Special Guest Northern Highlight - Picture Hooks

SPECIAL GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT

VIVIAN FRENCH & LUCY JUCKES, PICTURE HOOKS

Can you tell us about Picture Hooks and how it was founded?

In 2011, we were chatting over coffee about illustrators who had graduated, but were finding it impossible to find anyone to look at their work - and we realised that although there were lots of different creative writing courses and mentoring schemes for authors, there was nothing for illustrators. And that year, Picture Hooks was born. We set out to demystify the process of both children’s illustration and publishing by setting up a mentoring scheme working with the very best illustrators as mentors, organising conferences, masterclasses, exhibitions, speed dating, visits to publishers and lots of advice and encouragement.

What makes Edinburgh a good city to be based?

We both live here! It’s a capital city on so many levels - the home of Edinburgh Art College, Scottish Book Trust, Edinburgh International Book Festival, the National Gallery of Scotland, Creative Scotland - all organisations who have been constantly supportive and encouraging of our aims. It’s easy to get to but a long way from what was the picture book magnet, London.

Tell us about Edinburgh and the children’s book scene there.

It’s humming - fabulous bookshops and publishers and enthusiasts for books and reading. Everyone is supportive of each other - and that’s a similar picture when we’ve done events in Glasgow, Dundee, Inverness and Middlesborough, Newcastle and Manchester.

Tell us about your current competition.

We wanted an event to celebrate and encourage illustrators who might have been struggling in lock down. 'From Seed to Table' is a summer competition running to the end August to find illustrations for an on-line and physical exhibition - with a £1,000 prize every other week!

What are your future plans for Picture Hooks?

We’ll continue to support illustrators, emerging and established - we have just opened for submissions for the next mentoring scheme, but offering 6 places this year rather than 5. We’re planning to work with some of our own mentors and reach out to new ones - it seems they enjoy the experience as much as the mentees. We have lots of new plans including a residency in Halifax, another conference and a stronger presence at the Bologna Book Fair. While we still believe that it’s crucially important to demystify the processes we are aware that other organisations have now taken this on board, but there continues to be a pressing need to make it all more accessible and inclusive. We are excited that Tiffany Leeson has recently joined us as a trustee.

Why is it so important that we continue to promote children's books?

We try to promote and encourage illustration within children’s books for lots of reasons. Illustrations let readers experience the world from the viewpoint of different characters and places, and widen their ideas. Picture books are usually a child’s first introduction to art, and the concept that people, places and objects can be represented in many different ways. Illustrations help hugely with visual literacy - we love silent books. And they’re fun!

How has the children’s publishing scene in the north and Scotland changed over recent years?

In so many ways, as it has across the UK. When we first started Picture Hooks, some London publishers asked us to pay for their travel to Edinburgh - and now different companies are opening offices up here. It’s very exciting - there is more and more on offer to teach and encourage illustrators from Orange Beak and The Good Ship to Children’s Books North and Pathways. We love the fact that Maisie Shearring was one of our mentees... and is now not only a successful author/illustrator, but also one of our most sought after mentors!

You can follow Picture Hooks on:

Twitter: @PictureHooks

Insta: picturehooks

www.picturehooks.org.uk