Princess Sazzles and the Freshfield Tiger - a bespoke picture book by Dave Wood
In 2017 I 'came out of illustration retirement' to illustrate a picture book for my niece's 21st birthday present.
Princess Sazzles is my niece's 'alter-ego' and the whole book is a picture book version of a childhood memory. When she was about 6, I convinced her that on our walk through Freshfield Wood on a Sunday afternoon, with her elder brother and myself, we were being stalked by a tiger who only eats children wearing pink.
The following Christmas, when she asked again about the Freshfield Tiger, and I revealed to her that the Freshfield Tiger had a long bushy tail, sat in trees and ate nuts. At this revelation she shouted "But, that's a squirrel!" and belted me …and so the book idea was born.
In my picture book Princess Sazzles, like any good heroine, begins with a walk into a dark forest after ignoring all the danger signs.
Taking inspiration from Tex Avery cartoons, the narrator/illustrator and the heroine end up bickering over the story as it develops, and Princess Sazzles calls out the narrator's assertions on the 'tiger' before walking out of her own story in anger at the revelation of the 'tiger'.
While the book is not for sale, Princess Sazzles illustrated gifts are now on the Scouse-Scot Redbubble Shop. Check them out.
There are ten Princess Sazzles designs to choose from, and is the first set of Princess Sazzles designed gifts.
50% of all profits from the Princess Sazzles gift sales will go to Estrella School of Dance, my niece’s dance school in West Lancashire, England (just outside Liverpool).
After all, she is Princess Sazzles ‘ -) Check out the Estrella FB page estrellaschoolofdance.
