Rebecca Rouillard has collaborated with a group of fellow writers for a collection of terrifying tales.
Kingston author and librarian Rebecca Rouillard has been inspired by local history for her latest children’s story, part of a new collection of tales by London children’s authors.
The collection includes The Clattern Bridge, Rouillard’s short story, which is set in Kingston and draws on local history surrounding both the bridge and the Hogsmill River.
The river was famously used as the setting for Sir John Everett Millais’s painting Ophelia, and Rouillard weaves this into her story, alongside local legends surrounding the bridge.
Rouillard said, “It’s one of the oldest bridges in England, and it’s where they used to duck the unruly women in the river with the ducking stool. So that was where I started from with my story.
“I found that the last person who had been ducked in the river was the landlady of The Queen’s Head, which is a local pub, so it’s really connected to lots of Kingston stories. Kingston has some great ghost stories.”
Rouillard’s tale is one of several in Beware This Book!, a collection of fun, spine-chilling stories for children aged 8-12, illustrated by the authors, with additional illustrations by artist Rosie Jon.
As part of the launch of Beware This Book!, Rouillard ran a series of storytelling events in Kingston libraries and bookshops over the half-term week.
Children at Parade’s End Independent Bookshop event last Friday were enthusiastic about the tales Roulliard told.
“It was really interesting and scary in a good way,” said Amber, who was at the bookshop with her friend, who asked to go by the name Purple Hat.
Another attendee, Scarlett added that it was “creepy, but good”.
Children had an opportunity to create their own stories as part of the event.
As in Rouillard’s Clattern Bridge, the children set their own stories in the local area, choosing nearby locations including Hampton Court, the Tower of London, and Kingston’s Bentall Centre, imagining all the spooky goings-on that could happen in the shops after dark.
Nine London writers collaborated in Beware This Book! with Rouillard. The stories range from creepy tales, like Emma Finlayson-Palmer’s The Spiral Field, featuring a stone circle that steals memories, to touching stories, such as Farrah Riaz’s He Smiled with His Mouth Wide Open, where a mysterious visitor comes to stay.
Rouillard and her fellow writers are keen to work together on another collection, although she has a sequel to her other book, Wings of the Wyld, to complete first. In the meantime, she hopes that readers of Beware This Book! and the children who took part in her storytelling events will keep reading and creating themselves.
She said: “It is the best kind of escape, you get to live so many lifetimes, explore so many worlds and do things that you wouldn’t get to do normally. To enjoy the places that it can take you.”
