Maps.

Dragon Blood Pirates.

Maps are a real boost to a writers arsenal. Authors love them! Describing where places are so the reader can visualise more clearly is a real boost to a book. I’ve found it helps the authors understand their own creations too!

In 2007-2009 I illustrated 18 chapter books called The Dragon Blood Pirates. Excellent swashbuckling adventures galore, written by Eleanor Coombe from Tasmania. She wrote under the pen-name “Dan Jerris”. (To my shame, I only realised the joke about 10 years later….) Undoubtedly my favourite series to draw in all my years of being an illustrator. Adventures galore on the high seas. Brilliant! Naturally, as they were pirate stories they required maps. A lovely accompaniment to the books was a HUGE map that you could take out of the book and put on your wall. Apparently some kids actually did, which is a lovely thing to discover.