it was finished.
Barkbelly was published in the UK by Puffin. This was an amazing honour for me... When I was growing up, many of my favourite books had been Puffins. Some of the most famous authors are published by Puffin: Roald Dahl, Rick Riordan, Jeremy Strong, Cressida Cowell, Dick King Smith, Eoin Colfer, Cathy Cassidy, Lauren Child - and suddenly I was joining them. WOW! |
What inspired Barkbelly?
French edition of Barkbelly
It was inspired by a Czechoslovakian folk tale called The Wooden Baby, in which an old couple long for a baby. The old man carves one out of wood, and the old woman loves it so much, it comes to life. But it is ferociously hungry! It eats a whole pan of porridge, the tablecloth - and then it eats the old man and woman. It rampages through the village, eating everything it meets on the way: a flock of sheep, a cartload of pigs, a horse and wagon... Eventually it comes to a garden full of cabbages, and it begins feasting. But the garden is owned by a witch, who cuts the baby's belly open with her hoe, and all the things he has eaten leap out and run away down the lane.
I was very aware that The Wooden Baby had almost certainly inspired Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio too. As a traditional folk tale, it is far older than Pinocchio, which was written in 1883. I wanted to avoid comparisons as much as possible, so Barkbelly is born from an egg, not carved from wood. Pinocchio, of course, is a puppet, whereas Barkbelly is very much a living, breathing boy from the start, and he remains wooden throughout. He has no desire to become human.
I was very aware that The Wooden Baby had almost certainly inspired Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio too. As a traditional folk tale, it is far older than Pinocchio, which was written in 1883. I wanted to avoid comparisons as much as possible, so Barkbelly is born from an egg, not carved from wood. Pinocchio, of course, is a puppet, whereas Barkbelly is very much a living, breathing boy from the start, and he remains wooden throughout. He has no desire to become human.
Why did I write Barkbelly?
Cover of American edition
The story began as a website project. I never dreamed it would become a book - or that I would become an author! Someone saw me performing at a festival as a storyteller, and asked me if I would like to write a story for a website she was planning. It was to be a site of downloadable stories for parents to read to their children at bedtime. She asked me if I could write something magical for age 8+, written in short episodes so children could have a new bit every night.
I wrote only one episode, because the website didn't really happen. But what I wrote was the birth of Barkbelly. It was different to how it happens in the book. It was set in a forest, in deep snow, and an old man was out looking for dry firewood. He saw a nest in a tree, pulled it down, and out fell a wooden egg. He put it on the fire and a baby emerged.
I put the story aside for about a year, and then suddenly the world was going mad for Harry Potter and JK Rowling. Everyone was talking about children's books, new authors were being snapped up by publishers, and friends were saying to me: 'Surely you could write one?!' I had no idea if I could or not, but I decided to give it a go...
What is Barkbelly about?
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It's the story of a wooden boy who is adopted by kindly human parents. But his happy life is shattered by a terrible accident, and he is forced out in the wider world to survive alone. This is when his adventures begin! He falls in with pirates, joins a travelling circus, works at an extraordinary jam factory and finally reaches his homeland, where there is the chance of finding his family. But there are more surprises in store... Barkbelly is a magical book, full of twists and turns, with amazing characters and strange machinery. It's dark and scary in places, but also very funny. |
Stardust Palace (US edition)
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