Picture books, Donaldson said, “are not like a novel. They’re really a bit more like a song. Because they’re short, the structure becomes very important.” Many of her books centre on a refrain, which will dictate the meter. “If it’s going to rhyme, it’s just terribly important that there’s some repeated phrase, some sort of chorus-y bit.” She came up with the monster’s name “Gruffalo” because it happened to rhyme with the mouse’s refrain: “Silly old Fox, didn’t you know?”

I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs. Still, the pandemic forced even Donaldson to a halt. “I haven’t really done much writing,” Donaldson said. Even so, she had managed to write some poems, a song, begun editing two new poetry anthologies, and approved drafts of illustrations for her next books, due in 2021. Play ‘Chinese Whispers’ and see how stories can sometimes change as they are passed from person to person. A delight from start to finish. A room of children laughing hysterically, all totally mesmerised by the action.' Time Out Picture books are theatre for an audience of two,” said Kate Wilson, the managing director of publishers Nosy Crow and Donaldson’s former publisher. “They require performance, because most of the audience of a picture book is not able to read. And Julia is a performer.”

Elizabeth worked as a part-time secretary and helped her boss, Leslie Minchin, translate German lieder into English. It was a household of music and song: Elizabeth sang with the Hampstead Choral Society, Jerry played the cello in amateur string quartets, and both parents were active members of the Hampstead Music Club. Summer holidays were at Grittleton House in Wiltshire, where Jerry played his cello in a summer school for chamber music, while Julia and Mary romped around and put on musical shows with the other children. Find sources: "Julia Donaldson"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( March 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) An hour-long feast of storytelling that thrills children and parents alike. A masterpiece.’ ( Broadway Baby)

Is this book suggesting that lying and story telling is a positive or negative thing? Perhaps hat question could be posed in class to begin a discussion.She studied drama at Bristol University, and in 1969 spent a summer studying in Paris with a friend. Malcolm, then a medical student and a friend-of-the-friend, joined them. The group made money busking. Malcolm played guitar and Julia sang, covers mostly, but increasingly songs of her own – little ditties in French, a song in Italian about pasta – designed to amuse the crowd. Throughout the early 70s, they spent holidays busking across Europe and the US and performing street theatre. (They wed in 1972; Donaldson composed an operetta for the occasion.) In 1977, she and Malcolm recorded an album, First Fourteen, containing some of their early songs, which have a folksy, absurdist charm, reminiscent of early Monty Python.