posted on 10 Aug 2023

The Happy Hut by Tim Hopgood

It was a delight to receive this review copy because I collect picture books about grandparents, love anything with a seaside theme and also strongly rate this award- winning picture book creator. 

The exuberant energy and enthusiasm of Grandpa Martin as he strides across the book cover and earlier pages is visceral. The special beach hut is painted ‘a bright vivid, sunshine yellow‘, a colour palette that shines through. I liked the way that he and the children have exciting adventures in every season and enjoy time climbing rocks, playing cards and flying kites together. One of my favourite pages shows them sleeping together under the moon and stars, a very special experience which I can recommend.  Hopgood somehow manages to convey the comforting atmosphere of dark stillness with a distant sound of lapping waves. 

After a terrible storm and a long time of neglect, the battered hut eventually needs lots of attention and care. The family work together and decide to reinvent the character of the hut as a tribute:

‘Dad said that way, whatever the weather, there would always be a patch of blue sky on the beach to remind us of Grandpa Martin’.

The subsequent pages show a stunning blend of yellows and blues that reflect the importance of past and present in the life of the happy hut. This illustrator is renowned for his love of bold colour that is clearly influenced by his 20 years professional background as a graphic designer. It is also interesting to note from an interview in 2015 that his many artistic influences include David Hockney, Andy Warhol, John Burningham, and Eric Carle as these particular artists resonate for me throughout this stunning picture book.

I read it with my two young grandchildren who bluntly asked if Grandpa Martin was dead when he didn’t appear in the illustrations after being shown languishing in a hospital bed. This reaction reminded me of responses to ‘Granpa’ by John Burningham who showed many happy moments shared between an elderly man and his granddaughter and famously avoided the need for stark words about death when he gently portrayed an increasingly frail old man and then an empty armchair. Likewise, this illustrator focuses on the importance of strong, happy recollections that are seared on the minds of the three grandchildren in the story.  We spent a long time looking at the beautiful end papers which show the subtle changes to the sea landscape and sky, as well as the differences to the appearance of the hut at the beginning and end of this poignant story. The art of a good picture book lies in the turn of the page and the spaces between the pages that allow the reader to add to and interpret the story.   

So how does Tim Hopgood achieve such an impressive and distinctive result? I tentatively sent an enquiry e mail about his technique via his website and was thrilled to receive the following  detailed response:

‘I draw everything by hand using either, pencil - 5B for a soft textured line, charcoal for background textures and ink with a brush for details. I then scan all the drawings and use these to create the ‘bones’ of the composition. The scans are then collaged and coloured digitally using an old version of QuarkXpress. I’m never quite sure what the end result will look like until I open it up in Photoshop. The reveal is sometimes disappointing and other times things happen that I wasn’t expecting that are a nice surprise. I think of it as ‘digital printmaking’. It’s the element of surprise that really appeals to me. I guess it’s about not having complete control over the end result, there’s a little bit of magic to the process.’ 

Published in July of this year by Walker Books, you will be able to get a copy form your local independent bookshop and if they don’t have copies on their shelves, they will be happy to order it for you.

Karen Argent

August 2023