The Day The Jumblies Came To Tea

“They went to sea in a sieve, they did,

 In a sieve they went to sea:

In spite of all their friends could say,

On a winter’s morn, on a stormy day,

In a sieve they went to sea!

And when the sieve turned round and round,

And every one cried, ‘You’ll all be drowned!’

They called aloud, ‘Our sieve ain’t big,

But we don’t care a button! we don’t care a fig!

In a sieve we’ll go to sea!’

Far and few, far and few,

Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,

And they went to sea in a sieve.” 

The Jumblies, by Edward Lear. 

I can still hear my mum’s voice reading this to me when I was a kid. It was my favourite poem and one that I’d fetch down from the bookshelf more than any other. 

Try reading it out loud to get into the wonderful rhythm of the poem. Reading your work aloud is something I frequently advise my book mentoring clients to do as it can help with pacing your work. By doing this, it’s easier to spot the places that may need a bit more pace or that may benefit from slowing things down a little.  It’s a simple, but effective way to inject more light and shade into your narrative. 

I still have the book containing The Jumblies poem which I received as a present in the 1970s.

SPOILER WARNING (If you don't want to know the end of the poem yet, skip over this paragraph. ;-) ).

The wonderful illustrations of these blue and green giants (At least that's how they turned out) fascinated me and I’d spend ages sitting with mum tracing their outlines on the page while declaring how I’d love them to be a friend I could invite round for tea… if they could stoop low enough to get in the door, of course. 

The book is Treasury Of Poetry by Hilda Boswell, and to this day, I still smile when I open its well thumbed pages. Here's the full poem.

My Mum loved to read to me and our shared love of books was a beautiful thing. It was thanks to her that I grew up appreciating every type of book and wanted to spend all my pocket money on them. I still do. 

This World Book Day has made me think about all the children’s books that I adored. In a world of so many distractions, it's also reminded me how important it is for us to encourage our kids to experience the love of a good book and all the wonderful worlds that can open up for us in the process. 

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people say they don’t need to read the book because they’ve seen the film or the TV series, and that makes my heart a little sad. 

Just as JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, wrote: “Every time a child says ‘I don’t believe in Fairies’ there is a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead”, I think there should be an equivalent for people who have not experienced the love of a good book. Maybe it should be something like this: “every time a person says ‘I don’t believe in books’, a book’s spine and heart breaks, and it dies.”

Ouch, I felt that. Did you? 

Time to lighten things up a bit. 

During my childhood I collected so many Ladybird books. My favourites were The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Three Billy Groats Gruff and The Big Pancake. 

Once I’d got to know them, I’d start coming up with my own versions, sometimes writing them down, sometimes voicing them to others. They helped fuel my love of stories early on and put me on the path to a writing career. 

So, this World Book Day let's pledge to create a new generation of Bibliophiles whose creativity is allowed to fly free and to be celebrated and appreciated.

This month I’ll be encouraging others to unleash their creativity for Write That Book - my new six month online group writing programme where I help people to transform that seed of an idea into a fully formed manuscript. 

During our sessions we’ll work on developing a healthy, productive and fun writing process to fit in with your lifestyle. 

You’ll benefit from support and accountability, via a monthly group coaching session on Zoom and a WhatsApp group, as your book takes shape. 

You’ll learn how to powerfully tell your unique story, your way, set achievable goals and explore the many publishing options open to you.

The first recorded session, via Zoom, takes place on Wednesday, March 15, with half the tickets sold already and I'm so looking forward to hearing everyone's stories.

To be part of this great storytelling adventure, drop me a line below or message me, and don't worry, if you can't make the first session, they're being recorded so you can catch up at your leisure.

Total cost is ￡875, payable with a non-refundable ￡125 deposit and six monthly instalments. 

Do you and your kids read together? What are you reading right now?

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