Grandpa and the Kingfisher

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Sarah Massini is a talented illustrator, no doubt of that, but she is also a delight to meet. Her illustrations are engaging and empathetic and when the characters unfold as the pages turn you really get to know them and their little idiosyncrasies, which makes them endearing.

Sarah loves Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and has been visiting it for over thirty years since the days when it was a quiet, almost undiscovered place of tranquillity, so when she was approached to illustrate Grandpa and the Kingfisher she jumped at the chance. This delightful book is on sale at the discovery centre so that is where I went to meet Sarah to find out more. It was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for children’s writing and has been translated into eight languages.

Grandpa and the Kingfisher in other languages

What is your connection to Rye Harbour?
My husband is an ecologist and we have been visiting it since we were in our twenties. I fell in love with the place and we have been coming regularly ever since.

When did you start illustrating?
I trained at Manchester in graphic design although I really wanted to study illustration but my parents were very sensible and said: “You won’t earn a living doing that” so I chose graphic design as my path. I worked for a design consultancy in London and gradually the pull of illustration brought me to work as a designer in children’s publishing and then as an illustrator. When I was about thirty-two and was expecting my son, I was made redundant from my publishing job. At the same time my parents moved to Singapore and asked us to house-sit. So we left London and headed back home to Sussex for a more rural setting and a total change of pace. My husband said: “You have always wanted to be an illustrator, so why don’t you pursue that now?”

What was your biggest break?
I was working for Nosy Crow publishers twelve years ago and they gave me the Velveteen Rabbit to illustrate which was really well-received and still sells well today. Since then my reputation as an illustrator has grown and grown.

Tell me a little bit about the latest book, Grandpa and the Kingfisher
Whilst sorting through her father’s things after his death the author Anna Wilson came across a book that he had read to her as a child – Martin the Kingfisher – and it brought back memories of him taking her for walks along the river banks when they had looked out for kingfishers. She had a very close relationship with him and when she found the book it took her back to those happy days; this inspired her to write the book Grandpa and the Kingfisher. Her father was called Martin and the French word for kingfisher is martin-pêcheur so it all tied in so well. The beautiful thing about her story is that it is not just a natural history book – it also weaves in themes of loss and sadness. It takes the humanist approach to death and talks about the lifecycle: in the world, if you don’t make way for new things then there won’t be enough space if the old things never die. Grandpa doesn’t make it to the end of the book so it becomes about the child’s acceptance of him not being there anymore.

Having read Anna’s text I felt very attracted to illustrate it, and having spent so much time at the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, and my husband being an ecologist, all added to the attraction.

Do you work closely with the author?
The way it works is that the publisher is the kingpin. When they accept a text they then look for the illustrator who is best suited to it. All my points of contact are with the publisher and not the author. Once I have accepted the job I will do sets of rough drawings and then the publisher will show those to the author. Anna, who wrote the book, was happy with my ideas although of course there were discussions along the way. The author is able to make comments at different stages during the illustration process.

Rough drawings

How disciplined are you with when you work and do you set aside times in each day to illustrate?
Yes, but it is more about being disciplined about health, both mental and physical. It is easy to get obsessed and work for fifteen or sixteen hours a day. I make sure I exercise and walk our dog and focus on keeping a life / work balance. My work is a very intense process, quite lonely at times in the sense you are in a room by yourself, and the process is long, too. I compare it to a marathon because for me it is months and months of work. This can be challenging at times, but the end results are so rewarding.

What do you do when you are not illustrating?
I tend to go walking with my husband and our dog. He is an ecologist and loves the outdoors as much as I do.

What three words would describe you?
Oh, wow! ‘Conscientious’, ‘empathetic’ (and when you are a children’s book illustrator you have to be), always striving to be better and ‘self-critical’. If I wasn’t self-critical I would not have got to where I am today.

What three things would you take if you were stranded on a desert island?
I would take my duvet, factor-50 sun-screen,  and, (cheating a bit) a shipping container of art materials! I’d love the opportunity to let my creativity take me where it will without having to work to anyone else’s brief.

Which illustrators did you admire as you were growing up?
Maurice Sendak, widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are and Charles M. Shultz, famous for this comic strip Peanuts.

Sarah Massini has some wonderful projects in the offing and has said that she will share them with Rye News‘ readers once they have borne fruit.

Rough drawings translated into the finished book

Image Credits: Kt bruce .

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