A new author, from Sale, is launching his first in a series of children’s books, inspired by his daughter.
Stuart Rowson, 45, is creating a trilogy of adventure novels, the first of which – ‘Izzy and the Tumble Thunder’ – will be on sale on 1st November.
The books portray the challenges, worries and anxieties that children, especially young girls, face growing up these days with the main character Izzy, named after his daughter, showing how to successfully overcome them.
The series has been snapped up by new publisher Whalebone, a subsidiary of The Book Writers Resource.
Stuart, who has spent more than 20 years in the media, worked for a decade at the BBC at MediaCity in Salford. At BBC Children’s, he led the digital transformation of Newsround, oversaw the relaunch of the Children’s iPlayer, as well as the digital and social output of the department – from CBeebies apps to TikTok and YouTube strategies. He also oversaw the team that delivered Bedtime Stories, which featured a range of celebrities including Tom Hardy and Isla Fisher.
Prior to that he spent several years at BBC Sport leading on the digital and social coverage of some of the world’s biggest sporting events, from London Olympics 2012 to Wimbledon and the football World Cup in Brazil.
Since leaving the BBC, Stuart now runs his own successful media company focused on kids and younger audiences and counts Chelsea FC, Birmingham 2022, British Cycling and industry-leading production company Sunset & Vine among his clients.
The coming-of-age story focuses on a young girl called Izzy, who lives with her mum in a clock shop in London, plagued by visions of her missing dad.
After discovering a magical time-travelling device on her 13th birthday, called a Tumble Thunder, and a note she is convinced is from her dad, she must travel back through history to complete the quest to find him and realise her own destiny – all the while being hunted by an evil character from the future called the Time Shadow.
Stuart said: “It has been a lifelong ambition of mine to write a novel as I’ve always loved writing, but my main inspiration came after reading all seven of the Harry Potter books to my daughter at bedtime over the course of three years.
“The idea was to write a book to give to my daughter for her 13th birthday, so I was keen to ensure it did two things: deliver a strong female character who was an anti-hero in the modern world and to give young girls a role model who wasn’t worried about fitting in or what she looked like in a selfie.
“The original idea morphed and twisted over time to become Izzy and the Tumble Thunder, and I named the main character after my daughter. Not wanting to leave Izzy’s two older brothers out, Danny and Charlie got a village named after them called Great Chardan. That’ll do them as they’re grown-ups now!
“My hope is that it teaches children to stand up for themselves and others, that it’s okay to not fit in, and to be happy being themselves.”
The sequel, Izzy and the Time Shadow, is already in the works and will be launched in 2023. Part three of the trilogy will be launched after that.
Izzy and the Tumble Thunder is available now on Amazon.
