Mirror Magic Blog Tour

We were delighted to be given the opportunity to travel to Cardiff to meet with Claire Fayers and talk with her about her enchanting new novel, Mirror Magic. Noah takes the lead in this video, with the rest of the worms joining in with a ‘Would You Rather?’ section near the end. Thank you very very much to Claire for being such a great sport and taking the time to film with us.

Why not check out Noah’s written review of Mirror Magic here.

Mirror Magic

Mirror Magic

Claire Fayers

Cover Illustration by Becka Moor

Macmillan Children’s

Review by Noah

Mirror Magic is Claire Fayers’ third book and a departure from the Accidental Pirates series. I loved both of those books but Mirror Magic is absolutely wonderful – it will bring you close to tears and full of joy and happiness. The story, set in a kind of Victorian wonderland, will have you riveted to every page as you learn of the mysteries of disappearing enchanted items. Wyse is a border town and the last remaining place where fairy magic works. The town has a connection to the ‘unworld’ where magic reigns. This is pure escapism as Claire takes us on a fabulously imaginative adventure to worlds within worlds – full of charm, a touch of danger and a lot of mischief!

My favourite character was Mrs Footer, the source of many hilarious episodes in the book – I don’t think I’m giving too much away if I say that she is turned into a dog quite early in the story. I loved the way that Mrs Footer mimicked and mirrored the emotions of the characters.

With this third book and next year’s Stormhound (previewed at the back of Mirror Magic), Claire Fayers is cementing herself as an entertaining and absorbing author. This is her best book yet – a brilliant read and totally awesome!

 

As part of the Mirror Magic Blog Tour, we met up with Claire to make a video. You can view that post here.

Thanks to Karen and Macmillan for sending us a copy of Mirror Magic. It is in shops now! You can buy it from Hive or better still, from your local bookshop.

You can follow Claire Fayers on Twitter, or visit her website

Empathy Day Blog Tour: Gill Lewis

To mark Empathy Day on June 12th, we are delighted to be participating in the Empathy Lab Blog Tour and even more delighted to be hosting one of our favourite authors, Gill Lewis. Empathy Day calls us all to READ – because reading in itself can make us more empathetic; SHARE – because sharing perspectives through books can connect us in new ways; and DO – put empathy into action and make a difference in your community.

Gill is previously on record as saying “Books are more important now than ever for us to understand other people’s lives. They allow us to hear the whole story and to walk in someone else’s shoes. Books can help us understand others and the world around us. Ultimately, they allow us to understand ourselves.” (A Day in the Life of Gill Lewis, retrieved from inkpellet.co.uk). In this blog, she explores having empathy for someone whose views you do not necessarily agree with.

Empathy… A Bridge Across the Divide

A Guest Blog by Gill Lewis

When I was researching for my book, Sky Dancer, a story about the environmental conflict surrounding driven grouse shooting in our uplands, I came across many distressing videos and images of persecuted birds of prey; poisoned eagles, shot hen harriers, bludgeoned buzzards and goshawks. The list went on and on.

I was appalled.

Why would anyone do such a thing?

We often use a rhetorical question to express our disgust and contempt. It entrenches us in our own viewpoint and alienates us from the other.

However, if we ask a genuine question: Why would anyone do such a thing? Why? Then we begin to put ourselves in a position to understand someone’s actions. Empathy is an important skill and the basis of understanding the motives of others. You don’t have to agree with someone or tolerate their views but you can attempt to understand why they have those views. Making the first step towards understanding does not mean you compromise your own beliefs, but that you are willing to listen. Listening is the first step towards dialogue, which can lead to potential resolution of a conflict or the changing of bigoted views or unjust practices.

A writer uses empathy all the time to understand each character’s viewpoint. A writer has to know, for example, why one character might hold racist beliefs. Most prejudice is born from fear; fear of losing power or control. It’s a survival mechanism to protect one’s own interests. Dialogue and understanding can reduce the fear and in doing so be pivotal in changing bigoted attitudes.

For Sky Dancer I wanted to understand why a gamekeeper might shoot a hen harrier, one of our wonderful iconic birds of prey. Why destroy something so beautiful, a part of nature? Why risk breaking the law in doing so?

Well, the answer lies in the driven grouse shooting industry. The Joint Raptor Study concluded that a driven grouse moor cannot be economically viable unless hen harriers are killed. Birds of prey are persecuted on many grouse moors to ensure the red grouse numbers are high enough for a shoot.

The gamekeepers’ job is in the name. It is to keep game in plentiful supply for a shoot. Many gamekeepers have long traditional family associations with the land and with the owner of a grouse moor. It’s a way of life. There is fierce pride in the job. Killing wildlife that preys on red grouse goes back to Victorian times. It’s a cultural norm. Many species such as crows, foxes, magpies, and weasels are now legally killed, and many, many birds of prey are illegally killed too.

If gamekeepers allow red grouse numbers to fall due to predation, they are at risk of losing their livelihood and way of life. To lose a way of life is to lose your identity and your sense of belonging in the world. No wonder it is something people would be fearful of and fight against. No wonder a gamekeeper wants to do his job well and maximize game. No wonder there is fierce resistance to those who want to ban driven grouse shooting.

Similarly, many grouse moor owners do not welcome hen harriers because their business is dependent upon high grouse numbers. Land ownership in the uplands is a complicated mix of tradition, class, wealth and politics. A landowner may fear loss of power and control, not only of the land, but also of their own status.

In Sky Dancer, I wanted to cross the bridge from my own viewpoint, one that sees persecution as abhorrent, and try to understand the stance of a gamekeeper involved in the shooting of a bird of prey. Joe, a gamekeeper’s son, narrates the story and through him we see his father’s and the wealthy landowner’s views, and we also see how Joe is challenged to think another way by a newcomer.

Aimee Nicholson, of the RSPB Hen Harrier LIFE Project with Gill Lewis on a school book tour in support of Sky Dancer last year.

By trying to understand both perspectives, I wanted to build up the arguments for driven grouse shooting and then tear them all down and show that driven grouse shooting is an outdated Victorian sport that has no place in conservation today.

Yet, in this story, I wanted to show that there is a viable alternative to driven grouse shooting that would benefit all. At the moment we, as taxpayers, pay vast subsidies to landowners to intensively manage the land via burning to produce swathes of heather for grouse. Much of our upland landscape of treeless, fire-scorched hillsides has been defined by it.  This land management is bad for the environment; it is detrimental to carbon capture, water and air quality and biodiversity. An alternative would be to re-wild our upland with mixed habitats of deciduous native woodland, blanket bog and heath. I’d prefer my taxes to pay for restoration of the natural world. Gamekeepers’ livelihoods needn’t be at risk either, as re-wilding would require wildlife rangers to protect wildlife and wild space, and not destroy it.

My opinion is that re-wilding is the viable option to break away from damaging Victorian practices. It would provide eco-tourism, mitigate flood risk and benefit carbon capture, water and air quality and achieve a biodiversity of such richness that which we can now only dream.

Empathy can build bridges and initiate dialogue.

Whether or not someone with an opposing opinion wants to meet you on that bridge is their choice. But by understanding another viewpoint, it allows you to reassess your own, clarify your own beliefs, sharpen your argument and give courage of your convictions to keep on fighting for what you believe.

 

Thank you to Gill Lewis for this thoughtful and thought-provoking blog. You can read our review of Sky Dancer here. You may also be interested in her latest book with Barrington Stoke, Run Wild, which also has a re-wilding theme. 

Run Wild

Run Wild

Gill Lewis

Barrington Stoke

Review by Nina and Daddy

Nina and I read this fabulous story from Gill Lewis over 4 nights. On finishing the book, I was met with a barrage of questions: What’s a cormorant?; Are there still wolves in the UK?; Where did you play when you were younger?; How many types of beetle are there?

In response, we checked out some YouTube videos, visited a local heronry, and I reminisced about the patch of common land outside my parents’ house where I would climb trees, build dens and concoct stories.

We also bought the book The Ways of the Wolf by Smriti Prasadam-Halls and Jonathan Woodward (published by Wren & Rook, an imprint of Hachette) which is a brilliant and beautiful complimentary non-fiction title endorsed by the UK Wolf Conservation Trust.

If Gill Lewis’ aim is to encourage future generations to engage with themes of conservation; to connect with (and be inquisitive about) nature; to think about the wild spaces in their communities, then Nina is proof that she has succeeded.

The story of Run Wild centres on the pairing of brave and adventurous school friends Izzy and Asha. Banished from the local skate park by the Skull Brothers, they are forced to find their own place to play and practice their tricks. This new place is a rundown and off-limits gasworks. It is in this brownfield space that the young girls learn to take risks, to explore, discover new things and connect with the wild. It is in this space that they meet an injured wolf.

The characters then face a dilemma – do they try to help the wolf themselves or do they seek help for the wolf and reveal their secret and special hideout? This quandary brings them closer to the Skull Brothers and they work the problem out together. There is an especially compelling chapter where the children face-up to their headteacher and as Izzy is pleading with Mrs Stone you can hear every child in the land urging adults everywhere to “remember what it feels like to be running wild”. The book is a passionate argument not just for the rewilding of nature but for connecting children to the wild too. See this manifesto from The Wild Network, set up to remove the barriers to #wildtime:

Whilst the rewilding of children is a part of the story, the rewilding of nature is at it’s core. According to the charity Rewilding Britain, it is all about “bringing nature back to life and restoring living systems”. The charity signs up to several principles acknowledging that “people, communities and livelihoods are key”. Rewilding is a choice of land management – it relies on people deciding to explore an alternative future for the land and people. Thus the brownfield site of the old gasworks is at the centre of a bitter battle.

Barrington Stoke promise a series of special school events on the publication of Run Wild and finished copies will be in Barrington Stoke’s super readable typeset on off-white pages. This is a brilliant partnership that has got us really excited.

Run Wild is engaging, compelling and brilliantly written; as a storyteller, Gill Lewis should be cherished and revered. The message of ‘Run Wild’ is important, nay, essential and should be filed next to The Lost Words (Jackie Morris and Rob Macfarlane) and The Promise (Nicola Davies) as enchanting books with significant and important themes.

 

Thanks to Barrington Stoke for sending us a copy of Run Wild. It is published on July 15. You can buy it from Hive or better still, from your local bookshop.

You can follow Gill Lewis on Twitter, or visit her website. The book is endorsed by the charity, Rewilding Britain (who have a website and a twitter account). You should also check out The Wild Network.