Alison Roy
Alison Roy
I live in Wiltshire with my husband and two children. Once upon a time, I worked in London as a lawyer but, after I had children, I found that my enthusiasm for law waned, along with my attention span. Unless a contract was written in words of one syllable and spanned no more than a few pages, I could no longer read it. And contracts are never written in words of one syllable. And they are never short. Why use one word when you can use 10 words? And 10 long words at that. I could see where Winnie The Pooh was coming from when he said that long words bothered him. So that was it for law.
In its place, I discovered a creativity that had hitherto been firmly buried beneath legal knowledge. The endless reading of picture books to my children, especially ones that rhymed, led me to think that perhaps I could write one of my own. It couldn’t be that hard, could it? Fairly short words, not too many of them? Well, it was slightly harder than I thought. There might not be many words, but each word has to count. And those words can’t be confusing. Or too long. Or used metaphorically. And they have to tell an engaging story in no more than a few pages, with a twist. And you have to know when to let the pictures tell part of the story. And, above all, you mustn’t try to be too clever (quite hard for lawyers!). It’s an art form, which I am still trying to master. But after 12 years, I finally have something to show for it. The Groll. My first children’s picture book.
About The Groll
The Groll was ‘born’ many years ago when my son was about 2 years old. We both loved Julia Donaldson’s books and, whilst reading Jack and the Flumflum Tree, my son spotted a picture of a mean-looking Troll in one of the illustrations. He loved the look of the Troll so much and was delighted to discover that the Troll had a whole book dedicated to him. The Troll by Julia Donaldson was duly added to my son’s Birthday List.
As everyone knows though, birthdays have a habit of taking ages to arrive (sometimes they can take up to a whole year!) and so, whilst we were waiting for the big day, I made up a story about a scary troll who lived in the woods and who liked to frighten school children. Over the years, the story developed. And weirdly, it carried on developing long after my son had received a copy of The Troll for his birthday and so no longer needed my second rate substitute. It carried on developing long after both my children had swapped rhyming picture books for The Goosebumps series (in the case of my son) and Malory Towers (in the case of my daughter).
The story continued to develop, the main character underwent a name change, prose gave way to rhyme, and then it rested for a few years on my laptop, before being dusted off during lockdown in order to make a live-action mini film starring my husband and my two children (just for something to fill the long days stuck at home). It was not Oscar-winning and my husband was advised by my son (by now a budding actor and film-maker) not to give up his day job. I also realised that the Groll was not going to hit the mainstream through the medium of home-made movies. Instead I decided that books were the way forward (they always will be!) and so I found an amazing illustrator and into a book went the Groll!
The story itself underwent several more re-writes post-lockdown, not least a new beginning and a new end. I think the Groll himself is much happier being in a book and he simply loves how Nicky Boo has brought him to life. The Groll is now angling for a say in future story lines, but I’ve said no. I think that could put children at risk…
How Not To Get Eaten By The Groll
The Groll is really not such a bad character. He’s just hungry. All. The. Time. And children are generally very tasty and very filling, especially when they themselves are full of sweets and cakes. In fact, they taste even better when they have been eating sweets and cakes. But children who have eaten vegetables aren’t so tasty. Children who have eaten broccoli are particularly disgusting. And let’s not even think about kale and cabbage. Or peas. So if you don’t want to be eaten by the Groll, you know what you need to do: eat your greens!