In the book, I show Unicorn’s friends helping him, and that might be helpful for you; often I create much better stories when I work with friends and we can bat ideas around together. delightful and fun, and now I'm dying to know what moonberry tea and mermaid-baked cookies are like. But I like to think that, like Jellyfish, sometimes I have something to say that’s worth listening to. Winslet chose the book because it was one of her favourites during her childhood and has since enjoyed reading to her own children, including her son, whose name is Bear. Unicorn, Narwhal, Mermaid and Jellyfish are ready for an adventure, and, as Unicorn quite rightly points out, nothing is more adventurous than travelling into SPACE.

Grumpycorn: McIntyre, Sarah, McIntyre, Sarah: 9781338617993

So I dedicated the story to Valisa and the people of Seldovia, who were incredibly welcoming and let me take part in their summer arts festival. Sometimes people come to stories through the pictures instead of the words, and if they realise the illustrator is an actual person, they might think, hey, I could draw a story, too! I have a great appreciation of Sarah McIntyre and her work, and the images found here are no exception. When I do book events, I run around in big floofy frocks and mad hats and people don’t always take me very seriously.

The first Grumpycorn book came about when I had a picture book due as soon as I got back from holiday! On Christmas Eve, Justin Fletcher reads The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore, which is also available on the CBeebies Storytime App.

Grumpycorn by Sarah McIntyre | Waterstones

Other times I just need space and quiet to get on with things, but some of the best thing I’ve written have been in awkward situations, like on a plane with only a phone and no notebook to hand, or in a noisy cafe. Unicorn assumes that the other unicorns on Unicorn Planet will be the best, most fabulous friends, and he runs off and leaves Mermaid, Narwhal and Jellyfish in a lurch. That journalist deleted what he’d written, and wrote much better things when the campaign really started making a difference in the publishing industry. Winslet’s upcoming projects include a biographical film, in which she stars as Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, a fashion model-turned-war correspondent for Vogue, which will be one of the 37 world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this September.

And I also get help from people at Scholastic - Louisa Danquah, Bethan Dewey, Harriet Dunlea and others - who help spread the word about the book, so people know it’s out there! The story, first published in 1948, describes the adventures of a little girl and a baby bear while hunting for blueberries with their mothers one bright summer day. I loved that while this book is about a unicorn gone grumpy it is also about his friends and that each friend got a bit of the spotlight. While I was there, I got to know children’s book artist Valisa Higman and see the amazing floating cottage her dad built, and where she works. On New Year’s Day, French pop phenomenon Christine and The Queens takes to the stage of the Royal Festival Hall, sitting in a suspended crescent moon, to tell the story of a polar bear who has a new job as a moon keeper.