on a desert island with an armadillo and a book

Thanks, Armadillo magazine, for making me this issue’s feature interview! One of the questions was about which books I’d want to have if I was stranded on a desert isle. So in case I ever go missing with an armadillo, I thought I’d leave you this drawing to remember us by. (Here’s the original rough pencil sketch before I traced it on the light box, if you want a peek.)

We’re reading The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois, which is one of my all-time favourite stories (and his illustrations are pretty fab, too). You can read why I choose it and these other two books in the interview.

The other two books are Vainglory by Geraldine McCaughrean (whom I’m interviewing, along with Candy Gourlay, over at the Hay Festival on 30 May!) and Watership Down by Richard Adams.

One more thing: I just realised I’d agreed ages ago to do a workshop for adults on Sunday at the House cafe & gallery in Camberwell. (I used to run it with friends when it was just a gallery, not a cafe.) If you fancy designing a character, playing a story-starter game and making a little book, it’s free and you don’t need to pre-book. All materials supplied (unless you have some favourite drawing pens and pencils you want to bring along); you might need to buy your own coffee.

Make: Illustration with Sarah McIntyre – Sun, 27 March, House gallery, Camberwell Church Street, Camberwell, London SE5 8QZ, 2-5pm. (I’ll be leading the workshop from 2-4 and you can stay another hour to finish if you like.)

Just as an armadillo side note, my sister and I used to have a friend with a mother in Louisiana (where, apparently, they have armadillos, and rabies is a bit of a problem). Her mother always gave her the stern instruction, Don’t touch the armadillos. NOT EVEN WITH A STICK. So ‘not even with a stick’ is a bit of a catch-phrase for us now.