The card

Needle mentioned to me about the hand-made card with a cross-stitch red squirrel on the front. It helped me to find Mistmantle.

If you look in the front, or 'prelim' pages of 'Urchin of the Riding Stars', you will see a dedication to Caroline Sheldon and 'with thanks to Jo Boardman for the squirrel.'

Jo used to come to a creative writing class which met at my house many years ago and one evening, when we were clearing up and people were getting ready to go home, the conversation turned to red squirrels. A few weeks later, my thoughts turned to putting red squirrels into a book.

I had been trying for a long time to write a book about a secret island, but I couldn't make it work. It was Caroline Sheldon, my agent, who urged me to write about animals because she liked my first book, 'A Friend for Rachel', which had mice in it. I didn't think I could do it, but perhaps, if I started with my favourite animal...

So on the train home from London King Cross to York that evening, I scribbled and thought and made notes about this possible red squirrel story. But I still wasn't sure. The compass point hadn't yet settled on True North. Perhaps it wasn't something I could do but only a wild goose chase, or even wild squirrel chase, that I shouldn't pursue.

One evening I was at a meeting at Jo's house about some church children's activities. Jo put her head round the door, saw me, and said,

"Oh! I didn't know you were here! Don't run away, I've got something for you!"

Presently she returned with a small envelope in her hand. Inside was the card that still lives in my writing desk. It's a hand stitched picture of a red squirrel in a tree, and inside, she had written,

"Don't you love red squirrels?"

And, in the surprise and delight at the gift, I knew what I had to do.