Being more Murray and Bun: an interview with Adam Stower
BfK last interviewed Adam Stower in the summer of 2019. The second book in his King Coo series had just been published, and he was the illustrator of that year’s Summer Reading Challenge. We catch up with him this time to chat about his charming early readers series, Murray and Bun! Book four, Murray the Ghosthunter is out now, there are two more in the pipeline, and Adam, who thoroughly enjoys writing them, is hoping there will be more still.
When we spoke to Adam in 2019, it was in the shared studio space he’d occupied for 20 years; five years on he’s had to move out. Has packing up prompted a look back? ‘I had an enormous A0 plan chest full of my artwork. Most of my artwork now is done more digitally, more through circumstance than choice, but it has freed me up in certain ways. You can be more confident, because you’ve always got the back button to undo things, but it was interesting going through the plan chest. I found some of the very first work that I ever did.’ He began his career in educational publishing, illustrating textbooks, Maths and English, ‘[In the English textbooks] there would be snippets of the classics which required black and white illustrations and that’s when I found my love of illustrating fiction.’ He remembers illustrating the Oxford Book of Scary Tales, ‘quite dark stories’, and reveals that the subject of his BA in illustration final was The Island of Dr. Moreau. ‘I had all these enormous, sinister illustrations in black charcoal. And then slowly I’ve become more humorous.’
It feels quite a big step from Doctor Moreau to Murray, a little cat who likes things neat and tidy, enjoys snoozing under his fluffy blanket and is only very reluctantly projected into adventure, and Bun, a cherry bun magically transformed into an irrepressible (sticky) rabbit. ‘Absolutely!’ says Adam, ‘But I think at heart there is some sort of Venn diagram between the two; you’re trying to convey a feeling, a sense of place and character, and a sense of what might not be being said in the text. And those things really interest me in illustrating. When you’re working with text, you don’t just decorate what has already been set, you want to try and bring something else to it; make it greater than the sum of the parts, if you like. You do all the same things for something slapstick and humorous, sensitive and heartwarming, or something sinister.’
Bridging the gap between picture books and longer fiction, the Murray and Bun! books are highly illustrated. As with his picture 
books, Adam creates with the end user in mind, in this case new readers, including some who are maybe reluctant. ‘I always like to look through my picture books and try to experience them without the words to see if I can follow the story. I try hard to consider expression, body language, to convey as much in the look of a character and the visual interaction of characters as in the text.’
One of the things that makes the Murray and Bun! adventures so special is the relationship between the two main characters, so much of it conveyed through the pictures. Referring to his picture book Silly Doggy, in which the main character fails or refuses to notice that her dog is actually a bear, Adam describes children’s gleeful response to the pantomime element, the gap between what the words say and the reality. It’s something he’s incorporated into Murray and Bun!: ‘There are scenes for example where Murray is rolling his eyes and saying, “Brilliant”. But the way he’s saying it, the slump of his shoulders, conveys the irony and the mismatch, which is much richer than him actually saying, “Oh no!”. And I think it really informs the reader as to the character as well.’ Throughout the books, emotions, the characters’ relationship, are often conveyed through a look with barely any text. ‘That’s what I try to do’, says Adam. He talks about using silence for comedic effect too. ‘In Murray the Ghosthunter for example, it’s the moment where he catches the ghost within three minutes. Everyone can see it’s just a handkerchief, but Murray is so proud of himself, no-one wants to burst his bubble. They wait for him to figure it out for himself. And I love those little interactions and having space in the books to be able to create those silent moments.’
He tells me that Murray is based on himself, and the more carefree, adventurous and optimistic Bun on his older brother, Matt, who sadly died in 2018. ‘I very much enjoy my home comforts, and Murray likes his snacks and his bed and his blanket, everything neat and tidy. And Bun is essentially Matt. He’s got this spirit of adventure that says it’s going to be fine, let’s just go, there’s nothing to worry about’. He finds it interesting that when he talks to children in schools and asks them which character they resemble, at least half say Murray. ‘I say, “Okay, I’m more Murray too, but I think we should all be a bit more Bun”. I’d like us all to step out of our comfort zone and say yes to things.’
He thinks of the books as ‘nimble: ‘It’s just let’s get straight in, get into the action, have some fun.’ Initially, as the series grew, he was worried about the format feeling repetitive (Murray and Bun go through the magic cat flap, are presented with a task, complete it after some upsets, and return home) but then, ‘I just think of James Bond movies, and I love all of those. They’re essentially the same film over and over again.’ Now he has a little checklist of things that he likes to include: Murray always talking about members of his very large family – ‘cats notoriously have loads of litters, family all over the place!’ – and assuming that simply through genetics he’ll be good at a huge range of activities. You’ll always find Bun’s Bonus Bits at the end and you’ll find a game or joke that plays with the book format too: in Murray the Viking, this is a tremendous visual joke about the Viking long ship being very long – indeed, it stretches over nine double pages – while in Murray the Ghost Hunter, there are ghosts you can only see if you hold the book up to a light – great fun! ‘I’ve had all these ideas when I’ve been doing picture books and I’ve been so frustrated that there’s only 18 spreads, so when I started talking to HarperCollins about these books, and they said, “Could you extend the extent?” I was like, yeah, that would be great.’
Fans of the series will find extra little surprises too, referencing different stories, for example, a portrait of Sir Nasty from Murray the Knight on the wall of the haunted castle in Murray the Ghosthunter. ‘I hope that these books are read repeatedly’ says Adam, ‘And I hope that fans will start to spot these things and get a little kick out of them.’ He has also been careful to design them to be read in any order. ‘As a child, it used to infuriate me that you could find books four and five of a series, but never books one, two or three.’ Each book opens with the same prologue, setting the scene, introducing Murray and Bun, and the magic cat flap.
The cat flap, accidentally enchanted as was Bun by Wizard Fumblethumb leads Murray and Bun somewhere new in each adventure and, 
as Murray finds himself in a different outfit each time too, there are definite shades of Mr Benn. ‘Exactly!’ says Adam. ‘Mr Benn was one of the inspirations for the cat flap, though I like the fact that Murray is thrust into the middle of a situation.’ He adds, ‘I think any portal device, like the wardrobe in the Narnia books, are such a great metaphor for books: open it, you’re in an adventure.’
He’d love to see Murray and Bun transfer to the small screen: ‘I’d really like TV producers to pick the books up. They could make a marvellous five minutes.’ He is, deservedly, very happy with the books. ‘Early in my career I was making books in a style and with a voice that I felt they ought to have as, children’s picture books, And I think that as I’ve gained confidence in the way I work and the things I like, that these books are the most ‘me’ of all my books. I always try to lead with warmth and humour and the Murray and Bun books have those in abundance. I really believe in kindness as a power for good too and I think Murray and Bun are full of that too.’
We agree. Let’s all be more Murray and Bun.
Andrea Reece is Managing Editor of Books for Keeps.
The Murray and Bun Books, all published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, £6.99.
Murray the Viking, 978-0008561246
Murray the Pirate, 978-0008561307
Murray the Knight, 978-0008561277
Murray the Ghosthunter, 978-0008740795
