Finding Hope by Nicola Baker
We have a lovely guest blog from author, Nicola Baker, about her new series, Whistledown Farm and the first book, Finding Hope.
Growing up I loved books about witches and magic – but I also loved books about animals and the countryside. I would get lost in these stories for hours and was never happier than when I was reading – preferably outside and often in a tree. For my debut book, Finding Hope, I had plenty of real life inspiration to draw on and although I didn’t grow up on a farm, I did grow up surrounded by rural communities and a love of the natural world. We went out on walks, learnt about animal tracks, collected acorns and conkers and I was a junior member of the RSPB.
Farming came into my life as a teenager and it’s something I instantly connected with. It’s not for the faint-hearted, working in all weathers, day in day out, you’ll find it’s a passion for most of those that do it. Passing on some of that passion for the countryside, rural communities and farming to children, is something I feel is really important. Creating an understanding and connection to where food comes from, looking after where we live and developing a love of nature is something I think we should all be encouraging as early as possible. When I began writing the Whistledown Farm Adventures I wanted to use my experiences to make the stories feel as real as possible whilst creating a fictional world to get lost in.
Ava arrives at Whistledown Farm like a duck out of water, but finds that she actually quite likes life on the farm. If we don’t see or experience something, how will we learn about it and how will know if we’ll like it? There’s so much I could have packed into the series about farming and the countryside that the most difficult part was what to leave out. Finding that balance between writing a story with a bit of mystery and adventure whilst peppering it with farming and rural content is a tricky balance to strike. Hopefully readers it who come from a more city environment with get a flavour a rural life and those in the country will see some of themselves in the books. For those unfamiliar with that world, I hope they take away a few little nuggets about spring time, lambing, hatching eggs and a new found familiarity with farming and the countryside. What we read, see and experience in the years we spend growing up is something we take into adulthood as I know it’s something that has definitely stayed with me.
A Whistledown Farm Adventure: Finding Hope by Nicola Baker is out 29th February (Hardback, Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
