I wish I’d Written: Caroline Pitcher

Listen. Listen.

The song of the earth.

Caroline Pitcher chooses a joyful story, singing with love of the natural world and the affection between child and grandparent.

I wish I’d written Lob, by Linda Newbery, illustrated by Pam Smy

Grandpa Will grows vegetables in earth as rich and moist as fruit cake, and Lucy loves to help him. So does hard-working Lob. He can only be sensed by special people, being a creature from folklore, both an industrious household hob and a Green Man. His eyes are green as new acorns, his imperceptible presence like the ‘bustle in your hedgerow’ from Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. To Lucy he’s a bent old man, a flitty green thing like a dragonfly, young as herself or younger.

When her beloved Grandpa dies, Lucy longs for Lob to come to London and find her so they can grow things again. Her parents think Lob is an imaginary friend and in her grief Lucy wonders if she’d just gone along with Grandpa’s game of make-believe.

Yet the magical memory of Lob is a constant comfort.

Meanwhile, Lob walks the roads, as Grandpa said he would, through the seasons, sharing his thoughts, searching for his next special person. Lob finds nature everywhere, on a farm, at the Chelsea Flower Show, even in a crowded city with its snake-tunnels and gliding steps.

Not everyone is kind to Lob. Be warned! He isn’t some namby-pamby elf, but a force of nature who will fight back.

Linda Newbery writes clearly and poetically, and Pam Smy embroiders the text with her lovely line drawings.

Lob by Linda Newbery illustrated by Pam Smy is published by Jonathan Cape, 978-1780080833, £7.99 pbk.

Mariana and the Merchild by Caroline Pitcher, illustrated by Jackie Morris, is published on July 4th by Otter-Barry Books, £13.99