JILL STANTON-HUXTON grew up in Buckinghamshire and has a BA Honours Degree, a Diploma in Humanities and a Diploma in Literature & Creative Writing from the Open University. She has had non-fiction articles, short stories and poems published in magazines, local newspapers and online. Jill has been a volunteer judge on the BBC Radio 2 500 words competition for the last two years, marking stories in the 5-9 year range. She was also the winner of The Buckinghamshire Family History Society Alan Dell Memorial Award for 2013.
The idea for the characters in the book came from her own childhood and family pets. The inspiration for the book comes from our beautiful and charismatic Norwegian Forest Cat, Macavity. He is six years old now and has become a local celebrity in the neighbourhood," says Jill. With so many of Macavity's cat antics to choose from and the fact that I'm always making up stories in my head ... it was only a matter of time before Harvey materialised
I plan on writing more books in the series ... what adventures will Harvey and his friends go on next? Only time will tell," says Jill. Harvey and the Moon Bus is the first in a planned series of Harvey books.
Author news
The author was invited to showcase the book in the 'local and new authors' area of whizzfizzfest, a celebration of children's literature inspired by Roald Dahl on the 30th June 2018. http://whizzfizzfest.org.uk/
Coles Bookshop in Bicester now has copies of the book in stock, and have put together a 'local author' book display. The author invited friends and family to an evening celebration of the book at the bookshop on the 29th June 2018.
The Book House bookshop in Thame are now stocking the book. The author was invited to the bookshop recently to sign a few of the books. This is wonderful news as it was the author's childhood bookshop where she spent all her pocket money!
The Old Hall Bookshop in Brackley now has the book in stock, and the author was invited to a 'local authors' day on the 22nd June 2018. It was an enjoyable few hours spent talking with customers and other local authors.
The author was invited to do a reading and Q&A session at Marsh Gibbon primary school on the 6th July. It was a fun few hours reading a couple of Chapters of the book and answering the children's questions.
Harvey and the Moon Bus were at the Buckingham Community Centre, Small Hall, Buckingham MK18 1RP on the 17th March 2018, 10am-4pm. It was a fun day with plenty of the books being signed and sold by the author. Harvey and the Moon Bus will be back at the venue on the 22nd September 2018, 10am-4pm. The 8th December 2018, 10am-4pm.
Gartocharn Primary School in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland were delighted to receive a copy of the book.
Buckingham Library were delighted to receive a copy of the book for their 'Children's Corner'.
Snettisham Primary School in Norfolk were delighted to have received a copy of the book for their 5-7 year olds 'Reading Corner'. The children will hopefully be reviewing the book and their comments added to our 'collage' pin board which we will be displaying at future events.
Dersingham Library in Norfolk were delighted to have received a copy of the book for their 'Story Corner'. They will also be reviewing it and providing feedback.