Next up on the Oscar’s Book Prize shortlist is Terrible Horses by Raymond Antrobus and Ken Wilson-Max. A dreamy story of siblings rivalries and the importance of feeling understood.
Raymond Antrobus became the first poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize, and in 2021 he was awarded an MBE for his services to literature. His adult poetry collection The Perseverance won Raymond the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and the Ted Hughes Award. His poetry collection, All the Names Given, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Can Bears Ski?, illustrated by Polly Dunbar, was Raymond's picture book debut. Raymond lives in Hertfordshire. Find him online at raymondantrobus.com, on Instagram as @raymond_antrobus and Twitter as @RaymondAntrobus.
Ken Wilson-Max was born in Zimbabwe. He came to the UK to study design and ended up working in children's publishing. His first book was published in 1993 and since then there have been many, including The Big Yellow Taxi, Little Red Plane, and the Lenny and Max series. As well as being a leading graphic designer, he is the publisher of Chicken! a newspaper which introduces current affairs to primary school children. He spends much time visiting schools and libraries, creating workshops and delivering exhibitions. He calls this "a great part of my job, the place where I learn the most". Ken Wilson Max lives in north London.
Raymond and Ken’s Q&A answers
Who or what do you think the boy’s favourite picture book character would be, and why? (Raymond and Ken)
Probably the little rabbit in Guess How Much I Love You? I kept trying to find a way to bring out the love and empathy in the little boy when making the pictures. Ken
Probably Max from Where The Wild Things Are for his playful imagination and curious mischief. A quietly dark book with colourful ambivalent feelings. Raymond
How did you come up with the idea for writing this story? (Raymond)
It came to me while I was living in Oklahoma City. I had done a tour of the site of where the Oklahoma bombing happened. I stood by what the locals call 'The Survivor Tree' because it was still standing despite the impact of the blast. People in the city are encouraged to go to that tree to ruminate on the conflict in their lives and how they can be resolved. I thought of my relationship with my older sister and how violent and turbulent it once was and how (generally) peaceful it is now, so I literally wrote the text for Terrible Horses right there, under the tree. Raymond
How did you decide what the characters would look like? (Ken)
Ideas start coming once I have a deep understanding of the essence of a story. This takes a lot of thought, and I always look out for clues, which can be sentences or even one word combined with things I am noticing at the time, or people from my own life. In this case, during my first zoom meeting with Raymond I sketched what he might look like as the little boy in the story. Ken
What is your favourite picture book of all time, and who would you read it with? (Raymond and Ken)
The one I come back to is ‘A Balloon for Grandad’ by Jane Ray because it was the first time I saw black and brown characters in a story. I grew up without access to picture books and at a time when reading was purely for learning in the 'apartheid lite’ of the Rhodesian society, which tried to keep people of different races apart. After independence I started seeing illustrated books in my teens and really got into them in my early twenties in London, discovering the work of Ezra Jack Keats for the first time. I am still fascinated by the power of picture books. Ken
Too many to name one, plus different stories were needed at different times. It's like asking what my favourite medicine or meal is, it depends on the injury and/or the appetite. I think Raymond Brigg's picture books were particularly evocative to me as a child and now (The Snowman, Father Christmas and Fungus The Bogeyman might be my top 3 of his). My son is 3 years old and loves reading and this year might be the christmas I gift him those Briggs books. Raymond