“Whingey Williams and her Wonderful Wellington Boots” integrates elements of Welsh folklore and culture. Can you share more about your research process and how you decided which aspects to include?

To be honest I grew up on Gower in Wales and knew all of the ‘real’ folklore in the books, a few I created. The stories just popped into my head and seemed to come out integrated with the folklore and culture due to the place and time of year the adventures were set. I did check a few things along the way eg the age of the bones found in Paviland Cave being the oldest burial in Europe.

Can you tell us more about the character of Whingey Williams? How did you craft her personality and what inspired her character?

Her character was inspired by a friend who used to complain whenever we went walking if it was wet and muddy until she got a pair of Wellington boots. The character isn’t based on her as for one thing she only complained on our walks and she was grown up but soon after the stories just popped into my head. Again it just came out but I think I wanted Whingey to complain but not moan and you can always see why she complains. I also wanted to show how being different is OK and you will probably get the last laugh.

The illustrations in your book are described as having been crafted by the hands of children. Can you share more about the decision to use this style of artwork and how it contributes to the overall narrative?

I wrote the original stories 15 years ago in an old exercise book, then lost the book in a house move. I mentioned this to a friend about a year ago, who persuaded me to write them again, something I thought would be hard. But to my surprise I remembered them easily. For fun for her I drew some pictures alongside the narrative just using felt tip pens and to my surprise again she loved them. So I drew some more until my felt tip pens ran out. As the stories are written by Meredith I also said the drawings were drawn by him as they look like they would have been.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I have now finished all 7 books of Whingey Williams and her Wonderful Wellington Boots, a book for every colour of the rainbow. The books cover the rest of the second school year and a follow on book with a twist at the end. There is also a Gold Book which is a scrapbook of activities, the recipes of food mentioned in the stories, games and facts about things in the stories for the reader to now do ie their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I am now all Whingied out and just want others to read them as it’s so interesting to see what they think. Not sure I will ever write anything else unless it just pops into my head again!

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