I love spending time outside in spring and summertime – going for walks, eating outside, and growing flowers in my garden. I love the way that days expand, so it feels as if you have more time to do things, and more space to do them in.
This photo of me was taken in August when it was still light at 9pm.
So I find it very hard in autumn and winter when the light changes and the clocks go back, and you have to stay indoors. Those moments when parks and playgrounds suddenly shut. When afternoon walks turn twilit and spooky. When you pretend to yourself that it’s not really that dark at 4.30pm – but all at once the sun completely sets and it’s properly black and cold, and all you can do is go inside.
But I’m lucky. I live near a wonderful park, and last November, when the sunset at 4pm, some fantastic people organised a light festival there. They opened the park up, and transformed it into a wonderland of light and colour.
There were paper lanterns all over the park: some of them in the shape of bees and ghosts. There were glowing helium balloons and strings of fairy lights. At the heart of the park is a beautiful long avenue of horse chestnut trees. The team had placed lights into these trees, which turned them red, blue and purple. Those trees have been there since the park was first planted in the 1930s, and probably haven’t ever experienced anything like it before! Loads of people came along and gasped and chatted and drank hot chocolate.
At the end of the festival, there was a DJ and an amazing light show. Lasers spun rainbows down the avenue of trees and shot glittering columns into the sky, making dazzling patterns as everybody danced. The Moon peeped out between the trees and joined in the party.
It lifted my spirits and helped me appreciate the beauty of light in the dark. It made me celebrate, rather than feel sad; it pointed the way to lighter days to come.
And so in Light Night, I wanted to write about a character who, like me, finds the dark days of winter difficult. A lot of people do find winter hard, and it can sometimes be a lonely time. I wanted to let readers know that if they feel like this, they’re not alone. And I wanted to share the joy of our special light night in the park.
The short, dark winter days make Fred feel down. With nowhere to play outside, it can be hard to have fun, but his mum might have just the perfect solution! They can’t do anything about the season but they can find new fun things to do that you can only do in the dark! Join Fred and his parents at the fantastic Light Night Fair and find some brightness in the winter nights in this uplifting book.