A CHILDREN’S book author is looking forward to visiting Dumfries and Galloway next month to discuss his writing with young fans.
Jack Meggit-Phillips wrote ‘The Beast and the Bethany,’ about a man who selects a little girl he could feed to a beast that will provide him with a life of luxury and riches.
The man has to deal with the dilemma of choosing between riches or having a friend.
Jack published the first book of the series in 2020 and it’s a project he is deeply proud of as becoming a writer is something he has been pursuing since he was ten years old.
“There was a creative writing competition at school (when I was ten),” Jack said. “That sort of sparked the love of writing for me. So since then, I’ve been sort of gradually writing more and more.”
Being able to be creative and innovative is what the North London-based author enjoys about writing children’s books.
“I think the world’s just infinitely sillier and more playful, and in some ways, more important when you look at things from a child’s perspective,” said Jack. “I think any sort of story, which includes children, is also made for anyone else reading it. I think it’s just got that special spark of something that other forms of literature don’t have.”
Having a different writing style and being unique is something Jack is proud of. He believes his writing thrives when he can dip his personality into the writing and he enjoys including humour with a splash of sarcasm.
Writing takes him some time to make sure he is using all of his available ideas to put out a good product.
“The longest part of (writing a book) is thinking of the ideas,” said Jack. “I’m quite quick at getting it down on the page. So, for instance, ‘The Beast and the Bethany,’ I started one Christmas, and I finished it by Easter. So that was about four months.
“When writing the beast book, I had a full-time job. So I was always snatching any free time I could to write, so when I was riding on train journeys to work, I’d be writing on lunch breaks,” said Jack. “I’ve still got that mindset. Whenever I’ve got a free moment, I feel like I should be writing, or I am writing.”
Jack hopes to release the fourth book of ‘The Beast and the Bethany’ in September.
