Welcome to Grandma’s Violin
Grandma’s violin is the story of how love can nurture talent and curiosity through generations.
It nods toward As I walked out One midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee a novel I read when I began travelling and its themes and story have stayed with me.
As author and illustrator I hope that at least 50% of the story comes from the illustrations as they drove the story as it developed, and although neither Grandmas in this story have direct inspiration, they are an unashamed conglomeration of many I knew, some for not long enough.
Grandma’s violin has been accepted for publication by Austin Macauley Publishers
Creating Grandma’s Violin, a new book by Malcolm Richards
Grandma’s Violin, the first three pages
Amy knew her Grandma Sophia was her best friend and ally.
Sophia had always been in her life. She smelt like lavender and soap in the morning, pepper and garlic when she cooked, like the rhubarb and parsley when she gardened and like biscuits and mint tea when she read a story at the end of the day.
“Child!” she would say, “Quick, come with me!”, or ‘Child! bedtime now”, or “Çhild! you are a funny old thing!”
She read to Amy every day before retiring to her ‘Granny Flat’.
Grandma Sophia said that when she was a younger woman the world would have thought her quite something. In Amy’s world she was everything.
When Sophia hugged Amy, it was with every part of her. She was like a big warm soft pillow.
She had hugged Amy that way since she was a baby and it was Amy’s earliest memory.