I’ve been to Hull quite a few times now, visiting schools and libraries. If I have time, I like to pop into the Maritime Museum, where they have an extensive exhibition on the history of whaling, Hull having been a major whaling port.

Christine Hill, the Principal Librarian with whom I’ve worked with often, has been gently encouraging my interest the last couple of years. There is a story I want to write, but the more I research, the more I learn how gruesome the whaling trade was. at the same time, I become more in awe of the grit and bravery of the men who went whaling.

I’m reading the ship’s surgeon’s diary of the final, brutal journey of the Diana at the moment. If it were written as fiction you wouldn’t believe the deprivations an endurance of the crew.

In amongst all I’m reading I know there is a story that is suitable for the modern day child, celebrating both the humanity of the whalers and the quarry they sought, while placing it all in an historical context for today.

Meanwhile I’m letting the drawings help get my ideas flowing.