Children's writer to the rescue

May 13 2010 Ian Proctor, Harrow Observer

MARINE conservation is the subject of a new series of illustrated books written for children by an author born and raised in North Harrow.

Diana Williams, a writer and tour operator of Dive Holidays, produced the Silver Seal's Adventures stories to introduce primary school age youngsters to real-life sea-related environmental problems.

She signed copies of her first self-published book, Silver Seal's Adventures: Caught In The Net last month, at Waterstone's in St Ann's Road, Harrow.

The Eastcote resident said: "I have a PhD in sustainable tourism development and I thought it would be a good idea to write a children's book that would have a strong conservation message.

"The story came to me when I was standing on a beach in Dorset; a seal popped out of the water and it was a sunny evening, that was my inspiration. That was about four years ago.

"There are so far six stories with Silver rescuing marine creatures. I decided to find an illustrator and that was the hardest part. It took a while.

"My friend's partner said: 'Yes, I'll give it a go' and the book was able to be created. Andre is now

working on book number two, about global warming."

The first book concerns a dolphin becoming trapped in fishing nets and the efforts of Silver Seal and his friends to untangle the animal, and 50p of its £4.99 cover price will go to the Marine Conservation Society.

One of the challenges was to sufficiently explain the complex ideas about conservation while not alienating the young audience, and similarly the pictures of the creatures had to balance realism with being kid-friendly cartoons.

Ms Williams said: "I am also a secondary school teacher, so I had a rough idea of where to pitch it.

"What's been really interesting is that a lot of teachers thought it was good to have left in some quite difficult words to stretch the children.

"I have been to a few schools to read my book and it's amazing how much children actually already know.

"They find it fascinating and children are really quite clued up about what's going on."

Her second Silver Seal's Adventures story comes out at the end of November and the rest will hopefully follow every six months.