Just So Stories

Artist. Writer. Illustrator. Print maker. Cartoonist. Modeller. Have I left anything out?

Yes, I have left out that it’s been a privilege to be her friend for quite a number of years now, and I am still finding out more about her fascinating life and her, seemingly never-ending, talents. Last week I had another wonderful time with Caroline, as we talked about a lot of things but, in particular, the newly minted French edition of Hasel and Rose, first published in 2014. I have no doubt that all of us who were in the library, or lower school classrooms even, or had any association with kids lit/picture books would know this amazingly beautiful book. You can well imagine my delight to hear from Caroline directly, the entire story of Hasel and Rose, with the wonderful arrival of this new French edition.

Caroline came to Australia as a toddler and lived until she was a teen on her parents’ yacht in various places along the east coast.

An old friend and I, aboard the Rosa-M.
She was a boat kid too, we wrote to each other for years, as we were mostly not in the same port at the same time. The weeks and months, the miles, created space we overcame by letters. That space became a subject in itself, for me. Distances and the space between people.

It’s clear to me that an upbringing of this type often has the result of forming a very different, often very attuned and developed personality with resilience, character and, in many instances, an abundance of creativity. Certainly, that’s Caroline.

After leaving home at 16 and working in a string of ‘shitty’ jobs, Caroline felt emotionally shut down for some time but expressing herself through drawings was her release valve. Gradually, that evolved into cartooning and an income over many years.

When Caroline tells me about her great involvment with boating publications and creating work for the articles within those, it makes sense to me because of her childhood experience but, at the same time, I still find it hard to reconcile with the delicate watercolours and the beautiful, emotive illustrations I love about her art. This period was still very much about ‘bread and butter’ and that did continue for years but with the arrival of her baby daughter [another Jen/Jennifer which gives me such pangs] in her own words ‘everything changed…and I began to sense something was about to happen in my creative life.‘

Caroline began to illustrate for others, and as we might expect, was very successful at this but fairly quickly realised she, that is to say her art, was being pigeon-holed ‘I felt that they looked to me for the “sad” illustrations‘. The solution? Write and illustrate her own book of course.

Throughout her childhood, Caroline’s grandmother, whom she had never met, would send her, from East Germany, books that she treasured which would arrive in a little brown box. It was these much-loved books from which she drew her emotional and expressive responses to pour into her own work. First came Hasel, a small rabbity creation pieced together, including material from a pair of Caroline’s maternity pants, doubly purposed – a gift for her baby as well as for readers.

For ten years – yes, that’s what I said – for ten years, she worked on this book which was more than a labour of love. It was, in some ways, a catharsis – a release of pent-up emotions and thoughts that finally flowed from that initial burst of ‘other’ that we experience when we bring a new life into the world. And what a gift she gave to us all! Hasel and Rose was not only the result of her connections to childhood but of her burgeoning re-awakening of her fullest emotional self.

Watercolor was the obvious choice of medium. It was the first medium I saw in books as a child. I was fascinated by the simultaneous impression of overall harmony, and yet it was plain to see that that the image was built up in films and layers of color. It had the ability to be evocative and loose, but also describe things in minute details. I didn’t know how it was done, only that it could be done and that there was great skill in doing so. I became obsessed with it and eventually taught myself.

Hasel and Rose was released to great acclaim in 2014 and was further published in the US as Rose and the Wish Thing in 2016. Many of us would have held this book dear and it was certainly much loved in my libraries. But, as many do, the book went out of print some time ago. But – oh joy! – Canadian publisher D’eux, who have previously published other French editions of Caroline’s books, have breathed new life into Hasel and Rose to bring it to an entirely new audience.

A bond that forms between a child and a book, the right book: this is what  
D’eux  hopes to create. Both simple and complex, the publisher’s noble objective is to nurture readers. (D’eux 2026)

Here are some moments I will leave you with that struck me during this one afternoon of delights. *I had to learn how I write… *it’s like theatre…massaging the pictures to make the right entrance.. *they [the pictures] need to be strong but subtle… * I tell children – don’t throw away ideas…[because often you can come back to them and make something from them]…

Caroline has given me so much on a personal level – not just gifts of her creativity, but moments of real joy, humour and the kind of company one relishes always – also delicious food! But the truly wonderful thing is the absolute gloriousness of what she has given – and continues to give – readers. Thanks Caroline – love you 🫶.

I am someone who has paid a lot of attention to children’s books, the stories and the pictures, over a very long time. One of the reasons I have found writing and illustrating for children so engaging is that I am dipping into an old way of seeing the world. I find myself in that unique and peculiar perception of my small self. The conclusions children draw from their perceptions can be daft, endearing, way off the mark, sometimes eerily spot on, but endlessly fascinating. It seems to me that a gentle revisiting of ourselves in that phase of life can yield a treasure, an insight into our creative minds when they were highly speculative, highly unique. I did as many of us do as children; I tried to catch that unique world with pencils and paper.
I did this with unselfconscious pleasure. Picture books were my template for expressing inner life, emotions, and the creative impulse which the outer world charms forth.

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