Whose Dog Is This? – Waterstones Children’s Book of The Year Awards 2024

Give a man a crayon and he’ll shove it up his nose. Give a man a pack of crayons and he’ll write a ridiculous story about a secret agent dog, a goose hell-bent on world domination and a dad who just wants to make dinner. And then he’ll probably shove a crayon up his nose when he gets bored.

As it happens, I recently wrote a story inspired by my kids, my dogs and my perpetual anatidaephobia. The wonderful Hannah Ray at Pan Macmillan decided it was super silly fun and got the magnificently talented Aysha Awwad to illustrate it.  And then someone waved it in the vicinity of Waterstones and they shortlisted it for their 2024 Children’s Book Award.

So it was on the 21st March 2024 that I ended up at Waterstones in Piccadilly standing around with a bunch of ridiculously talented industry professionals who are all experts at holding white wine spritzers and tell witticisms with half a dozen a vol-au-vents stuffed in their mouths.

Once upon a time I would have been gutted if I got to the final of something and didn’t win it (swimming competitions, football tournaments, TV Gameshows etc.) but being at the awards-ceremony with Aysha and my wonderful agent, Jessica, I found myself honestly not caring whether I won or lost. It’s been 15 years since I finished my MA in Authorial Illustration at Falmouth University and I’ve spent pretty much every Wednesday since then writing stories and doodling with the hope of one day getting a book published. So to get the final of the picture book equivalent of The Oscars with Aysha was more than I ever dreamed I might be able to achieve.

When I was struggling to make progress with my writing a few years ago, my auntie Maria said something that stuck with me; she reminded me the importance of writing, even if it was just for an audience of one – and that if I could write something that made me smile then I was doing something worthwhile. I stopped trying to create what I thought everyone else wanted, and in Where Has All the Cake Gone? and Whose Dog is This? I wrote stories that were fun, silly and honest and frankly tickled my own funny bone.

I’ve had some wonderful teachers over the years that encouraged my creative writing – Janice Cross and Cathy Naylor at my primary school, and Mrs Wilcox and Mr Hope at secondary school in particular. Their encouragement, and  that of my parents, wife and  kids has been invaluable, and I hope that on Thursday evening I got to make them all proud.

As I now have my name on three books, I’m no longer eligible for the Waterstones Children’s Book Award in future, but my family and I couldn’t be any happier.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a crayon to remove from my nose.