The Winterman

A Christmas Story

First released in 2020 (but written in 2010), my first, and so far only, children’s book, The Winterman, is available in Paperback and Audiobook.

The Audiobook has been unavailable for a while, but now it’s back!

I wrote The Winterman during a low time. I was licking my wounds over the crash and burn of my debut feature, A Reckoning - a story for another time, maybe - and I had left my hometown of Derby and moved down to Warwickshire to be with my then-girlfriend, now-wife, Kate. It was coming on Christmas - as Joni once said - and I wanted something good and pure in my creative life, so I began writing this story.

I drew inspiration from The Snowman and The Box of Delights, as well as other works that had enriched my childhood, and began to think of a more elemental and supernatural version of Father Christmas. A spirit more aligned with the Great God Pan, Herne the Hunter, and especially the Green Man. A folklorey Gift Giver. Plus, I wanted to write about England under snow. The kind of snow I remember from my childhood.

I wrote the story over the Christmas of 2010, and then put it in a drawer for ten years.

Having children made me pull The Winterman out of the drawer. I wanted to release it for them. Luckily, I found an incredible illustrator in Tabitha Marsh. All these beautiful pictures are the work she did for my book. I just think they’re wonderful.

Around the time of the book’s publication, we released a short video charting Tabitha’s process as she worked on the final picture for The Winterman, which just happens to be my favourite illustration in the book.

That’s wonderful, right?

Tabitha is incredibly talented and I feel so honoured that she brought my book to life with her art. Hire her!

The Audiobook was produced by Listening-shelf Audio and is wonderfully narrated by Sarah Jane Rose (who also narrated Society Place), with Ian Pringle brilliantly playing the role of the Winterman himself.

I think it’s a lovely Audiobook, and if you’ve got little ones, well, I think they might like it too… Just sayin.

In 2022, I wrote a Radio Drama, The Winterman and the Silver Bell, again for Listening-shelf Audio. A prequel of sorts, set in London in 1870 (the year Dickens died), about two young mudlarks who encounter the magical Gift-Giver. It was an interesting process scripting a story for the ear, as opposed to the eye.

So anyway, if you’re ready to get into the festive spirit, please consider picking up The Winterman in Paperback (if only for Tabitha’s wonderful illustrations) and/or the Audiobook, which I can proudly say my eldest daughter listens to every year.

Of course, I think this one would make a wonderful animated film.

Just putting that out there as well…

Merry Christmas!