The Seed of Doubt
by Irena Brignull and illustrated by Richard Jones
A little boy dreams of a world beyond the farm where he lives – a world full of mountain ranges, oceans and cities, where he could do anything. But one day he plants a seed from which doubts start to grow. Instead of thinking of all that he could do, he thinks more of what he could not. Can he overcome his fears and chase his dreams?
Richard Jones has very kindly agreed to
share his piece on The Seed of Doubt with us. Click
here for
Richard's website.
Richard Jones on The Seed of Doubt
The Seed of Doubt is the second collaboration between Irena Brignull and myself. Once
again, Irena has created an exquisite, tender story about following our dreams
and overcoming those little seeds of doubt that try to push them aside.
Just
like The Child of Dreams, the tale celebrates the love between a
parent and child and explores the need and belonging they feel for each other.
This time it’s a father and son that take centre stage.
As
the boy grows, the ambition and expectation he felt as a small boy is replaced
with doubt and concern. As Irena so brilliantly puts it ‘…as the seasons passed
and the boy grew bigger, his dreams got smaller. Instead of thinking of all
that he could do, he thought more of what he could not.’ However, later in the
story, encouraged by his father, the boy throws off the learned uncertainty and
once again climbs tentatively towards his dreams.
At the end of the book, the boy triumphs! We see him reach the top of a tall tree
to find the world and his dreams laid out before him.
Each page of the book
began life as a grubby page in a sketchbook. Sometimes the first sketch bears
no resemblance to the final spread, but in this case, the final art stayed
pretty close to the original concept.
The
same spread doodled embarrassingly loosely into the digital book layouts.
The
final artwork!
And
that’s about it for this little blog!
Enormous thanks to Louise, Denise and the
wonderful team at Walker Books. Love and thanks to my agents Arabella and
Freddie for doing the difficult and complicated bits so I don’t have to.
And
thank you Irena, for writing another captivating story.
- Richard Jones
A special thanks to our guest this week, Richard Jones!
The Seed of Doubt is now available in paperback from all good booksellers.
