A Rose Garden
The Railway Land Press has published its first title in hardback and Ebook. Hurrah! So, why Castle Barmy? Well, during lockdown we were struck by the Barnard Castle story, and the image of Dominic Cummings sitting in his best shirt in Boris’s Rose Garden proffering many excuses for his lockdown trip. From this seed sprang the fairy-tale image of a medieval magician called Doom scattering excuses from a castle’s walls, and those excuses growing less believable the more of them flew free. From this emerged the fairy tale itself. We hope it will offer parents an opportunity to help their children understand the pandemic by telling the story not of a modern disease but of a poisonous dragon. Cast that spark and watch their thoughts fly free.
an animation
We have always been huge fans of animation, and our next aim is to convert Castle Barmy into a fully animated Ebook or even an animated short. Who would your choice of narrator be? Our dream has always been to invite Michael Sheen into Castle Barmy and have his magnificent voice bring our characters to life. Who knows, one day? As our first stepping stone, the book’s wonderful illustrator Kate Chesterton has created an animated trailer that we all love…
national excuses day
We are also launching National Excuses Day (#NED) on 25 May to celebrate the anniversary of the excuses in the Rose Garden and the whole Castle Barnard affair. Please join us by posting your favourite excuses. And if you can’t join us, well, what’s your excuse…?