I had expected – as October arrives – to be wrapped up in blankets in a freezing studio… Yet, an extraordinary heat wave has embraced the British Isles, an “Indian Summer”, predictably coinciding with the end of the (so called) Summer Holidays, and less predictably with the new Ella Bella book.

And so I find myself sitting in my studio, sweltering in the heat, watching the garden dry to a frazzle (and combined with autumn, the colours are terrific). Yet my mind is keeping cool in the heat. For I am drawing wintry forests and dancing snow flakes and Christmas trees as I plan the pages of Ella Bella Ballerina and the Nutcracker. Here is an example of the first drawings…