Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Tale of the Terrible Secret

About Kristina Stephenson

Kristina Stephenson trained as a set and costume designer. She had a successful career in Theatre and Children’s TV until she had her children. Wanting to stay at home with them, she turned to illustration. She has illustrated many non-fiction books.  

Inspired to write Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Big Adventure by her own son Charlie (who doesn’t have stinky socks), she showed it to a friend in the book trade. Thankfully for us, he recommended that she send it to Egmont. It’s clear that a rare and exciting new picture book talent has emerged.

Kristina lives with her husband, who is a musician, and her son and daughter in Wiltshire.

A Day in the Life of Me

By Kristina Stephenson

The alarm clock wakes me early – too early sometimes – but I’m glad it does – I must be up before anyone else.  I need a quiet house (and the calming influence of the dawn chorus) in order to perfect my ‘master work-plan for the day’. I also need to pick a nice menu for supper, pack some sandwiches and a big bottle of water for Maddie’s geography trip and find that favourite little something for Charlie to take to school - just in case - (now where have I heard that before?).

I wake my husband at 6.45am with a cup of coffee. I wake the kids at 7am with a funky riff on the double bass (an interesting wake up call indeed, since I don’t play the double bass!) And the ‘morning mayhem’ (lost trainers, piano practice, breakfast and all) begins.
It doesn’t stop until we have mounted our bikes and set off on the gentle journey to school - down the road, through the park, over the hills and far away. Oh and Dad follows too, although he’s headed off on another path before we reach the ‘tall, tall tower with the pointy roof’ (we live in Salisbury – so work that one out for yourself).  

At school I kiss the kids goodbye, remount my faithful bike and head back home.  Home, which as I cycle towards it, is morphing magically into a place of work – an office.   I’m clever you see: I make the beds, I wash up the breakfast things, and I hide away anything laundry-like, before I leave the house. I do it every morning, you know, so that by the time I return, the transformation has taken place. Wow!

Then, I, Kristina Stephenson - author, illustrator and would be musician - begin work.

This happens in a little room, which nestles neatly between the kitchen (which is, of course, on my return, no longer a kitchen but a place to refresh water pots and wash paint brushes) and the tiny courtyard (now bereft of all bikes bar mine), which has become a secret garden into which I look for inspiration and the occasional fairy.
The room is decorated with my children’s drawings and posters of my favourite films.  There is a computer in one corner and a drawing board slap bang in the middle of the room. This is where I sit and this where I stay……..all day - resolute in my work; never stopping, never stirring, until my great master plan has been fulfilled.

Or until, about ten minutes after I begin work, when…