David
Tamsin
Henry
Megan
Lilly
Mickey
Primrose & Hop-along
Willow & Olivia
Hi! We’re David and Tamsin, a husband-and-wife team, who both share a love for the natural world. Our concept for Great Oak Farm arose during the summer of 2014 whilst we were walking and chatting in the Cornish countryside.
Through our work as ecologists, we meet a lot of lovely people from all walks of life.
However, over the years we noticed how often people would admit to how little they knew about the wildlife we were surveying for –our native and legally protected species. “Do bats build nests?” “Do bats chew wires like mice?” “Are slow-worms snakes?” These were a few of the questions we would get asked. It got us thinking!
As children we remembered wondrous tales of fantasy and heavily anthropomorphised animals (I grew up on Winnie the Pooh, Paddington Bear and Rupert the Bear) and we whole heartedly agreed that there would always be a place for these tales within children’s books…….and rightly so.
However, we also agreed that there was a missing piece of the puzzle.
Whilst children will often reel off dinosaur names and identify a plethora of exotic animals and their habitats (tigers, elephants, lions, monkeys to name but a few) it seemed that a general knowledge of our less ‘cuddly’ native animals was missing.
Some would definitely be considered cute and cuddly and would be easy to ‘market’ (who doesn’t love a photo of a sleepy dormouse?!) but others would perhaps be more easily overlooked. We decided, there and then, to embark on a story-writing venture with the aim of producing a ‘real-life’ story, where anthropomorphism was kept to a minimum but where the characters were still relatable.
David was born on a tiny island in the Pacific but spent the majority of his childhood growing up on a farm in the Devonshire countryside, which is what the illustrations of Great Oak Farm are based on. He went on to study many aspects of rural management and has looked after a plethora of animals in his time, ranging from pigs to peacocks. Since reaching the heady heights of adulthood David has been involved in farming, forestry, gardening, land management, building and conservation for more than thirty years.
When he’s not busy working, renovating our home or looking after our two young children he enjoys getting creative in his workshop (he’s also a dab hand with a sewing machine!).
Although born in Wales, Tamsin spent much of her younger years in very hot countries and wasn’t immersed into our native wildlife until later in childhood. Even so, she would devour magazines and books on anything‘ animaly’ ranging from Sumatran tigers to blue sharks to red squirrels. Once back in the UK she would often bring home injured birds and poorly hedgehogs and spent hours sending off letters campaigning for various animal charities. After completing an undergraduate zoology degree at the University of Bristol and a post-graduate degree in Wales, she spent some time working on the Great Barrier Reef, assisting on a fascinating PhD project studying the behaviour of bicolor angelfish. A dream role for a keen diver! Since then, she has worked as an ecological consultant in England and often refers to herself as a professional poo spotter!
Most of her time is now dedicated to raising their two young children, Henry and Megan (sound familiar? The clue is in the book!) and her ecological work. Although the concept for the books came about before the arrival of their children, since becoming parents David and Tamsin feel even more strongly about educating the younger generation about the magic of our native wildlife.
Sarah-Leigh Wills is an award-winning designer, artist and children’s book illustrator. Known as the 'quirky little designer', Sarah works with hundreds of clients far and wide!
Find out more at www.happydesigner.co.uk
Great Oak Farm is a series of children’s books based in a fictional landscape. The series focusses on some of the species that currently receive legislative protection, and includes those which are not as well publicised in children’s literature.
