

Silly old gossip who gets on the nerves of everyone in the Skirtings.Īrabel’s son is an albino runt. Her love of her family binds it together and keeps it strong. Gentle wife of Albert and caring mother of Arthur and Audrey. Audrey cannot hold her tongue in an argument, and often says more than she should. She likes to look her best and wears lace and ribbons. Albert is a commonsensical mouse, not usually given to rash actions.įat and jolly, Arthur likes a scrap but always comes off worse.



‘I can’t think of a better way to earn a living!’ So I went away and cut it, and then came up with new ideas for books two and three of The Deptford Mice Trilogy – The Crystal Prison and The Final Reckoning. ‘My editor thought this manuscript would make a trilogy because it was so long. I had envisaged it as a picture book, but it became a 70,000 word manuscript, and the basis for The Dark Portal. At the same time there wasn’t, but I sat down and thought of a project visually and drew a story board as though I were making a film. When I sent them to a publisher, I was asked if there was a story to go with the drawings. ‘I started making sketches of mice because they were the smallest things I could think of to draw. But they generally all start as a sketch or drawing and then take shape as a character is developed around them. Like many writers, I sometimes base my characters on real people (or parts of real people) and sometimes they are the complete product of my imagination. Robin Jarvis writes: ‘Whenever I am asked where I get my ideas for books and characters, I always wish I could come up with some weird and wonderful answer: “I dream them,” for example, or, “I get inspired whenever there’s a full moon.” But, unfortunately, neither of these is true. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent, this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. The Author hereby asserts his moral rights to be identified as the Author of the Work.Īll rights reserved. This edition published in Great Britain in 2012 by Acorn Independent Press Ltd First Published in Great Britain in 1989 by Macdonald & Company (Publishers) Ltd
