ARTISTS' STUDIOS

Here is Helen Craig in her studio with a prunus subhirtella autumnalis blooming mid-winter just outside her window. Wonderful to work up among the branches of a tree along with the birds.

    Helen has illustrated many books besides Katherine Holabird's Angelina Ballerina stories. She's currently working on a posthumous picture book story by Philippa Pearce for Walker Books, Amy's Three Best Things which is coming out next year.  

 

She signed this box set of This is the Bear that she did with Sarah Hayes - perfect for my two very young grandsons, as the stories all have the nursery rhythm of This is the House that Jack Built and Helen's gentle, humorous pictures are just right for that age.

ZOE'S BOAT

The first ten copies of Zoe's Boat have arrived from China. The cover is quite heavy and there are front and back cover flaps which make this paper back feel half-way to a hard back. The Chinese printer WKT have done a great job as the colours are spot on. I discovered that WKT is a family-run business which pleases me; it was started just before the end of WW2 in 1944.

    The next bit of excitement for Plaister Press will be the arrival of the forty or so cartons of books. When the re print copies of Selkie arrived in the autumn, the lorry was too big to get down Trafalgar Street and the palette of books was deposited outside the typographer's house. I'm hoping we might avoid that this time.

THINGS CHINESE

When a large New Year card arrived through the post from my Chinese printer WKT, with names printed on the back –Alex Yan, Frankie Chan, Niki Wong and others – suddenly there were real people behind the rather anonymous ‘printed in China’ on the imprint pages of Selkie and Zoe’s Boat.

    WKT will never have the personal touch of Lavenham Press who printed The Little White Sprite but they have been a very reliable, high quality printer and have helped cut the unit cost of my books.

 

Also arriving through the post from China via my publisher Bloomsbury was the Chinese edition of Tom Finger which left me admiring the Chinese characters of the title and wondering whether the Scottish Mc in McClure had ended up as just a dot.