We live with our family in the northwest of England, and our shared enthusiasm for lighthouses and rough coastal regions has somehow rubbed off on our 3 children. Together we love to go on adventures – camping, walking or boating – to remote spectacular locations, and the backdrop to our book is very much based on the rugged and awesome coastlines of Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.
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Our Blog
In our blog we would like to share with you some of our big and small family adventures - things we have done on our holidays and trips - some great days out, and also our creative and culinary projects, festive times etc.
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Please don't ever think that we are trying to make out to be some sort of 'super-family' - we are not, but what we want to do is celebrate everything that is special and awesome about family life, savour the moments, focus on the good times so that they may grow in frequency and duration, be grateful for every magical moment we share with our children.
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"Whatever we put our attention on,
will grow stronger in our life"
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
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We hope that you'll find our blog enjoyable and that maybe, every now and again, you'll find an inspiration or idea for your own family's adventures.
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Please get in touch
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We really like to hear from you - you can drop us a line via our contact page or email us at ragrugbooks@gmail.com
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Kind regards
Elisabeth & Ben
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Our book ​- a bit of history
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The Mouse in the Lighthouse dates back quite a long time. The title was actually the first thing we had settled on, and only afterwards (back in 2003/2004) we started to develop our ideas for the story. We finally wrote and illustrated it in 2005/2006 when our first two children were still very little.
Between the two of us we already had quite a bit of experience of working with children through volunteering and teaching, and our story is inspired by interactions and emotions we observed in our groups/classes as well as in our own children.
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We weren't sure if our story would fit into the standard picture book format which most publishers were working with
at the time. However, encouraged by seeing our own children enjoy longer stories, and their instant liking for Arthur and Emily, we decided to go for it, and we sent our text and illustrations to various publishing houses and agents.
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We did get some lovely feedback, and we probably should have persevered, but a new job and a new baby came along. Our attentions got drawn away from our book and Arthur and Emily had to wait patiently on a shelf for pretty much exactly 10 years.
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Their patience got rewarded though, as in the meantime the increasing popularity of e-books opened up an entirely new dimension. We reworked our manuscript and artwork into an interactive e-picture book and it turned out to be a great new way of getting Arthur and Emily's story out to you all.
