We’re here to talk about A Shaman In Kensington Square - the first book you’ve published?Yes. It’s the first book I’ve published but it wasn’t the first book I tried to write. When did you start thinking about doing writing?I started writing this story about 6 years ago after my sister came back from Mexico and told a group of us a story about jumping mouse. So what is the story of jumping mouse?It’s told in so many ways but it’s basically about this mouse who lives with all the other mice and while he’s foraging he hears this noise and he can’t get it out of his head. So one day he stops collecting food for his family and goes to find out what the noise is. But he knows he shouldn’t because it’s so dangerous and all mice know that the big black dots in the sky are after them. Anyway he goes to find out about the noise. He can’t help himself. It turns out it’s a roaring river. He gets to cross the river via a frog but has to lose one of his eyes in payment. Then he finds another mouse. A mouse who has grown fat and content because he’s found a safe place to live where there is everything a mouse could need. So the little mouse stays. And soon gets very fat too. But he still wonders about what else is out there, and in the distance he sees a mountain and he wants to go and see what it is. The older mouse tries to dissuade him because he has everything there and it’ll be dangerous but the mouse goes anyway and he’s offered help by a fox. But again he has to lose an eye. So he arrives at the mountain-top cold and scared and blind. And the fox leaves him. He hears a ‘wooshing’ sound and he thinks it is surely the end. But he realises he has done things no other mouse has and he gives up to his destiny. Suddenly something picks him up and he feels the wind on his face and he suddenly opens his eyes and he is the black dot in the sky. He has become the eagle. It’s a great story. It suggests we are all on this journey. Some more brave than others. Of course that’s just part of the
