As is often the case with my books, the story for this book was inspired by the title, which was originally just “Always and Forever”. The phrase cropped up in a conversation with my children1 and it struck me as a very appealing and evocative title for a picture book. When I looked it up on Amazon (something I routinely do with ideas for book titles) I was surprised to find that, at that time2, it had not been used for a picture book, so I thought that I should write one.
The story was originally about two squirrels, Bigbrush and Littlebrush, playing in a tree. The structure of the story was similar to the published version, only with different activities such as nut-cracking and piggy-backing. However there was something unsatisfactory about this early version and it was turned down by all of the publishers that I showed it to.
So I put the story to one side, but kept coming back to tinker with it every six months or so until eventually I realized that the problem was that the child never got the better of the parent in any of the activities, which was very unsatisfactory, particularly from a child’s point of view.
Daniel's early sample illustration
of Longtail and Littletail.
So I wrote another draft, changing the characters from squirrels to mice and changing the activities to three games. Littletail’s size allows her to be the best at the last game, follow the leader, demonstrating that childhood has it’s advantages and making up for Littletail’s disappointment at being only second-best in the earlier games. This, and some improvements to the rhythm of the words, seemed to give the story a far more satisfying feel.
This new version of the story was taken by Sophie Winter-Cole at Gullane, who suggested Daniel Howarth to illustrate the book. Sophie sent me a small sample illustration that Daniel had done of Longtail and Littletail (shown opposite), which was so full of character and warmth that it was obvious that he was the perfect choice. I think Daniel’s finished illustrations are beautiful and I’m particularly impressed with the way that he incorporates intricate natural details like insects and flowers.
1: I was trying to explain the difference between the two words.
2: Later that year, another picture book with the title “Always and Forever” was published, which is one of the reasons that the title of this book was subsequently changed.
As is often the case with my books, the story for this book was inspired by the title, which was originally just “Always and Forever”. The phrase cropped up in a conversation with my children1 and it struck me as a very appealing and evocative title for a picture book. When I looked it up on Amazon (something I routinely do with ideas for book titles) I was surprised to find that, at that time2, it had not been used for a picture book, so I thought that I should write one.
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