Over the last couple of weeks
The children and I have been reading and re-reading the story of Nen
A beautiful new fairy tale
A magical story of a merman’s search for true love
Written by Ian Eagleton
Illustrated by James Mayhew
And published by Owlet Press
This is a stunning book
Filled with love and hope
A diverse, inclusive retelling of a traditional tale
It is a book that deserves a place
In every classroom, library and home
This is a book that all children and their grown ups should read
It is a song of hope, a dream for the future
It is stunning
I have been honoured to listen to Ian and James talk about their book
To hear the emotion and passion as they speak about Nen
And why this beautiful new love story
The story of Ernest and Nen
Is so important
Why this tender and hopeful reimagining of The Little Mermaid
Is needed
A story that shows all children that they can have the fairytale
That shows all children that love is love
This book is everything I hoped it would be and more
The words and pictures entwine to bring this wonderful story to life with such heartfelt emotion
It is just a wonderful book and I hope that you will read it
We have bought a copy for ourselves to keep
And we will be donating our review copy to a local school
So that many more children will be able to read the story of Nen and Ernest
If you would like to hear the story for your self
Read by the one and only Stephen Fry
You can do so here
If you would like to hear the story read by Ian
You can do that hear
Thanks to Moonlane TV
And if you would like to paint along with James
To create your own Nen seascape
You can do that here
We did this today and had the most wonderful afternoon
You can see the children’s artwork here
Please do swipe through to see their paintings
If you are yet to read Nen or if you have already heard this loveliest of love stories
Have a read through the shared interview below
A conversation between Ian Eagleton and James Mayhew
About the beautiful book they have created together
Their past work
And their hopes and plans for the future
It is a joy to read and shows what truly lovely people both Ian and James are
Please read it and share it
Read and share them
They truly deserve to be celebrated
In Conversation: Ian Eagleton and James Mayhew
Ian: I suppose the first question I’d really like to find out is, what attracted you to the project? Why did you want to illustrate Nen and the Lonely Fisherman?
James: There were two key things. I loved your writing, and I’ve always been interested in sunken cities and stories with mer-people, like in the Russian story of Sadko. But the other big reason was having a same-sex relationship, depicted openly, with tenderness, with romance, and within a magical fairytale setting. I think that’s possibly a first for a picture book, and I felt it was really important, given my own experiences growing up, to actively contribute to a project that might help the next generation be happier with who they are.
James: So my first question to you, Ian is: Why merfolk? What is it about them that made you want to explore their world in your story?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, because as a child I was OBSESSED with mermaids and their world! I think there are a number of reasons I was, and still am, so drawn to them. One is that my Mum took me to see Disney’s The Little Mermaid when I was very young and I still remember the moment in the film when we dive down into this magical, mysterious world for the first time and it took my breath away. From then on, everything was about mermaids for me. We used to write ‘Weekend News’ every Monday and I always wrote stories about swimming under the sea and having adventures with mermaids. The teacher was never very happy about this! Imagine my surprise and shock when I discovered, from one of those beautiful Ladybird Classic books, that the Little Mermaid story had a very different, and much sadder, ending. I was fascinated by that! I also remember my parents taking us swimming every week. I would try and hold my breath underwater and try and swim like a mermaid – it felt so exciting and magical. I suppose ultimately though, mermaids and their world offered me escape and a space to dream. I never felt like I fitted in anywhere – a shy, quiet boy who loved singing and dancing and drawing – and so this secret underwater kingdom allowed me to imagine being everything I wanted to be away from everyone else.
Ian: I’ve talked a lot about my childhood memories of fairy tales and I wondered if you had a favourite fairy tale as a child and if it’s still your favourite fairy tale now?
My favourite was another Andersen fairy tale – The Snow Queen, and I’ve always loved Scandinavian folk tales, and Russian folk tales, in general, with cold, snowy settings. A lot of Andersen’s stories have a melancholy quality that I very much appreciated then, and still do. Looking back, I realise I was often attracted to fairy tales with sad endings – Like Snegurochka, the Russian story of The Snow Maiden, who melts at love’s first kiss. In a way she is similar to Andersen’s Little Mermaid, who becomes sea foam. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I think, even when young, the heteronormative tropes in most fairy tales just didn’t feel right. I loved fairy tales, but I think I always worried that MY happy ending needed to be different.
James to Ian: I love your use of language in the text, it’s very lyrical. Did the story come easily, or was it a struggle to get right? And what is your favourite moment in the text?
Thank you! I wrote the story at the beginning of lockdown. I was reading a beautiful collection of poems called Wain by Rachel Plummer and Helene Boppert, which is an LGBT+ reimagining of Scottish myths and legends. So, it included lots of wonderful poems about selkies and kelpies and mythical people. I originally wrote Nen and the Lonely Fisherman as a rhyming narrative poem, from Nen’s point of view. Sadly, it was TERRIBLE, but it did give me lots of poetic and lyrical phrases which I used in the story. I also wrote the story in the present, but Sam at Owlet Press said it needed to be written in the past tense to give it that ‘classic fairy tale’ feel. The actual story came quite easily but Sam spent a lot of time with me developing it – we added in the idea that Nen’s father would be responsible for the storm, for example. After I write each sentence, I read it aloud and play around with the order of words, so it’s actually quite a painstaking process involving lots of changes and minute details. We spent a lot of time thinking about page turns and building tension and excitement. I always thought writing was a very solitary affair, but when you get to the editing part it’s very much a group effort. I think we all felt a great responsibility to get this right as the story was so important to us and we wanted everything to be perfect! I have so many favourite moments in the story – I love your dramatic, menacing double page spread showing Pelagios starting the storm and I love the very first double page spread where we dive into Nen’s world and swim down with him to the bottom where we find a sunken city. This actually leads perfectly onto my next question…
Ian: I’m very aware that you’ve lots of different techniques and materials to create all the illustrations that I’ve talked about and what I’m really fascinated in finding out is how you actually created the artwork – which materials did you use? What processes did you go through? Was anything particularly difficult about illustrating the book?
I like to try different techniques and methods for different books. I use all sorts of tools, and they are all traditional non-digital techniques. However, I felt my recent work in collage (for example Mrs Noah’s Pockets by Jackie Morris) wasn’t quite right and neither was the line and wash work for Gaspard the Fox (by Zeb Soanes). So I developed something completely new for me. I felt the story needed something that could be dramatic and painterly, but also sensitive and tender.
I began with painting paper with a layer of emulsion paint, the same paint we use for our walls! Matt emulsion creates a great surface for further work, and creates a nice texture. I then painted in Gouache on top, creating the fundamental shapes of things in broad painting. I then pulled things into focus, drawing on top with coloured drawing tools – coloured pencils and pastels. There’s a tiny bit of collage – the man-made litter in the oceans, and a few other details. The gentle coloured line gives enough detail to show expression, while the paint gives (I hope) freshness and movement to the sea and skies.
I should add that I LOVED working in this way. It’s really back to front to my usual process. I used to “draw and colour-in” but this way, I was painting in quite a free way, and the drawing is secondary, and in colour, which gives a vibrancy I like.
The big challenge was accommodating the text, which is always printed in black. In a story set at night, and under the sea, it was hard finding ways of accommodating the text so it was visible. Therefore, a couple of spreads have dramatic extra layers, so the text can appear reversed, as white on black (text always has to be created on the “black” layer of printing, so if a book is translated, only one layer of printing is changed).
Because I don’t work digitally, it’s always a challenge to be consistent. But I think this technique helped, as I had a range of pre-mixed colours in little jars that I used throughout. I also think that, for a story as gentle and emotional as this, digital art might not easily capture the necessary humanity. I didn’t want viewers to feel remote from Nen and Ernest, but fully invested in their world. The “hand-painted” quality gives an authentic quality to the illustrations, I think.James to Ian: Do you think you’d like to write more stories with an LGBTQ+ core, and have you any future hopes for Nen and Earnest?
Well, I have a new picture book out in August, called Violet’s Tempest, which is published by Lantana and illustrated by the magnificent Clara Anganuzzi. It’s about a little girl called Violet whose giggle has turned into a whisper. She is cast as Ariel in a children’s version of The Tempest at school and gradually begins to find her voice and confidence. Whilst it doesn’t have an LGBTQ+ theme, Violet is helped and supported by her Uncle Tony and his husband Uncle Sebastian. Clara has added in so many extra details to the book, such as photographs hanging on the wall of their wedding day and a beautiful double page spread of them walking home holding hands. It’s very much about ‘incidental inclusivity’ here and we get to see Uncle Tony and Uncle Sebastian going about their day and laughing and playing with Violet. I have to say this idea of making characters from the LGBTQ+ community more visible in children’s picture books was inspired by your illustration in the first Gaspard the Fox book, where we see the silhouette of two men in the window at night. It’s a beautiful moment and a rare glimpse into our lives, which are so often ignored or used as a token to profit from. In terms of Nen and Ernest…YES! I have so many ideas for them and often sit and wonder what they’re up to. I have actually written another story for them and hope that we can continue on our journey with them – I think there’s so much more to explore with them!
Ian: As I’ve talked about what’s happening in the future, I wondered if you could share some more with us about what you’re working on? I’m particularly interested in your new book Once Upon a Tune! I also wanted to ask if you had any ideas yourself about what Nen and Ernest might be up to right now?
I’m busy with several projects – during the pandemic, all my “outside” work was lost (in education etc), so I took on more books. So more Gaspard (by Zeb Soanes) and More Mrs Noah (Jackie Morris) and more Mouse and Mole (Joyce Dunbar). I love writing too, and so my next big book is Once Upon A Tune – stories from the orchestra. This collects 6 stories, including Scheherazade and William Tell, and it’s out in September. It’s a book I’ve been working on for many years, so I’m excited. I hope to be supporting it with concerts, where I’ll be illustrating live on stage with orchestras!
As for Nen and Ernest, I think there is so much potential to explore their relationship, and other important themes within that. We’ve touched on loneliness and the environment, and I know these themes are ones you’d like to expand in stories about them. I’d also really love to find a way of getting Ernest down to the bottom of the sea, and visiting a sunken city! Working with you and Owlet Press has been a really fantastic experience, and I’d jump at the chance to work with both of you again.
To read more reviews of Nen and The Lonely Fisherman
Do check out the rest of the blog tour
There are some wonderful posts
About this super special book
Nen and the Lonely Fisherman by Ian Eagleton and James Mayhew is published by Owlet Press, out now, £7.99. www.owletpress.com
We were sent one copy of the book in exchange for an honest review