The long and colourful life of a mighty oak tree inspires the new book by best-selling children’s author Julia Donaldson
Words: Fergus Collins
When you interview Julia Donaldson, it feels wrong to be in a café or an office. It has to be among the trees that feature in so many of her stories. With her husband Malcolm and illustrator Victoria Sandøy, we explored a favourite woodland, with the welcome distraction of mushroom foraging as we walked.
It was here, during the various Covid lockdowns, that Julia and Malcolm made videos of scenes from her most famous work, The Gruffalo. And they didn’t disappoint on this occasion, with Malcolm and Julia spontaneously transforming into Owl and Mouse respectively in a hilarious little sketch that you can hear on the accompanying podcast (see page 65). Julia has a warm, musical voice and it’s easy to understand how stories and verse flow through her daily life.
How did you first get into writing children’s stories?
Really through busking with Malcolm. We were students together and we used to busk when we were on holiday – on the streets of Paris and in Italy as well. And I started writing songs. I wrote one song in Italian, all about spaghetti.
When we came home – we were at university in Bristol – we missed the buzz of busking. So we started getting gigs. And I would write a song for each gig, like I wrote one song about teeth for a dentist’s gathering.
I’d written some songs for children’s events and eventually I sent a tape of these to children’s TV. They started using them, then eventually one of those songs – A Squash and a Squeeze – was made into a book. So my first book was really a song and that’s probably why I still write in verse.
What inspired The Oak Tree?
It was another book that Victoria and I did together, about a pine tree – a very famous pine tree. Every year, Norway gives a Christmas tree to Britain that is put up in Trafalgar Square.
I was asked to write a poem about that tree, then the poem became a picture book with wonderful illustrations by Victoria. This time, I wanted it to be about a deciduous tree. Previously, I’d had an idea of a book about children’s clothes through the ages, but it never worked out. So I wrote about a 1,000-year-old tree and in each verse, and each picture, you see children in different clothes, through the ages, playing different games. I found all sorts of games that relate to oak trees, often using sticks from the tree.
How do you and illustrator Vic
