I Wish I’d Written… Ottoline and the Yellow Cat

Paul Stewart on an illustrated story that is ‘engaging, funny and endlessly digressive’…

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Chris Riddell and I have been working together for fifteen years. Originally, he simply illustrated my texts. These days, however, we plot, plan and write together. A while back, he told me about an idea for a ‘picture novel’ – a highly illustrated chapter book for kids just beginning to read – that he was planning to write and illustrate himself. The result is Ottoline and the Yellow Cat – and it is a triumph!

Ottoline is a feisty heroine who, with the help of her friend, Mr Monroe – a hairy creature from a bog in Norway – becomes caught up in an intricate series of jewel heists, involving lapdogs and the eponymous yellow cat. The book is brought to life by wonderful illustrations – from Ottoline’s odd shoe collection to a preposterous cross-dressing bear.

As for the story, it is engaging, funny and endlessly digressive. Chris has created a world for Ottoline to inhabit that is both self-contained and believable, while weaving a plot that, though intriguing, is easy enough for the youngest reader to follow. Every word is perfectly judged. Of course, I expected no less. I taught Chris everything he knows about writing, but he’s been a good student. Ottoline and the Yellow Cat is a gem, and I wish that I had written it!

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell is published by Macmillan (978 1 4050 5057 9, £8.99 hbk).

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Paul Stewart’s latest book Barnaby Grimes: The Legion of the Dead (978 0 385 61193 0, £8.99 hbk), illustrated by Chris Riddell, is published by Random House.