She will be signing copies of her latest story Paper Chase at The Children’s Bookshop in Fortis Green Road on September 9.
The rhyming story about friendship, nature, and the amazing journey of paper from a tree features illustrations by Victoria Sandøy her previous collaborator on The Christmas Pine.
Victoria will also be at the bookshop for the ticketed event, at which Julia will sign copies of any of her top 20 books purchased from the independent store on the day.
Published by Scholastic on September 11, Paper Chase tells the story of two children who meet under a tree, become friends, then are parted.
When the tree is cut down to make paper, the story follows its incredible journey with a heartwarming ending when the children are reunited by a paper plane.
This year, the grandmother of nine surpassed JK Rowling to become the UK’s number one bestselling author. According to Nielsen BookData, classics such as The Gruffalo, Zog, and Stick Man, have broken the 50 million sales barrier in British bookshops.
But before she was a household name with numerous film adaptations of her books, Julia grew up in a house in Pilgrim’s Lane, Hampstead with her grandmother on the top floor, aunt in the middle, and her family on the ground floor.
She previously told the Ham&High she was a “bookish” child who would haunt Keats Library and the second hand bookshops in Perrin’s Lane.
“With books you enter into a different world and way of thinking for the time you are reading,” she said.
She recalled Miss Farndale the librarian: “She was very keen and did puppet shows. Once when I was ill in bed, mum went to the library and came back with a collection of books she’d helped choose.”
She loved to play on the Heath with her sister, and while a pupil at New End Primary School she was singled out to recite poetry and take part in plays.
After studying at Camden School for Girls she took French and Drama at Bristol University where she met husband Malcolm. She married him at St John Hampstead in 1972 and their wedding reception featured an operetta penned by the bride with parts for the groom, bridesmaids and best man.
“The local rag and bone man took us from Hampstead Parish Church to Burgh House with everyone processing along,” she recalls.
After that Julia wrote and improvised plays to take around estates and schools before writing songs for BBC children’s programmes. It was one song – A Squash and a Squeeze – written for a pre-school TV programme that 15 years later, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, set her off as a storybook writer.
Then in 1999 came The Gruffalo and widespread fame.
She now has more than 200 children’s titles to her name and shows no sign of stopping.
