An East Sussex illustrator has collaborated with a poet on a colourful new book about ‘the wonders and worries of childhood’.
Charlotte Workman, 41, who lives in Barcombe, created a series of fully hand-drawn artworks for Rhuar Dean’s collection The Loudest Whispers, which will be released on May 28.
The Book Guild said The Loudest Whispers aims to ‘encourage and embolden young readers through poems and pictures that are as delicate, mischievous and full of feeling as the children who read them and the adults they will one day become’.
Charlotte, who used to lived in Lewes, told this newspaper that the project came about through mutual friends. She said: “Rhuar Dean has three kids and wrote these poems for them and with them. He was on the lookout for an illustrator and some mutual friends got us chatting.”
Charlotte said it has taken about three years from that point to getting this book published.
She said Rhuar enjoyed her ‘fairly whimsical’ style of illustration and they would go through ‘poem by poem’ as Charlotte suggested concepts for each one. She explained that Rhaur wanted a ‘hand-made’ element to this book so some of her drawings are ‘not all completely perfect’. Charlotte said she is particularly inspired by E. H. Shepard (Winnie-the-Pooh), Quentin Blake (Roald Dahl) and Jill Barklem (Brambly Hedge) and her style aims for a kind of cosiness that families can enjoy together.
Charlotte said: “The main challenge as an illustrator, but also the best bit – it’s a double edged thing really – was creating new characters for each poem, a whole new concept, which is quite rare with a book. It’s not like following one character’s journey.”
She explained that the book contains 21 poems so there were at least 21 characters that needed an ‘angle’. But she said: “Once I had the concept the rest came really easily.”
Charlotte added that she enjoyed creating a ‘bank’ of characters, who would then go on to reappear in each other’s poems throughout the book. This gives both kids and their parents ‘lots to spot’ in the background.
She said the book has ‘a lovely broad range of themes’. Charlotte said: “I’m always one for the bawdy, so there’s lots about poo, snot, farts – there’s all of that joy. But with that I think Rhaur’s cleverly woven in lot of themes – without being too hard on the nose – about feelings and growing up.”
She continued: “I just really enjoy the way they (the poems) cover so much and that’s quite nice. There’s not a huge amount of kids poetry out there and we have one small book that has multiple themes in it.”
She said: “You can feel that Rhuar’s written the poems with kids and he’s put the kids’ voices in some of them.”
Charlotte said her own four-year-old, who actually saw her draw the pieces, really enjoys the book and gets a lot out of both the pictures and the words as he interacts with them.
Charlotte said there are ‘nods to the adults’ in The Loudest Whispers too. She said: “We all know bedtime and the trials and tribulations of getting a kid to bed and doing a bedtime story. To have something that the adults can interact with as well, and familiar themes and feelings for them, is quite cool.”
She added: “I think it’s a book that celebrates individuality and creativity for kids and I think it’s quite an inclusive book written for and about people from different walks of life.”
Charlotte is also an actor and has been in many stage shows like The House of Bernarda Alba for the National Theatre and The Twits on tour with Leicester Curve and Rose Theatre Kingston. On TV she has appeared in The Winter King, Doctors, Grace, EastEnders and I Hate Suzie.
