A Mammoth Book Deal! 

A bit of exciting news! After 18 years of writing I have found a home for my wee mammoth book with Simon and Schuster! Coming out next February in hardback.


A massive thank you to my agents Lauren Gardner & Callen Martin of Bell Lomax Moreton and the team at @simonkidsuk. Plus all my writer friends and family who have been cheerleading me through the years!

A Mammoth Night at the Museum

A Mammoth Night at the Museum

February the 14th - St Valentines days. Whilst other folks may be planning proposals of marriage, declarations of love, secret gestures of affection, or romantic rendezvous, a group of 150 people gathered to celebrate the love of all things paleo and mammoth, at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester.

 

The accumulation of hundreds of hours of digging on site at the Mammoth Graveyard in Cerney Wick, plus preparation and conservation, to get the finds ready to go on display. Just six months from mud to museum, and the grand opening of “Mammoths of the Museum’ exhibition was a joyous affair.

The exhibition, displaying items from the 2023 and primarily the 2024 dig, was passionately and carefully put together by Nev and Sally Hollingworth, who also arrange the opening night, with their usual flare.

The Rock Showman - Steve Cousins

 

It really is something to celebrate, often finds, go to museum and a few may go on display but many go into storage for study and research purposes, so getting to see the items volunteers have pulled from the reach on exhibition in one place it truly special.

 

The night was full of surprises too, we met and mingled in the beautiful cavernous meeting space at the front of the Corinium Museum, under the watchful gaze of Wallace and full-sized inflatable woolly mammoth courtesy of Dinomania. The evening was compèred with wit and energy by Rock Showman Steve Cousins, and had speeches from Sally and Nev and the landowners Hill Quarry products.

 

After an amazing announcement, the lights were turned off and the exhibition unveiled, viewed by candlelight (battery powered candlelight anyway) Neanderthal style, which was rather romantic and definitively a memorable way of viewing the exhibits. At the same time Wally the mammoth was unleashed, with his Dinomania Ranger as carperone/bodyguard.

 

Turning on of the light brought cake, (with some familiar cake toppers - my paleo mammoth on the big cakes!) 

Then The Pointy End, did a flint napping demonstration, whilst the Mammoth Trail was unveiled, with my mammoths in various historical dress, hidden around the museum.

The Pointy End 

 

Lastly, there was limited edition print sales of some of my mammoth and a hand axe by Tom Sermon of PaleoArt.com, with all money raised going back into the dig/conservation/exhibition fund, and a talk by Mark Baggott from The Herefordshire & Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust - Fossil Box initiative that brings curriculum supportive fossil boxes into school.

 

the evening concluded with wine, and a visit to the neighbouring water hole.

It was an amazing event, and one that won’t be forgotten. Whet’s it they say? Mammoths never forget!

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Helping to bring Mammoths to the Museum

If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know I’m mad about mammoths and that I had the privilege of attending the Palaeontology digs at Cerney Wick, the site that was found by Sally and Nev Hollingworth that featured on the BBC documentary Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard.

The site is an old quarry owned by The Hills Group, is an old estuary of the river Thames, and also encompasses a section of The Kellaway’s Formation so is a treasure trove of both Ice-age and Jurassic bounty. Since Sally and Nev discovered mammoth remains there is 2016, the site has had several digs. The one featured in the BBC documentary, and then two more arranged and managed with care and plenty of passion by Nev and Sally.

I was lucky enough to visit the 2023 dig on a sweltering August day, where I got to help plaster cast a tusk ready for transportation. In 2024 I attended for much more of the three week dig and loved all of it. From the shared adventure and comradery to the actual digging and being part of an important scientific endeavour and obviously seeing freshly found mammoths!

Nev and Sally being so dedicated and generous with their enthusiasm, knowledge and time decided to exhibit finds from the past two digs, at the charming Corinium Museum in nearby Cirencester. The exhibition opening in February 2025 – only six months after the dig.

 

So it was all hands-on deck – or in this case - fossil and bone, to help prepare and preserve the specimens! Plus find and fabricate suitable often bespoke hand made stands and cases, to both protect the finds, and display for people to view. Also Sally and Nev had the task of inspiring the army of nearly 300 #TuskForce volunteers from the dig, who now were back at work or university, to write, design and information boards for the exhibition. It was a mammoth endeavour!

For my part, I was excused from tasks in preparation and conservation, due to lack of skills. However I wanted to support the herculean effort as part of the #TuskForce team and contribute in any way that was useful.

So being a dab hand with a crayon, and being competent with illustration apps, plus coming from a children’s writers’ perspective, I created Top Trunks with facts about the Proboscidea species we’d found n site. I also made a comic explaining how coprolite is formed from poo to fossil.

I dipped out of my comfort zone too, to make a few more series paleo art illustrations.

But I really wanted to try and bring my experience and what I’d learnt from working in museums and bookshops, to the exhibitions. The first thing I did was compile a list of book recommendations for the souvenir shop, of recently themed appropriate books.

 

I also offered to do a quite/interactive corner, with bean bags, themed books and games. A place for a paleo-pause, or mammoth mediation. To engage people and give an added interactive element. With this is mind I sourced a mammoth print rug, bean bags and (along with Sally H) loads of paleo themed books and games.

 

Lastly I was delighted to have worked with the Corinium Museum’s staff, Caroline and Samatha – to create a series of illustrations for a mammoth trail, to accompany the exhibition. So I whipped out the crayons, and pondered what would a mammoth look like in Tudor attire, or in a toga? As the brief was to do mammoths that tied into the museum’s galleries. It was an absolute blast -barmy in all the best ways.

 

At last on one rainy Monday morning in February the mammoth task of assembling the exhibition began.

It was an amazing (exhausting) day, with seven members of the #Tuskforse team coming together under the guidance of Nev and Sally to curate literal truck loads of treasure.

 

In the morning when faced with four stark white walls and boxes of bones and fossils, it was a tad daunting, but with the Hollingworth’s signature enthusiasm and exhibition gradually took shape. The sheer scope of the task and the hours of effort put into the preparation is evident. It is an amazing (I know I’m bias) and excellent exhibition. It is well worth a visit during its month-long run. Plus is on during half term!

 

The exhibition runs from 15th February to 15th March 2025, visit here for more details.

Going out of your comfort zone

Going out of your comfort zone

Sometimes you need for the sake of sanity and progress to push yourself out of your comfort zone. It is easy to stay firmly where you feel safe, and my safe is writing books for children and doodling – mostly mammoths. But recently I’ve pushed myself out of the realms of comfortable – with a little nudge from another mammoth mad person who shares my first name – and into the world of paleo art.

This has in full disclosure included some of my more usual style illustrations of cute cuddly mammoths including making a Top Trunks display boards based on extinct Proboscidea, and comic strips on how poo fossilises and turns into coprolite. But also into something I haven’t done since studying fine art at university or perhaps my art foundation course, which is nearly three decades ago, creating accurate drawings. In this case studies of fossils and what the animals the fossils came from would have looked like when they were alive.

 

The work is considerably more intricate and time consuming, than crating cuddy mammoths, but it is as enjoyable as it is frustrating. I cracked out the good pencils rather than my usual wax crayons and got started. It was a learning curb. I found it easy to get so focused on the details, that I would forget to step back to ensure it was working as a whole, so I had to remind myself to do this at regular intervals.

 

I also felt mammoth amounts of imposter syndrome, with my brain constantly telling me that’ I am no good’. And that ‘I shouldn’t be doing it’. it got so bad that I ventured up into the attic and got down a framed print, that I had brought for my son when he was doing his GCSE art, saying ‘An expert in something was once a beginner,’ and put it beside me whilst I worked. It was to remind me that although I may have a degree in fine art, have been a professional artist, and have a lot of people who are very fond of my mammoths, I am only starting out as a paleo artist – and that I shouldn’t be too harsh on myself.

 

In general I think that the finished pieces vary in quality, but I am proud of them, especially some of the later ones which shows improvement especially considering I only embarked on this endeavour in August

So my point is that this has shown me just how important and healthy it is to explore places out of your comfort zone.

Interviewing Your Protagonist – (and other synopsis wrangling adventures!)

The synopsis = every writer’s nemesis! Fitting your story on one, single spaced, twelve point, Times New London font, page of text. WITHOUT fudging the margins. Whilst communicating all the plot points, story arc, character development and if well executed retaining some of the book’s voice. It is awful, time consuming and often very frustrating to create.

Drawing by my daughter CIRCA 2013!

 

A few months ago I came to the point of the dreaded synopsis writing. Usually I do a reverse snowflake – I write it all out and then cut it down. I start by halving each paragraph and then each sentence until it fits on to the page. But this time it wasn’t working so I tried a new technique.

 

Upon advice from one of my agents Callen, I interviewed my protagonist. I initially found it a hard concept to wrap my brain around, So I started by creating an image of me and my character together in a chat show style setting and  then went about conducting the interview. I was sceptical as my main character isn’t a lover of talking about herself or doing public speaking. I know this as she’s interviewed in the manuscript, and she tends to lock up and say very little.

However I was in for a surprise, for I hadn’t taken everything into account. Usually my main character is interviewed with her friends as a group, including her bestie who is very confident and verbose. However on a 1-2-1 situation, she really opened up when recounting her version of the adventures that take place in the book. FOUR AND A HALF A4 PAGES worth of opening up! I was left with a way too long synopsis, but I also learnt a lot more about the character in the process which was great.

 

But this then left me with 3 synopsises - A blurb type single paragraph synopsis. A one-page synopsis of an older draft and this epic four-page interview synopsis. I knew that between the three I could sow a ‘Frankenstein style’ synopsis together by adopting the Roald Dahl literal Cut and Paste editing method – and resorting to scissors and glue. Then I used my tried and tested of halving each paragraph until it was right. 

Taking the plunge and tackling the synopsis from an interview stance has taught me that when you are stuck and blocked, then a change an approach can work wonders.

Remembrance Day For Lost Species by Human Activity

Today 30h November is, ‘Remembrance Day For Lost Species by Human Activity’. It a day dedicated to the species of animals that humans have had a hand in their extinction, to raise awareness about our impact on other species especially those which are endangered.

 

From the pin up of all extinction caused by humans – the dodo, where our activities, not only, wiped them out in its natural habit in Mauritius, but we now know that we shot what we knew at the time to be last living specimen, which was executed in captivity in Oxford (read more here) . To its cousin the Passenger Pigeon that once had flocks so large that it would block out the sun when they migrated across North America, which were hunted to extinction in just a few decades.

From The Great Auk, that tragically we knew we’d hunted to near extinction, and in bid to gain more knowledge about how to conserve the species, we killed the last living specimens in the name of research. To the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger that we hunted to extinction and carelessly let the last one was freeze to death when a zookeeper failed to let it in one winter night.

Of course as its me so I can’t not mention the mighty mammoth where is looks increasing likely that our activities played a role in their demise. Sadly the list of tragic cases like these go on.

So I thought I’d do a little post on recommended documentaries and of course books that tie in with this important theme.

Extinct – Channel Four Documentary series is free to stream and its accompanying book by Simon Furman

This series looks at six different extinct species and dedicates an episode to investigating what cased their demises. There are some where humans did not cause their extinction but others where we with varying levels, had a hand in their ultimate fate. It is definitely worth having a watch/read.

Lost Animals a Photographic record by Errol Fuller

This is a very poignant book, which does exactly what it says on the tin. It shows the last photographs – sometimes grainy or out of focus as many were taken when photography was a new science/art form, of a species before they became extinct. In many case the species were already functionally extinct with no way to reverse the process and knowing that the person behind the camera were aware that they were making a historical record of an animal that soon not to frequent the planet is very sobering.

Weird and Wonderful Extinct Animals by Cristina Banfi and illustrated by Rossella Frionfretti

This is a beautifully illustrated non-fiction picture book, which is a great introduction to the subject for children. It starts with an easy and un-scary but informative introduction to extinction, what it is, what causes it, including a paragraph about how humans can contribute of cause extinction of other species.

It than has double pages dedicated to extinct fauna, with illustrations and facts, on some there is an explanation to why they went extinct and if we as a species had a part to play in their demise. About three questers of the way through there’s a page about extinction here and now, which includes a section about what we are a species and as individually can do to stop of slow the process of extinction.

Endangered by Tim Finch

This is hefty but beautiful coffee table photographic book. That feature exquisite photographs of endangered species. This can be used as a call to arms, seeing all the animals that need our help with conservation efforts to stop them sliding out of existence. But most poignantly is the page desiccated to the already extinct passenger Pigeon, with a beautiful but sobering photograph of a taxidermy specimen of the last known of its kind that died in captivity. What a bold editorial choice to juxtapose it with the full colour high definition images of existing but endangered animals. It really hones the point, that these creatures could be next if our species don’t modify our behaviours.

I do hope some of you read or watch these recommendations. It’s a tough subject but we can learn so much from the past, and there are lesson we should definitely teach to the next generation, in order to stop these type of tragedies occurring again.

Bear in mind we human although the most destructive animals on Earth, we also are unique in as much a we care about other species. We are curios and we care for the other fauna and flora we share the world with, so lest put these attributes to good use!

A Summer of Mammoths – Part 1 – The Grand Italy Mammuthus Tour

 

My summer has been bursting with mammoths, which has been both marvellous and memorable. As you will know if you know me, or follow me on socials, I am a tad mad on anything mammoth. This is a by-product of research for a book which has stuck. The last few months have been full of mammoth!

It began with our first family holiday since 2018. To celebrate my youngest’s completion of his school career and taking advantage of being able to travel outside peek time, we went to Italy. We immersed in exquisite cuisine and iconic art, but also mammoths!

On day one is Rome I found an addition to the herd, which I named Roma, much to my kid’s dismay! I also spent time, while waiting for the family to rouse in the mornings, reading about the battle to conserve mammoth bones they found on a 1950s archaeological dig within the city.

But Florence was the jewel in our Italian mammoth adventure, with a visit to the Museo Di Storia Naturale Gelolgia E Paleontologia. This museum had a huge collection of beautifully curated mammoth specimens, including no less than four almost complete Southern Mammoth skeletons found in the appropriately named ‘Tusc’an’ region of Italy. Despite the museum being located a few step along the same road as the Galleria Academia that houses the famous David, it was empty. We had the whole place to ourselves to explore and enjoy the exhibits.

Venice too had a few mammoth gems, in curious Scopri Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia. Which is like a blend of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and The Pitt Rivers. with a modern curated Natural History section and a cabinet of curiosities style anthropology section.

All in all I was delighted to have indulged my obsession an shared it with my family  although I’m not sure they quite so pleased!

Freshly back from Italy and it was a race to get everything ready to help with the #TuskForce team of volunteers at the Hill’s Product quarry in the Cotswolds for a Palaeontology dig at the site made famous by the BBC documentary David Attenborough Mammoth Graveyard.  More on that in my next post!