The idea for Kate Wilkinson's children's books came at a tube station en route to Palmers Green
A children's author whose plot ideas came to her while daydreaming when waiting for trains to Palmers Green will be signing copies of her books at Holtwhites bakery in Palmers Green on 14th October.
Edie and the Flits in Paris is the recently published follow-on to Edie and the Box of Flits by PG resident Kate Wilkinson. They're written with readers aged 7 to 11 in mind and tell the story of 11-year old Edie and her adventures with some very unusual friends that she meets on a tube train.
The adventures begin when Edie has just made the tricky transition to secondary school, but is finding it hard to fit in. Her old primary school friends Naz and Linny have moved on and are ignoring her. It’s half term and Edie decides to help her dad, who runs the 'London Transport' Lost Property Office, by collecting forgotten items on tube trains. She finds an abandoned box on a seat in a Piccadilly Line carriage and when she picks it up is certain she feels something fluttering inside and she can’t let go...
Meet the thumb-sized Flits, and follow Edie as she gets tangled up in two adventures in London and Paris that involve spooky ghost stations, a maze of underground tunnels, deserted railway lines, lots of French patisserie and a whole world just out of sight.
Kate explains how her journeys home to Palmers Green gave her the idea for the books:
"I spend a lot of time waiting for trains at Highbury & Islington, daydreaming and staring into the tunnels. I spotted the grubby mice who live at the station and who scuttle back and forth under the benches dragging broken crisps into their hiding place. The family of mice gave me the idea for a parallel world of ‘small people’ who inhabit the London Underground."
Local author Kate Wilkinson will be signing personal copies of her two children's books
3 - 5pm Friday 14th October
Holtwhites Bakery (Palmers Green), 66 Aldermans Hill N13 4PP
Kate will be signing copies of Edie and the Box of Flits and Edie and the Flits in Paris, while you treat yourself to some delicious Holtwhites patisserie and "French" biscuits
The books will be available at a special discount price of £6.
Parents who are transport enthusiasts will be delighted to find that among the unusual places that Edie and her new friends visit is the "wilderness station" - the abandoned Northern Line Highgate High Level station, which is reputedly haunted (I myself attempted to visit it in the early seventies, but was stopped and searched by a policeman who claimed that someone of my appearance had just robbed a milkman - maybe the ghost is a milkman). They also include the vaults beneath Waterloo station and a derelict ghost station deep underground on the Bakerloo Line.
Set against the backdrop of the London Underground, this is a timeless story of friendship, family and noticing the little things in life.
Edie and the flits are off to Paris for a new adventure!
Both Edie books are illustrated by Joe Berger. Kate Wilkinson was interviewed onthe BBC Radio London Robert Elms show in July and Edie and the Box of Flits was recommended by Nicolette Jones, children’s literary editor at the Sunday Times.
