Meet Tom Percival!

Author and illustrator Tom Percival is visiting us 
on Saturday 15th June! 

He will be reading his book Jack's Amazing Shadow  
at 11.30am & 2.00pm.

 

Not only is it a fantastic picture book, we also think it's a great story for little ones to share with their daddy on Father's Day (Sunday 16th June). This is a lovely chance to have your very own copy signed and dedicated by Tom. We'll also be drawing our own magic shadow pictures.

Tom has created a very special window display for us. As you can see it was a very sunny day - there were plenty of shadows and reflections too! Come and see for yourself in our Brewery Court windows.

We caught up with Tom Percival to find out more about him and his books.
Tom, we're looking forward to your Jack's Amazing Shadow event - how did you get the idea for the book?

The idea for Jack's AMAZING Shadow came from observing the relationship between my two young sons. They play together all the time, and usually have lots of fun - but when they have a falling out, they're still in the same house, or the same garden and can't really get away from each other. So I wanted to explore that idea in a picture book and thought that using someone's shadow as a metaphor for something they can't get away from was an interesting idea. Plus, by making the 'best-friend' character a magical shadow it opened up the door to lots of fun and visual gags.

 

Jack's Amazing Shadow has had great reviews - why do you think young readers/listeners love it so much?

I think that the book's gone down well because it's a simple story that EVERYONE can relate to, but because it's got the (slightly naughty!) magical shadow in it, it becomes a bit more than just another 'best friends' book.

How did you decide on the illustration style?
I worked up my previous picture books 'Tobias and the Super Spooky Ghost Book' and 'A Home for Mr Tipps' in a quite different, photo-montage style, which I really like, but I just wanted to try something different with this book. So I went back to basics and drew, or painted everything in the pictures. I did still composite the different elements digitally so I have more options when it comes to the placement of the characters on the page.

     

What inspired you to choose book illustration as a career?
I've always loved drawing, and always done loads of it. The good thing about doing lots of something is that you tend to get better at it, so eventually my illustration improved to the point that I thought I might be able to do it as a job. I had been working at a graphic designer doing work for lots of different people, including Harper Collins, so that meant that when I had a portfolio ready, I knew the people to show it too, which was a MASSIVE help. Lack of visibility is the main problem that most illustrators starting out face.

My advice at the start is to do as much work as possible, even if there's little or no fee  - I used to do lots of club flyers, posters for friends bands, anything to get my work seen as much as possible!

What's it like working on the Skulduggery Pleasant books? 
The Skulduggery Pleasant books are great fun to work on. Derek has created such a rich world that it's REALLY easy to do the artwork - the character's just spiring to life in my head and when that happens it's really easy to draw. It's (understandably) quite hard to draw when you don't know what you're trying to do! 

The look just came about organically. We tried out a couple of styles when the series started and the one we chose was the best by a long shot - so away we went! I haven't looked back. I'm just gutted that the series ends next year!

    

We're exploring 'The Books That Made Me' at the moment. Which books did you treasure as a child and which inspire you now? 

I always answer this question in the same way, so for the sake of not boring people that avidly read every interview I do (hello Mum!) I shall answer differently this time. One of my favourite books when i was a child was called 'Mr Blogs' Bridge' and it's about a man who craves solitude so he rows off to a little island with his best friend parkinson, a seagull. Eventually, he gets a bit lonely so he builds a bridge to the mainland, and one by one lots of people come over to his island, until it's as busy as the mainland. It ends with Mr Blogs and Parkinson rowing off to a new island. It's a fantastic little story and I loved it dearly.

In terms of recent picture books I love Jon Klassen's work. His economy in both the text and the illustrations is AMAZING. But even if you're not interested in that sort of thing, they're just very, VERY funny. 

What do your children think about living with a real life author and illustrator? 

My boys are kind of oblivious to the fact that I'm an author/illustrator - they know that I write books and draw pictures, but to them it's just another thing that I do, no more or less interesting than taking them swimming on Sundays. Although Ethan (my eldest) loves seeing the Skulduggery books up around the place. Even when he was really little he would grab my arm and shout  'Look Daddy! Skulduggewy! Skulduggewy!'

I have to quickly turn my screen onto something different if they come up to my studio when I'm working on some of the more scary images though - I don't want to give them nightmares! 

Do you have a special place where you like to work? (Send us a picture!) 

I work up in the attic of my house and my desk is SUCH a filthy mess that I couldn't possibly send you a photograph - you would be appalled! Here is a quick inventory… Dirty coffee cups X 4. Marker pens X 8. Paintbrushes X 5. Microphone X1. Drawing pads X4. Pallette X 1 Scraps of paper X15. General mess  = LOTS. 

And finally, we always like to try and get a cheeky exclusive - what are you working on next?

My next book is coming out in October through Bloomsbury and is called 'Herman's Letter'. I'm absolutely thrilled with it and can't wait for it to be released. It's about a bear called Herman and his best friend Henry (a pink racoon). When Henry moves house they're both devastated and promise to write to each other all the time but when Herman misses the last post before winter, he goes on an epic quest to deliver his letter himself.

 

I had great fun illustrating it as it's packed full of funny little moments and is also a really heartwarming story. I've sent over a super-secret sneak peak at one of the spreads as well as how that page looked when I first did the rough artwork for it - As you can see, this one stayed pretty close to the original idea from start to finish (always a good sign as far as I'm concerned!).

A big THANK YOU to Tom for answering our questions, giving us an exclusive and creating our beautiful window! We're hoping he'll do some drawing for us at his event too...
Why not come and meet him yourself on Saturday 15th June!

Click on the book cover to see the special trailer for Jack's AMAZING Shadow!