The New Football Kit and Ben and the Boxes
by Jeremy Strong

When I was working on these stories my cat, Moses, would come and visit me. Sometimes he would get bored being downstairs by himself, so he would come up to see me.

Anyhow, he would jump up onto my desk and stand there with his front paws on my computer keyboard. I would be writing and then all of a sudden the story would come out something like this:

"The new football kit.
Look out, Ben!
Ben, look out!
Benmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
``````````````````````````````
vccvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv"

The stories Moses wrote were rubbish! However, it did give me the idea for Ben and the Boxes. I think Fatcat had been taking writing lessons from Moses.

Brave Mouse by Jeremy Strong

 

I often thought about my own childhood when I was writing these stories. My brothers, sister, friends and I often played in the park near our house. I was always falling into the stream, like Sam and Mouse in Brave Mouse.

The Secret Room by Jeremy Strong

We had a concrete air raid shelter in our back garden, and we used to play in it. We used it as our secret meeting place. The air raid shelter gave me the idea for the secret room the friends discover in The Secret Room Part 1.

A Pet for Sam by Jeremy Strong

My friends, brothers and sister used to go animal crazy from time to time. We would collect spiders and butterflies and caterpillars and frogs and try to look after them. Sadly we were not very good at it. The creatures were far better at looking after themselves and we should really have left them alone. But that interest in animals and mini-beasts made me think up the character of Sam and her antics in A Pet for Sam.

Click here for our interview with Jeremy Strong