New Author – Charley King

We are delighted to announce we have joined forces with children’s author and illustrator Charley King to produce the paperback version of her children’s book Mr Blinking. Already popular as an e-book, we are really looking forward to bringing this fabulous story to bookshops.

Mr Blinking appears to have everything:  money, status, successful businesses, even a football team, but when he accidentally meets up with a very plucky mouse called Molly in his shop everything changes!

The initial inspiration of Mr Blinking came from her partner who used to say “blinkin’ this and blinkin’ that” all the time.  She wanted to tell a story that had meaning with emotional intelligence.  Kindness is very important to her and being happy too.  She felt that she could tell the story as long as it had some funny parts in it and she could show the main character learning from his selfishness.

Mr Blinking’s tower came from a visit to Warwick Castle and the location of Blinkingstoppe initially started when she was on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales in 2017 visiting Pen-y-ghent fell.

Coming across Cressbrook Mill (which used to be an orphanage and workhouse for the expanding eighteenth-century cotton industry) whilst cycling along the Monsal Trail in Derbyshire gave Charley the idea of the orphans in the story, where they lived and worked. She has since learnt that Charles Dickens had the same idea when he saw Cressbrook Mill for his famous story of Oliver Twist.  She wonders how many other people have thought the same thing?

Charley read that one of Roald Dahl’s tips was to use three characters that would be unlikely to mix and make a story from them. Hence Mr Blinking a wealthy businessman with a football team, orphans and Molly the mouse.

To Illustrate the book Charley has used watercolours and explains her method of drawing and painting on her website:  charleykingcreative.com.

Mr Blinking is due for release early 2021, ISBN: 978-1-9163953-4-3