Tiger, Tom & Tinkle : Creative Collaborations With Judith Kerr, Philippa Pearce and Kathleen Hale

''... this wonderful book that gives us some idea of how all this was achieved.’ – Sir Michael Morpurgo.

''A must for anyone interested in three queens of children’s literature, who all developed a close working relationship with the king of children’s drama, David Wood’ – Dame Jacqueline Wilson.

A unique celebration of David Wood’s creative collaborations and cherished friendships with three legendary children’s writers — two of whom are also fondly remembered for their remarkable talent for illustration.

This book brings together correspondence and personal recollections that chronicle the development of Wood’s acclaimed stage adaptations of Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden, as well as his endeavours to create a television animation series based on Kathleen Hale’s Orlando the Marmalade Cat.

Revealed in fascinating detail are the working practices of these three grandes dames of children’s literature as they join forces with Wood — hailed as ‘the national children’s dramatist’ — to bring their beloved stories to stage or screen. Their witty, insightful letters and thoughtful annotations sparkle with humour and enthusiasm, offering a rare glimpse into the creative process. Wood’s sensitive and respectful approach to adapting their work lays the foundation for enduring friendships.

‘No-one has done more than David Wood to bring the great children’s book classics to the stage. The favourite stories and characters of Judith Kerr, Philippa Pearce, and Kathleen Hale, amongst many others, have been adapted by David and played out on stages up and down the country, to hundreds of thousands of children, many of whom have already become parents and teachers themselves and are even now through David’s plays, passing the stories they have loved to the next generation. 

Go to London, New York, or any city in this country and abroad, and walk down past the theatres, and you find them putting on popular adaptations of children’s books, from Cats to Matilda to Mrs Doubtfire. They fill theatres, stimulate children and families to go to the theatre, to read stories. David Wood was and is the great pioneer of all this. Writers, readers, children, grown-up children, we all owe him a great deal. And it’s this wonderful book that gives us some idea of how all this was achieved.’

– Sir Michael Morpurgo.