Over a nearly-thirty year career in publishing, I have conceived and written many hundreds of children’s books. I would guess over 200, maybe 300.

In 2019, I had been mulling new novelty series ideas and found myself wanting to develop something that felt visually nostalgic and harked back to the books of my 1970s childhood.

I didn’t want to let World Book Day go past without paying tribute to the astonishingly brilliant Shirley Hughes who died last week at the age of 94.

It’s been ten years since we published the first Pip and Posy title, and with a satisfying bit of numerical symmetry, the tenth title – The Birthday Party – is published this week.

It’s amazing how some books can be read again and again and still bring joy and delight to both child and parent, whereas others lose their appeal very quickly.

The process of coming up with new series concepts for the preschool and novelty list is never especially linear.

When I read this morning that Wendy Cooling had died I literally gasped – a proper, audible intake of breath.