So here at last is the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
Have you ever “Least expected” something? I’m sure most of us have hoped for something to happen that never has. But just occasionally a dream can come true. Today I can reveal a least expected dream that is coming true for myself and author Joyce Dunbar: The return of those masters of “Least Expecting”…
Mouse and Mole!
Unavailable for almost twenty years, both Joyce and I have always lamented the fate of these beloved characters, featured originally in four illustrated story books.
It was in the early 1990s that Joyce first gave me a manuscript to read. I’d been to visit her in Norwich where she lived, and so read them on my train home. Such wonderful stories! The characters leapt off the page and straight into my sketchbook on that journey…
Four books followed, well received, glowingly reviewed:
“Characters that stand alongside the greats of children’s literature, Toad, Ratty and Winnie the Pooh.” said Dinah Hall in the Sunday Telegraph.
We had high hopes.
Soon, a TV series was commissioned, with the voices of Alan Bennett and Richard Briers, no less. You can see an episode here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMznJa0xAOk
It all seemed to be going so well…
And then… the books fell out of print… and these two wonderful characters disappeared from the bookshelves overnight. A shadow fell over our furry friends, a sadness and sense of loss lingered.
I always felt there was something very special about the philosophical themes in the stories, and the kindness and forgiveness woven into them. I filled the world of Mouse and Mole with the details and paraphernalia of my own life; illustratively speaking these are semi-auto-biographical and I remain hugely proud of these illustrations. I know Joyce has always felt these are perhaps her greatest stories. It seemed a terrible shame that, as the years went by, the books remained almost forgotten, especially as I knew Joyce had been working on new stories. It broke my heart to think they might never see the light of day. But, over the years increasing numbers of people have been in touch to say how much they adored the books, what favourites they were and how they wished they could buy them again…
Time turns, seasons change…
Last year I moved to Suffolk, very close to where Joyce lives. We met up; a friendship was renewed… and of course Mouse and Mole were remembered. Would a publisher be interested in bring them back to life after so long?
I’m handing this blog over to the extraordinary, brilliant and beloved author, Joyce Dunbar, to add a few words to this very special post:
*****
Never in my life has a writing project been the cause of so much joy and so much grief. In 1989 a crisis in my life forced me to quit my job and move with my family to another city. There was a six month lull in the writing spent making the house habitable but I still had a living to earn so I sat at my desk one morning and tried to write. Three hours later the page was blank except for some doodles. I had half an hour before lunch with the family. ‘Talk to me’ I wrote. ‘What about? Anything. I can’t think of anything. Give me some ideas. Well you could tell me what we are going to do tomorrow’ – and so on – aimlessly, until I reached the bottom of the page. ‘Thankyou for talking me’ I finished, thinking it was just another doodle,
But in that last line there was a flicker of life. There were two distinct voices and a hint of a relationship. I had no idea who the voices belonged to or where they were heading. That evening I read the page to my then 11 year old daughter, Polly. ‘Who are the characters?’ I asked. She was mouse crazy and said ‘Well one of them is a mouse.’ OK,’ I said, ‘So the other has to be a mole,’ Over the next few days 4 more stories rolled off the pen. A positive response from my agent and subsequently a publisher and a TV producer resulted in more stories – and some.
Who would be the illustrator? I had already done a book with James Mayhew, called FIVE MICE AND THE MOON. I suggested him for this story. It was a great choice. The warm colours, the humour, the emotional expressiveness of his Mouse & Mole, their lovingly detailed habitat – all were enchanting.
But then the whole thing hit the buffers. So did my marriage.
But there was a momentum I couldn’t stop. I went on writing the stories, showing them to no-one. They were more like a habit of mind than something I made up. They kept me afloat at a difficult time. From being a youngish woman of 45 when I started the stories I became the oldish woman of 75 I am now. I wrote lots of other stories with other illustrators and resigned myself to the Mouse & Mole files ending up in a skip and the books being forgotten.
Until last year when James Mayhew moves to Bungay and we met up again. I mentioned the 12 more stories on file, unseen by anyone, written all those years ago. He mentioned a publisher called Graffeg…….
It has been well worth the wait.
*****
So, as Joyce has revealed, the wonderful Graffeg (publisher of Gaspard the Fox), said YES!
This May they will republish all four original classic books in sumptuous new hardback editions!
But the good news doesn’t stop there…
ALL the other stories are being prepared for possible future books with Graffeg.
So it looks likely there will be a BRAND NEW Mouse and Mole book every year for the next few years, and hopefully all of Joyce’s wonderful, secret, hidden, forgotten, brilliant stories will finally be published, to be shared and enjoyed and loved by all!
The first four books can already be pre-ordered on the Graffeg website here: https://www.graffeg.com/books/childrens/
We are hugely grateful to the Graffeg team for their warmth and evident love for these stories.
So, as we raise a glass of cowslip wine and toast a few more muffins, look out for some special events this year to celebrate the triumphant return of…
MOUSE AND MOLE!
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