'The new master of books for children' The Times
Very proud that, thanks to Tom Moorhouse and Lantana Publishing, our collection of African short stories, “Wisp of Wisdom: Animal Tales from the Cameroon”, has raised over £13,000 which will help put books into the hands of children who have none. And it’s in no small part down to your generosity – so thank you from all of us.
Read more about it at The Bookseller
Well, nearly. I can’t quite believe I am writing this, but I just returned from the most surreal but wondrous visit to the fantastic Story Museum in Oxford, and their fantastic new “Animal: A safari through stories” exhibition – featuring The Last Wild!
The show takes a very imaginative and comprehensvie look at all the different ways animals appear in stories – from Greek myths and African folktales to Wallace and Gromit and Maus. In keeping with their belief in the magic of stories, the Story of Museum has created their own incredible set of illusions.
I hid in the Master’s wardrobe at Jordan College with Lyra and Pan, looking at the Northern Lights, wandered over the warrens of Watership Down, nosed about War Horse’s stable and – this is where it got really magical for me…I went into Kester’s room at Spectrum Hall. And you can too! There is a stunning recreation of his room at the moment the pigeons and cockroaches come to rescue him. You can meet the General, lie on Kester’s bed and imagine what it would feel like to be him… There is also a great game you can play built around finding a cure for the Last Wild.
There are also many other brilliant recreations of scenes and characters from other contemporary books – Gill Lewis’ Moon Bear is there, as are Katherine Rundell’s wolves, Tom Moorhouse’s voles – with their own board game!- and you can even throw a shadow like SF Said’s Varjak Paw.
And find out more about their spectacular “Animal” exhibition here...