Sharing the Joy of the Animals

How a Picture Book Enriches the World of Fisherwood Farm

This year, I was honoured to serve as Nicki Fisher’s writing coach (a.k.a. book midwife), on her first picture book, “Take a Look in the Nook”. What particularly struck me about the process was the impact that the book has had on her farm – and that the writing process has had on her, as an entrepreneur and lover of animals.

Fisherwood Farm in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, is known for quirky afternoon teas. Visitors enjoy scones with jam and cream in a cozy cabin and then wander the grounds to pet the lambs and feed the alpacas.  

These days, there’s something new on the menu: Take a Look in the Nook, co-founder Nicki Fisher’s first picture book, illustrated by Bojan Spasic.

“Kids open the book and say, ‘There’s Ollie [alpaca]!’ and go off to find him,” said Nicki. “It’s even better if they find him in the Nook.”

FIsherwood Farm — which Nicki co-founded with her wife, Carol Wood — provided the perfect inspiration for the book she long dreamed of writing.

“Once we got started, we realised the story [which is based on an actual incident] was already there, waiting to be written,” she said.

What Nicki couldn’t have predicted is that the farm was also waiting for the story, to make visitors’ experience complete. Take a Look in the Nook has enriched visitors’ appreciation of the animals and deepened Nicki’s own sense of mission about caring for her brood and sharing it with her visitors.

Nicki’s initial motivation was to write a story about her animals that would convey their unique personalities. She had “a lightbulb moment” after a chance meeting with Bojan Spasic, a local illustrator in search of a project.

“When I saw Bojan’s illustrations, I loved their quirkiness and thought we could work well together,” she said. “That’s when I realised that this could really happen.”

These days, grandparents and grandkids visiting the farm cuddle up to read about Ollie and friends. Then the tykes go into fields to match up the cheeky illustrations with their real-life counterparts. All are delighted to learn that Ollie’s story is based on the events of a rainy afternoon when his larger compadres, Pepe and Ricardo, muscled him out of their communal shelter. Ollie ventured off to find more luxurious quarters in Nicki’s cozy furnished Nook – where the other two later followed him.

“We like to think that Ollie became a leader that day,” Nicki said.

Take a Look in the Nook teaches kids about alpaca’s unique behaviours — their herd identity (an alpaca on his own can literally die of loneliness), their inquisitiveness and their communicative hums and screeches.

Readers can also learn more than they may realise about Nicki’s own vulnerable heart.

“I still remember the moment, a few weeks in, when I realised I was actually writing about myself,” she said. “That’s when it became a story. An alpaca who felt a bit of an outcast of the pack, and a bit on the outside and a bit lonely was something that chimed with me.”

In the narrative version, Ollie must build his courage to venture where no alpaca has gone before, and ultimately, welcome his friends into his new frontier. Nicki followed a similar path, from awkward schoolgirl to Head of Pret a Manger’s charitable foundation, providing employment opportunities to ex-offenders – a post she held until she established FIsherwood Farm.

“It’s a part of me that I’ve worked really hard to overcome — the shyness and quietness,” said Nicki. “I don’t know if someone reading the book would pick up on that at all unless they knew me well.”

Reconnecting with that earlier version of herself enabled her to create an authentic story that has left its mark not only on readers, but on the writer, as well.

“Through writing the book, I’ve become more aware. I can see it in others now,” she said. “When we see kids who might be a little shy, I love seeing how kids who are like that will come out of their shell. They will look at the book and chat about it with me.”

The book is also a springboard for conversation with adult visitors.

“People will be about to leave, and the kids are flicking through the book on the stand by the till, and the conversation will spark up,” she said.

In particular, they talk about the farm animals.

“I spend more time talking about the animals, and their characters, than I did before, because I feel even more connected to them now,” said Nicki.

“Even more than before, I see the animals as sentient creatures, and have a very deep affection for them. I’ve had to think about them more, and their characters, to write about them. I wouldn’t have thought writing would have that effect on me, but it has.”

So the story binds the farmer, the animals and the visitors. 

And Nicki hopes that buying the book and taking it away stamps the experience in visitors’ memories.

“It gives me such joy when somebody buys the book,” she said. “And nine times out of ten, they do. It’s nothing to do with the financial side. It’s all to do with the smiles and joy they are getting out of it. The driver of the farm is to make people feel special and cared for and connected with nature. The book is another way to reinforce that, to bring them the joy of the farm, and to keep the farm alive for them when they take the book home.”

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Do you have a book on simmer? Here is Nicki’s advice:

Get the right people around you.

“A book is an amalgamation of all sorts of people’s input,” she said, “a collection of people who come together and make it happen.”

Nicki’s dream team included her wife, Carol, who suggested, ‘Why don’t you try and write that book you’ve been talking about?” and illustrator, Bojan, whose nimble imagination produced everything from a frilly sleep mask for Ollie to a QR Code link to a video of alpacas humming. Farm visitors served as Beta testers and Nicki incorporated their useful suggestion into the final draft.

Don’t get too possessive about the words.

“At first, I was really concerned about the word count because Julia Donaldson [author of ‘The Gruffalo’] teaches that a picture book has to be 1,000 words and no more. But [Jo] said to write it all down and then strip it away. After I wrote the first draft, I remember the feeling of letting go of loads of stuff and thinking, ‘I really liked that bit!’ The vast majority of what I wrote isn’t in the book, but we needed to get to the nub, and if it was all there, it wouldn’t be as good.”

Just do it!!!

“There’s always fear when you are opening yourself up but so what? We all feel like that!  You may think you don’t want to but really, you know that you do. It feels like such an accomplishment. When people say they like the book, that’s icing on the cake, but the main thing is, just the fact I’ve done it.”

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Nicki dedicates her book to, “my magical grandpa . . . who never got to write “that book”.

Make sure you write yours!

Are you ready to get started? I can help you to get going . . . and to see it through!

Get in touch at joanna.norland@gmail.com.