While writing official Doctor Who spin-offs and play scripts may be in Chris Thomas’ usual wheelhouse, the Perth author has branched out to release his first children’s picture book, Leonard The Lonely Duck.
Twenty years in the making, the book’s characters are based on animals Thomas used to encounter in parkland close to his home.
“I was unemployed at the time and I used to go for walks in the park to stop myself from going insane with boredom,” he recounts.
“After regularly seeing the same animals, I noticed a completely white duck among the other wild ones, as well as a couple of others that didn’t have the same feather colouring. I was under the impression they were domestic ducks that had been dumped and got to thinking about how they fitted in.
“The white duck was the inspiration for Leonard and, given I had little else to do at the time, I put together a story about him suddenly finding himself in the park and meeting the other animals I had seen.”
The story follows Leonard meeting a variety of creatures while on his desperate search for a friend in unfamiliar surroundings.
“Leonard The Lonely Duck is something I’ve had on the backburner for many years and last year I decided to bite the bullet and became determined to make the book a reality,” Thomas shares.
“The publisher paired me with the wonderful illustrator Terry Cooper who brought the story to life in an amazing way – the pictures were even better than I imagined.”