Slug Wars! - John Dougherty

I was rousing my duvet-enfolded son from sleep the other morning when his sister came in and joined us. She wrapped herself in a blanket and lay on the bed next to him, and they looked at each other; and then he shouted,

“Slug Wars!”

A moment later they were slugs, rolling against one another, growling and giggling in a quite ridiculous and unsluglike way.

This is one of the things I love most about having children - those moments of joyous spontaneity when imagination is acted on without inhibition or self-censorship. It was probably one of the attractions of the surrealist art movement as well. The likes of Picasso and Dali were, I think, accessing their inner children and giving them permission to play.

In much the same way, a lot of good books are written by someone who’s getting in touch with their inner child and giving them permission to play (and in many cases, giving them chocolate, too). 

I hope I tapped into this childlike state of being, this surrealist mindset, when I wrote Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers. I wrote about this in greater length for the OUP blog, and I won’t repeat myself too much here, but please go take a look  if you haven’t already read it. 

My children are 13 and 11 now, and I love that they can still access their creative daftness so easily. For one thing, I think it will enable them to be more creative and fulfilled adults. For another, it makes me laugh. For a third, it inspires me to be more playful and creative, and so - I hope - a better writer.

And in an example of a virtuous circle, the books they read - mine included - will, I hope, inspire their creativity, which will inspire mine, which will inspire theirs, which will inspire mine.

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Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers is illustrated by David Tazzyman and published by OUP