Chick Books now has 4! [7 more with Langford Press]

The Return of Kitty the Toon is now here. Why I returned to a species I had already done was the fact that increasing areas of the Toon were now using electric wires to remove Kittiwakes from nesting on buildings and not giving new locations to nest on! The paintings are done by a local artist, Sarah Farooqi who has a studio in Studio 4, Gallery 45, 45 Main Street, Felton, Northumberland NE65 9PP . On 11th April 2020, I was going to be in The Baltic in Gateshead selling the book for the first time but like most things, The Baltic is closed like the rest of Newcastle and Gateshead.

No 5 - RentaDungBeetle has gone to print and is about the massive decline of a species which is so beneficial to farming and wildlife world wide. Once a god in Ancient Egypt, at least one civilisation knew the value of a species even if they thought the sun [RA] was brought to the earth each morning and buried at night by this beetle. The paintings are by Chris Shields [ http://www.illustratedwildlife.com/ ] and I have added the benefit of other beetles which make up 1/4 of the world's species.

No 6 is nearly ready to go but was put back when a scientific paper came out on the use of chemicals removing food for wildlife and killing the Dung Beetles. This book is Liver the Cormorant [rymes with fiver!] which I wrote many years ago having been stimulated by an adult book called 'The Devil's Cormorant' which covered Cormorants around the world and how they are misunderstood. Liver is born in Windermere and winters in Liverpool Bay where the 'Liver Bird' comes from. John Davis has done the paintings for this one. [ http://www.johndavisartist.co.uk/ ]

Artwork for No 7 and No 8 is yet to be done. Which order they will come depends on several things but a week of Golden Eagles in September 2020 at Moffitt [if it happens] would certainly push 'Roxy the Golden Eagle' up the list. John Davis is the artist for that one while 'RentaPolecat' is being done by Dan Powell. [http://www.powellwildlifeart.com/ ] Both would be on 3 books each for me when these 2 are completed.

With no large outlets for the books at the present time I was happy to give a number of books to The Baltic [Kitty the Toon] and The Sill along Hadrian's Wall [Mixed titles] to use for school groups before the 'Shut Down' making space for new titles. It would be great to get back out into the wider world once things 'slowly' get back to normal and once I find outlets for these new books I will then look at a few more titles I want to do. [there are so many!]

Well in the mean time - stay safe and we will see you all on the other side of this virus.

John