Friendship and Chocolate!

    Welcome to my new website for those of you looking in for the first time.
I have to admit I have a certain leaning towards nostalgia, and childhood nostalgia at that, and for someone who grew up in the fifties and sixties having a website makes me feel as if I have been propelled into some  futuristic sphere. But having lived most of my life in the last century as some would say, (now that does make me seem older than I really am) I remember the days of ‘Jubilees’ (a triangular bright orange lolly for those of you younger than me), lemonade and pop that came in returnable bottles, penny chews, fizzy  flying saucers and scraped knees from climbing trees - I was a bit of a tomboy after all! One memorable Easter (I was about seven) I remember sitting high up in a tree with my best friend eating chocolate eggs. What better way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon? We were well hidden from adults of course, enveloped in  our own private leafy world, but what a great memory - friendship and chocolate - something I'll come to later on too!

I also remember the wonderful illustrated story books of the fifties and sixties
and some hand me downs that were even older.  Nowadays of course there are some great books about and there are wonderful children’s programmes on television too. The animation is just remarkable. The cinematography and artistry of films for example Toy story or Shrek are amazing, but the stories they tell too are importantly I think going back to an era of nostalgia where the morals were clear cut and everything rounded up nicely. Talking of rounded up isn’t Roley Moley just a lovely round portly, velvety chap? And although he is always getting into trouble of one kind or another, things always seem to come out alright in the end for him and his little friends! 

You may be interested to know that the first story in the series, ‘Roley Moley's Christmas,’ was actually inspired by a true (ish) story. A couple of years ago in Canada we had dug the Christmas tree up, roots and all with plenty of soil, and on the way back to the house we saw lying in the snow a mole. I won’t spoil it by going into what state the mole was in but let’s just say he wasn’t moving very much! Anyway, that put the thought of a mole into my head and when that evening after the Christmas tree had been nicely (and firmly) potted up it started to shudder and shake we really did wonder whether we had brought something else into the house in the roots of the tree! I of course put two and two together and came up with five - or Roley Moley to be precise! The story just grew naturally in my head and I just had to write it that same Christmas. (We never did discover the secret of the shaking tree, perhaps Roley really was in there!) But persuaded and cajoled by my children I published it on Amazon the next year (2011) and when after just one promotional day over six hundred copies had gone I knew Roley was a winner. I rather liked the little chap. He’s rather naive isn’t he? But he always means well towards his little friends. He has all those good old fashioned values I was talking about but he’s adventurous and a little bit naughty too! I think children today actually like that and I think most parents do too.  So having grown to know Roley a little more in my head I wrote ‘Roley Moley’s Easter Surprise.’ And there we have the relationship with chocolate and friendship! It must have been subconscious at the time but ‘Roley Moley’s Easter Surprise’ tells of just that- Roley’s chocolatey surprise for all his friends. It goes a bit wrong of course along the way as it always does but it turns out well in the end!

After ‘Roley Moley’s Easter Surprise’, ‘Roley Moley Goes in Search of the Moon’ popped into my head; and with his usual naive but daring spirit he had a great adventure along the way and I had a great time writing (and illustrating) it.
‘Roley Moley to the Rescue’ and ‘Roley Moley in Trouble’ will both be out very soon and at the heart of both stories, as always, is a tale about the friendship between our little round velvety fellow and all his little friends. And isn’t that what we all want for ourselves and our children - a few good friends with some adventures and laughs along the way?

Look out for the new Roley Moley titles coming soon and don’t forget you can contact me here via the website or write to me or Jonathan at:  jjgillpub@hotmail.co.uk.

Oh and if you'd like any of the books they are just a click away on the home page!