Merren and the Heron is an adorable children’s book about a class trip to the zoo that turns into a hunt for Merren. What was the inspiration for the setup to this kids book?

Thank you. Merren and the Heron was inspired by a trip to London’s Regents Park where my young daughter, Merren, became fascinated by an incredibly brave heron almost joining her on a park bench to dutifully pose for the camera. We started joking about other names that rhymed with various animals which soon led to the inevitable “we should write a book about that”!

What were some themes you wanted to focus on in this book?

I’ve always made up daft stories and rhymes so the main focus was really to keep things light-hearted and to appeal to a young child’s love of animals with colourful illustrations. In terms of underlying themes, I hope that the reader can take away the precious value of friendship, where looking out for each other will sometimes need to come before looking out for ourselves.

The art in this book is colorful and beautiful. What was the art collaboration like with illustrator Darya Shchegoleva?

The collaboration with Darya was one of the highlights of the entire project. I’d looked through a huge number of illustrator portfolios and Darya’s jumped out as being precisely the style I was looking for. Not only a first-class illustrator, but I learnt so much from her experience having been involved with several other titles beforehand. Hopefully we’ll be working together again in the near future.

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

I have a couple of ideas currently incubating and hoping to get another one or two titles added to the Daft Dad stable during 2021.

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