Mr Scarecrow is made in January and spends all year in the field. He gets lots of visitors who steal bits of him for their own uses until there's very little left.

My first book, straight out of college. I turned up at Macdonald (then at Maxwell House) with my portfolio in November 1985 and Lucille Powney liked my work. It coincided with Macdonald's launch of their own picture book list so it was very much a case of being at the right place at the right time. It was originally called The Friends Of Mr Scarecrow and I got the grand advance of £1676! The artwork was heavily influenced by John Burningham whose work I adored at the time.

They made a wonderful scarecrow cake for the launch party in June '87. I think we got to take the head home! Although it's been out of print for many years, it did reprint many times. The only foreign edition was in the USA (Farrar Strauss)

Click the BACK button on your browser to return to the Booklist.