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Sandmare
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Background Information
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| I often see things that seem so alive that they deserve to have their own book. The sandmare was one of these. I saw a drawing of a horse on a beach a few years ago. It wasn’t particularly well executed. It only had two sticks for legs, but somehow it was fizzing with life. I think it had something to do with the way the eye was placed. A sand drawing is of course particularly ephemeral because it’s only there until the next tide and perhaps this was what gave the drawing it’s poignancy. I suppose I could have imagined some sort of after life for this drawing as a white horse on the top of the waves. But I’ve never really bought that image. Foam is just foam. This drawing deserved better. Clouds now, there’s another thing altogether. And so the story of the Sandmare began to grow. It seemed too complicated an idea for a picture book. I wrote it in the first year of my daughters life, in between feeds and nappy changes. Ted (Dewan) agreed to illustrate it in black and white.. Supposing with the help of a wishbone, the horse drawing drawing were to stand on it’s own two feet for the space of a whole night. Would that be enough for it? Or would it want even more. And could anything be possible with enough determination? Perhaps not, but as the glass horse in the story says to the Sandmare “ Reach for the stars. You may not get there, but you probably won’t end up back where you started.” |
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