I’ve just published a children’s story in rhyme called The Fat Dragon, which began with an idea I had while prepping endless boxes of veg training as a chef.
The first few lines about a King and his love of lime kept spinning round my head for some reason. It was probably the tiredness and the sleep deprivation. I jotted them down that night after the pub, and in the morning had a couple more lines.
Over the months, as I moved from kitchen to kitchen, I kept a small notebook and a blunt pencil in my back pocket. And whenever an idea or new line came to me, I wrote it down. Or at least I tried to in between the orders, heat, and constant bollockings.
It took a long while, and kept going off in different directions. Then I burnt the notebook because it was all rubbish. I kept the stuff about the King and the limes. Oh, and the cook and the greedy dragon. And then I spotted a folk tale in one of my favourite books ‘Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain’ - a tome-like work heavy enough to press a huge terrine.
There was a story from the Midlands, or thereabouts, about a potwash, a King growing old, and a dragon who plagues the land. I don’t know why it appealed so much, but there seemed to be a lesson in it somewhere. At least there was for me. So I padded out what I had, and wrote it up in rhyme.
Anyway, sorry for the shameless plug, but if you’ve got kids - or are a kid at heart - you might enjoy it. It’s available as an eBook on Amazon for the price of a bag of Monster Munch. CLICK HERE...
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