Garry Parsons: ‘Trust what comes out of the pencil’

I’m speaking to illustrator Garry Parsons after he’s had a day of going in and out of Medway schools as part of World Book Day. He’s been drawing dragons and creatures with kids, with some sessions whole school assemblies of up to 400 children. It must be quite a feat to get that number of children drawing with focus, I ask. “Yes,” Garry laughs. 

“It’s a bit of a polarity,” he adds, explaining the gear change between the autonomous work of an illustrator and his draw-along workshops. “I go from being on my own for hours on end to talking to 400 children. It can be a bit crazy.” 

The workshops held on this particular day were based on The Dragonsitter series by Josh Lacey, and children were asked to create their own fantastical beast. “I give them tips on how to draw things like faces,” he explains. “The idea is to keep it simple, so they don’t get too hung up on being perfect and can just get their idea out.

Garry continues: “Dots for eyes, a curve for a nose, then they add a hairstyle, which could be their own, and suddenly [the drawing] becomes them, which is just magic.”

“You can get anything from a griffin to a hamster that might be too big to get through the double doors of the library,” he says about what kind of creatures children come up with. “The kids always come up with whacky ideas. 

“One of my favourites was when I was asked to draw an eyeball having a picnic in a park so I drew an eyeball eating cake.” 

When it comes to his own work, Garry says he usually has an idea about how an illustration is going to look in his head, “but how it transpires on the page is a different story,” he adds. 

“What I’ve learnt is, trust what comes out of the pencil. That often produces interesting results and that’s the bit of magic I like about drawing.”

In his 20-odd year career, the Herne Bay local, who once thought he was due for a career in animation, has added warmth and colour to scores of beloved tales. This includes the George’s Secret Key to the Universe series, written by Lucy Hawkins and her famous astrophysicist father, The Who’s Whonicorn of Unicorns and A Daisy Story series, both by Kes Gray. He’s worked with some of Britain’s biggest children's authors including Dick King-Smith, Ian Whybrow, and Jeanne Willis. 

Garry's first book, Billy’s Bucket by Kes Gray, won The Red House Book Award in 2004 in the younger children category. However, Garry is probably most well known for The Dinosaur That Pooped series; a string of books about a boy and a tubby dinosaur who has an insatiable appetite for anything in front of him and the ability to expel floods of fecal matter that has become a worldwide hit - naturally. 

Written by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter of pop band McFly, the series has sold more than two million copies globally and is currently being turned into a live action show that will tour next year. Alas, Garry tells me he doesn’t have much to do with the stage show and therefore doesn’t know how the jet streams of poo will work on stage. He also didn’t have a hunch that the series would become so big, this staging issue would become a reality. 

“I had no idea how the series was going to turn out,” Garry laughs. 

“But I certainly think it started a genre of more tastefully gross topics for children’s books. It sparked a whole series of poop books in general and stories on the more…” he pauses as he searches for the right word, “‘domestic’ side of things.”

Treading toilet humour’s fine line, Garry, who worked closely with Tom and Dougie to create the look of the dinosaur, remembers considering colour usage when he first began working on the series. “We wanted to be gross and funny, not gross, so [the illustrations] had to stay on a certain level so it didn’t take you anywhere too horrible.” 

His approach to the series’ gross out factor is to treat it with “as much humour as possible”. “When the animals are coming out,” Garry says, “being swooshed along in a wave of dinosaur poop; I like those particular spreads.” 

“In the Halloween book, where the werewolves and vampires are being flushed out and floating along in a pleasant, toffee coloured…” he trails off, “that was one of my favourites.”

“I don’t want it to be gross. I want it to be funny,” he adds. “Humour is the most important part. 

“If you read these books out loud with kids, the part they enjoy the most is shouting out ‘poo’. It’s giving children license to say something a little big frowned upon by parents and a daring freedom, which is nice.”

Away from the Dinosaur That Pooped series, one particular book which holds a special place for Garry is My Daddies!, written by Gareth Peter. “I’m very fond of it,” he says. “It’s a touching story about fathers as parents.

“The book talks about children who are adopted, and that’s close to my heart because my kids are adopted. It’s written in a way that is very caring and loving, which is good. Fathers are a slightly neglected topic in picture books.” 

Indeed, a recent study found that children’s books presented a “narrow view of fatherhood” with the role still stuck in traditional gendered parenting patterns, which risks reinforcing fathers playing a lesser role in family units. 

“Parents in picture books are often seen as buffoons or aloof when they appear,” Garry says. “Or they are busy tinkering in the garden shed and not actually taking a serious role in parenting, which certainly is not representative in many dads’ cases.

“I do enjoy a book when a dad is shown to be a really positive parent figure.”

Garry will host two draw-along sessions today, Saturday, March 8 at The Whitstable Children's Festival of Books, which also features Margate author and illustrator Em Cosh. His workshops will be based on the Dinosaur That Pooped (10am) and Daisy and the Trouble with Unicorns (11.30am). 

The new literature festival for East Kent is co-founded by Tamara McFarlane of bookshop Tales on Moon Lane and who co-produces Margate Bookie’s children programming. Held at The Horsebridge Arts Centre, more information and last minute tickets are available here thehorsebridge.org.uk