March 6th, 2025, World Book Day

As it’s World Book Day today, I thought it was a perfect time to tell you more about my exciting new project, The Magical Adventures of Florence, the Border Collie.

As many of you know, I love baking cakes, writing about cakes, and eating cakes (not necessarily in that order!). But I also love Border Collies, especially wise, clever ones like Beatrix, who wrote her own book, Beatrix The Time Travelling Collie.

I’ve always loved to read and write, but over recent years, I have started to worry that non-violent, gentle, fun children’s books might soon be a thing of the past.

From an early age, I was in awe of Beatrix Potter, the children’s writer, because of her Tales of Peter Rabbit series and her love of the Lake District. 

In late 2024, I envisioned myself creating a collection of children’s stories about my Border Collie, Florence. My first dog, Beatrix (yes, named after Miss Potter!), was a real adventurer, but Florence is not. She needs somebody to write magical stories for her, and I believe young children would be the perfect people to help me with this project.

With a plan in mind, I began visiting primary schools to talk to the children about being an author and the processes involved in publishing a book.

Following the same format as my first book, The Magical Tearoom on the Hill, which had a story and recipe in every chapter, I wanted each book in this new series to have a magical tale and a recipe.

Taking inspiration from the many pages of notes and drawings from pupils at the different schools I visited, I began creating an adventure and a recipe for a new biscuit to go into each book. The last book in this unique series will be a compilation of all the recipes.

Sadly, my talents do not extend to drawing, but I am pleased to announce I have enlisted the fabulous Jess at The Ricketty Desk, who will be my illustrator for this series of books.

Book 1, The Tale of Florence and the King, was created from ideas from children at a school in Girvan and will be published in late March/early April. 

Book 2, The Tale of Florence and the Dragon, from ideas from the children at a school in Bishopbriggs, is also nearing completion.

Book 3, The Tale of Florence and (possibly) the Water Kelpies, from ideas from the children at a school in Kilsyth, is being developed.

Book 4, The Tale of Florence and (possibly) the Time Machine, is a new idea from children at a school at Bridge of Allen yesterday.

I hope that once completed, the children, along with their family and friends, can read the stories, recognise their words and ideas, and believe they have contributed to writing a book and creating a new recipe.

But I need your help. For this project to succeed, I need to visit 22 primary schools. So far, I have events booked at several schools, but I still need more. 

Are you a teacher, headteacher, or somebody who knows somebody who is? Would you like your school to be involved with this?

Please drop me an email: debra@mothermurphys.co.uk

If you would like to see more about my published books, you can visit our website:

 CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR BOOK PAGE

As always, please leave a comment.

It really does make my day to see that people have read my blog.