Humphrey the Hippo

One trait that everyone always notices about me is that I am very imaginative. I always have a habit of envisioning bizarre humourous scenarios in my head and then when telling a story, I laugh much harder than anyone else in the group …followed by several minutes trying to explain why it’s so funny, followed by quizzical looks and an awkward silence and sparse hesitant chuckles.

You just had to be there.
In my head.

This is why the art of storytelling appeals to me so much. I can finally put my imagination to good USE.

I’ve always had a soft corner for children’s books – particularly the offbeat zainier ones by Roald Dahl or Dr Suess.

With Roald Dahl, I just loved how some of the stories were so tragic YET so hilarious – for example a kid being orphaned because his parents got eaten by a killer tiger at the zoo (sure…because that happens all the time?!)

Don’t even get me started on the illustrations of Quentin Blake! His illustrations seem so impulsive with such a unique sense of character ..I just adored them! The Twits was my personal favorite! It was genius, random, mad and wonderful!

I always wanted to get into children’s books and my dream came true when I teamed up with American author Kelly Sheehy Degroot to create the Princess Charleston and the Isle or Palms series. It was such fun to do those books because Kelly gave me such freedom to explore and interpret her characters and scenery so I had a grand time experimenting!

I’m proud to announce that I am finally releasing my very OWN children’s book, “Humphrey the Hippo.” This is very exciting for me as it’s the first time I have written a book as well as illustrating it so it is a very personal project.

The story is a very simple and relatable one – it’s about a shy hippo who has a tendency to worry and over-analyse every situation. One day his classmate throws a party and, Humphrey being Humphrey, imagines all the possible terrible embarrassing potential situations that could arise. In the end of the book … you’ll just have to wait and see what happens! I’ll leave you in suspense! Tonight the e-book version of the book releases precisely at the stroke of midnight (how very cinderella!!!) It is being published by American publishing house Tuxedo and Beans. Here is a sneak peek of some of the pages and illustrations.