Introducing Mrs Noah's Song

Author Jackie Morris and illustrator James Mayhew share the story behind the creation of their latest 'Mrs Noah' picture book, Mrs Noah's Song.

A little about my friend, Mrs Noah
By Jackie Morris

Of all the books I have written the Mrs Noah books are, for me, the most curious. The ideas come, they drift in daydreams for a while, sentences snag in the mind and then, somehow knowing the time is just right, the stories come together, almost fully formed. It often feels as if Mrs Noah tells them me herself and these days she feels more like a friend than an imaginary character.

Her story begins with a simple sentence constructed from two words. 'It rained'.

And how beautifully those sparse words sit in the landscape envisioned by James Mayhew, my partner in creating this trilogy of picture books.

I still remember how nervous I was when I sent the original text to James, asking if he might work with me to make this book live. I also remember the delight I felt in seeing his work evolve into a new style to put flesh onto the bones of my sparse text.

Mrs Noah's Garden came next, along with a marketing campaign devised by James and myself to ask people to weave flower crowns for midsummer's day, something anyone can do, that has little or no cost. And planning ahead you can plant and grow flowers, and be like Mrs Noah. Perhaps we might do this again, this year, every year. It would be wonderful to see indie bookshop windows blossom with flowers, maybe some made from paper, for midsummer.

What inspired Mrs Noah's Garden? Well, there are layers to these books, and one of the ones in this was trying to imagine what it would be like to be torn away from home due to circumstances beyond your own control. Not choosing to travel, but forced to. So many displaced people in the world and our government so lacking in compassion and understanding. Perhaps it is a desire to help people, both children and their parent/carers, who read to them, empathise with these folk? Warsan Shire has a phrase in a poem,

"no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark."

So, the third Mrs Noah book, Mrs Noah's Song came about through conversations between myself and James. It began with a phrase which still remains at the first line of the book, a phrase which kept singing in my head.

I phoned James, talked to him about my thoughts; about how music was about listening as much as about singing, playing. About the music that is in the everyday acoustics of the world ( that we shut out with our double glazing and our cars and our hurry-hurry-busy-busy….) We spoke about birdsong, and he told me how, as a young boy he had snuck out of the house into the early morning garden, and sitting in a hammock, or maybe it was a swing, he had heard for the first time the awakening of birds to the light.

All of this threads through the text which is was first written into a notebook, then transferred to computer, then reimagined in beautiful imagery by James.

We spoke too of what it must be like to be a refugee in Britain. How scared people, terrified people, are met not with open hearted welcome, but suspicion, at a time when what they require is peace, love, time, understanding. How sometimes being sad can be a good thing…. remembering can bring a confused state of 'happy sad'….. and if you are sad it is ok to feel this emotion. Feel it, don't fear it, and know that, 'this too shall pass'. All of these things thread through the text.

The youngest child, born on midsummer's night, in Mrs Noah's Garden, is a fragile sibling here, but also a listener. I think perhaps the youngest child wants their own story.
But meanwhile, here are these three books. It is unusual to have a trilogy of picture books. Each can stand alone, but there are phrases and a running stitch of a quiet joke that travels through all three. And there is love in these books, collaboration, celebration, of quiet joy in life, of family, of art, music, story, myth, the wild world and more.

James made a wonderful short film to introduce the book (see above).

One of the things Mrs Noah does in Mrs Noah's Song is to ask the children to listen. I've been trying to do this more myself, and would urge you to try also. Turn everything off, go, if you can, to a quiet place, and listen. I'm lucky as I live in a quiet place. Sitting here now I can hear rain on the roof and collar doves. I've been learning to listen more after a conversation with Chris Watson. He is the genius behind The Lost Sounds that you can hear from Audible. A four hour soundscape of the wild world, with an intro by Rob Macfarlane and a conversation between myself and Chris at the close. I've been giving myself that time to just listen to the land, the more than human, the soundscape. It is addictive. I feel it's really good for our mental health. It connects us to the real world.

Mrs Noah's Song by Jackie Morris and James Mayhew published by Otter-Barry Books 9th June 2022