Books
My first history books, for 9-12 year-olds, were for Weldon Owen: Grisly History: Death and Destruction and Grisly History: Trials and Trickery. They were similtaneously published in the USA by Little Bee books as Hideous History.
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August 2017 saw the publications of Festivals and Celebrations and Myths and Legends, by 360 Degrees, a new imprint of Caterpillar Books.
Hand Made Artists' Books
I have the great pleasure of working with the wonderful fine artist Christine Nicholls, who creates extraordinarily delicate, hand-made artists' books.
Our first collaboration, the fold-out Columbia Road, was published by The Summer Press in 2016. Our second, much more substantial book, Holly, was published in October, 2017.
The Atlas of Monsters, first of the Atlas series, was published on 5th October, 2017 by Big Picture Press, a Templar imprint. It blended a fictional storyline with a exploration of world mythology:
One day a collection of very old maps is found in a dusty library. They show where in the world monsters from mythology and folklore can be found. According to the notes left with them they were made by Cornelius Walters, an intrepid explorer from the 16th century. But did Walters really make these elaborate maps, or is it all a hoax? The librarian who discovered them is not certain ... and what are the strange messages in a cryptic code that Walters records in his ship's log?
On 14th February 2018, I was honoured to write the debut publication for the new Bonnier imprint, 20 Watt. The Anthology of Amazing Women was enjoying a reprint by the second week of March and in June was included in The Guardian's Top Children's Non-Fiction books of 2018.
My latest book for 360 Degrees is Transport and Travel, published in July 2018
October 2018 saw the follow up to The Atlas of Monsters, The Atlas of Heroes. Same team; Sandra Lawrence and Stuart Hill, published by Big Picture Press/Templar.
PaperScapes London / PaperScapes Paris
Published by Andre Deutsch, I'm thrilled to have written the latest two volumes in the popular PaperScapes series for adult readers.
Each entry has a cut-out illustration that forms a cityscape when the book is opened.
This time the narrator was a young Greek girl dreaming of following in her aviatrix-great aunt's footsteps in the search of heroes of the world, only to discover her own aunt may have performed the greatest heroic act of all; at home in Athens.
Atlas of Monsters has been translated into 14 world languages.
Instant History
World History for the knowledge-hungry and time poor, this book takes the adult reader on a global journey of world-changing events from the Black Death to Spanish Flu, the Boston Tea Party to the Boxer Rebellion, the death of Rasputin to the death of Diana, the execution of Marie Antoinette to the assasination of Martin Luther King, the Dreyfus Affair to the Profumo Affair.
Published by Carlton Books, September 2019
Published by Kew and Welbeck in September 2020, Witch's Garden explores the way plants have been used in folklore, magic and medicine across the millennia.