On Mayhem… by Barry Falls

Barry Falls is an author and illustrator living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He graduated from Ulster University in 2005 and now works there as a visiting lecturer in illustration. His debut children’s book, It’s Your World Now! was published in 2019.

Barry’s striking, unusual Illustration style
carries echoes of Peter Blake and Oliver Jeffers, coupled with the read-again
appeal of Dr Seuss’ rhythmic text. The illustrations explode off the page and
capture the full spectrum of emotion through clever use of space, colour and
characterisation, with many captivating and curious details to draw readers
back again and again. Here, he tells us about the inspiration behind his new
book, Alone!.

On mayhem…

My life used to be quite relaxed.

Before there were kids there was time for
reflection, relaxation and an extended list of trivial pursuits. There was time
for long, serious Russian novels about men and women with hard to pronounce
names. There was time for unplanned forays into town, where a latte could be
sipped at preposterous leisure, and perhaps a cryptic crossword could be
completed – you know, one of the hard ones in the Times. In short, there was an
abundance of what you often hear referred to as ‘me-time’.

But that was the old me. Or the young me, if
you want to be all technical about it. The new me – or the old me, if you
really insist on being technical –
does not have much spare time for a long list of trivial pursuits. The new me –
the now me, let’s call him – shares
all his safe spaces with a wife, a dog, three kids and seven chickens, and let
me tell you, Dostoyevsky doesn’t get a look-in.

The main character in my second picture book
is a boy called Billy McGill who loves nothing more than to be alone. Billy is
the old me. At least at the start of the book, Billy is the latte drinking,
crossword solving, trivial-pursuit pursuing me. Billy spends all his time on
his own, peacefully putting in the days in his tidy little house on the top of
a hill, far from the hustle and bustle of the outside world and always with the
kettle on and a weighty tome to indulge in. He even has ginger hair, just like
his grumpier, older creator. I didn’t realise when I was writing it, but with
the benefit of hindsight I can now see quite clearly that the entire story,
which is called Alone! (And is in all
good bookshops now, thank you very much) is a response to the recalibration my
life has had to undergo since the arrival of aforementioned wife, children and
animalia. My wife was a little offended when I confessed this to her recently,
but one has to be honest.

In my story, the action really gets underway
when Billy’s peaceful existence is disturbed – not by the arrival of romance,
as was the case in my life – but by the more irritating intrusion of a squeaky
little mouse. Billy tries to get rid of the mouse by sourcing a cat, but the
cat is more interested in playing with the mouse and upending expensive looking
Chinese vases than it is in vanquishing the little pest. The mayhem that ensues
– and by Jove it IS mayhem – is a problem that Billy has created, and one he
must also solve. Indeed the mayhem escalates to such a level that Billy almost
throws the towel in, and stomps off all by himself to huff and puff on some
other faraway hill.

Mayhem is a fun thing to write about in a
children’s book. I’ve always loved the sense of joyfully anarchic chaos in Dr
Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, and the
unhinged energy of those three ‘wild rumpus’ spreads in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.

Kids love reading about mayhem too –
especially when they’re safely tucked in bed, turning the pages of a book with
someone who loves them. I hope that
my book, even though it’s choc-a-bloc with chaos, will provide a joyful few
moments of togetherness at the end of a busy day for both parent and child.

Because let’s face it; there will always be a
little mayhem in our lives, and we can’t just walk away from it when the
cortisol levels rise. In fact, without the chaos of the everyday, the everyday
can become terribly dull. I’m pleased to say that by the end of Alone! Billy realises that the noise and
disturbance brought into his house by that squeaky little mouse is not just an
irritation. It is that a little bit,
but it also leads to a new connection to his community that is enriching and
rewarding. In short, he has become the ‘now me’. Because, in my own life, I
have learned that the noisy times and the chaotic times and the moments of
mayhem – and by Jove there IS mayhem – provide context for the occasional snatches
of me-time that still come my way, and helpfully nudge me out into the world,
where fun and friends and adventure has been patiently waiting for me to finish
my crossword.

Disclaimer: I’ve never finished the Times
crossword.

Alone! by
Barry Falls is published by Pavilion Children’s Books, £6.99 paperback, out
now.

www.pavilionbooks.com