Jonny's Work

I've decorated my office with a few of Jonny Duddle's brilliant illustrations. These are the images that were used on my book covers.

Donegal Catch

I know The Badness of Ballydog is not the first time trawlers, lighthouses and seagulls have been put together but I like to think that the package designers at Donegal Catch might have read it. After all, Ballydog is in Donegal.

Monsters Attack Dún Laoghaire

On Saturday March 10th Don Conroy, Judi Curtin, Oisín McGann, Sarah Webb and myself will be spending the morning with readers in the County Hall, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. The organisers have used my latest cover for the poster, you can check it out here and get lots of info about the event (it's a PDF file).



Tickets are available from the Pavilion Theatre Booking Office (01) 231 2929 or visit their website, www.paviliontheatre.ie.

Right now Inis Magazine are having a competition to win a family ticket to the event. Click here and answer the question. CLUE: To this question, as to most things in life, Garrett Carr is not the answer.

A Bit Deep

Deep Deep Down will be published in the UK later this year. We have been working on the cover image recently. Once again Jonny Duddle has been doing a fine job. As a taster, this is just a little chunk.


The cover art for Deep Deep Down is by Jonny Duddle.

The Truth about Lighthouses

Last week I meet with students in both secondary and a primary school. The secondary was Methodist College, Belfast. This school is more commonly known as Methody. Hello to everyone there.


May on her boat.

The next day I visited Crumlin Integrated Primary. The students there had done some drawings of Ballydog. I was particularly taken with these impressions of May, throwing fish fingers from the Sunny Buoy to her friend below.


Ballydog's lighthouse.

Quite a few drawings featured the lighthouse and I asked one boy why he, and everyone else, had given the lighthouse red and white stripes. “Because that’s how it is on the cover of the book,” he replied without hesitation. He was right of course, I had forgotten the illustrator had painted the lighthouse on the cover of The Badness of Ballydog in that way. I had asked the question because in reality Irish lighthouses are simply painted white from top to bottom. They are never red and white.


Sticks of Rock, also known as Candy Cane, and a barber's Pole. Sadly, lighthouses don't get painted this way.


Apart from the lighthouse, I also really like the big smoke filling the top of this drawing.

The young artist behind one of these drawings took the stripes one step further. The red and white bands have been thrown to 45 degrees. I wonder was the image of a barber’s pole mingling in her/his mind. Or maybe the sticks of rock sold at the seaside. I have definitely never seen a lighthouse painted like that in reality … although I’d love to.

Let's Get Lost

Thank you to everyone who came along to my event in No Alibis bookstore during the Belfast Children’s Festival. My next outing is to the Flat Lake Festival in county Monaghan this weekend. Visit their website to get a sense of what an unusual, varied and hay-barn style carnival it will be. Bring your wellies. I will be showing and telling in the children’s tent twice over the weekend, on Saturday and Sunday. The theme will be The Badness of Ballydog and the ideas behind it. I will also be giving a short lecture about some real sea monsters in the HURL pavilion.

Jonny Duddle has done it again with the cover for Lost Dogs. It is time to reveal his work.


This is the illustrator's portfolio.

I like the image a lot. Mr Duddle has captured May’s new look very well and, as you can see, another character has joined the trio for this book. When presented with the cover a certain Ms. S. commented that, “Ewan looks like he’s in a boy band” but that's fine by me. I think that's just right. Lost Dogs is the sequel to The Badness of Ballydog and will be out in November. I am still trying to think up a title for the third book.

Rough Sea on a Rough Draft

Thank you to every one at Sullivan Prep, Holywood, who made me very welcome last week. I meet with two large groups. Several students asked me about The Badness of Ballydog’s cover illustration. It’s a small coincidence that the very next day the illustrator himself was writing about the job on his blog. He posted up the first draft of the work.


The Badness of Ballydog, rough cover.

Click this link to go to Jonny Duddle’s blog. Click this link to go to his portfolio where you can see other examples of his work.

Something is coming ...

The Badness of Ballydog will be published by Simon and Schuster next February. It will be followed by Lost Dogs later in the year. There will also be a third, I am still thinking about the title for that. I already have one I like but the publisher thinks it is too long. We will see.

The cover illustrator is Jonny Duddle. Looking at his portfolio I see that he is fond of pirates so The Badness of Ballydog, which contains no pirates but does have plenty of boats and high waves, probably suited him. He can also draw a leatherback turtle excellently, but you’ll have to wait to see that. It’s on the back.

Ballydog is a bad town on the road to nowhere. It's also home to Andrew, the boss of a school gang; May, an outcast for her strange ways and ability to understand animals; and Ewan, a newcomer, hiding out in Ballydog under the witness protection scheme. Now these three teenagers are under threat as a vast ancient creature marches along the seabed towards their town, intent on destroying it. Can they save Ballydog? Is it worth saving?