Bella’s Den

Bella’s Den is set in Edale, in the Peak District. It is a story about a country childhood, a secret, friendship, a family of foxes, and a farmer.

Bella has a secret den, but is she willing to share it with the new child next door? 7+ dyslexia-friendly.

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Published by Barrington Stoke, May 2018. Illustrated by Ellie Snowdon. ISBN: 978-1-78112-811-4. Barrington Stoke is a dyslexia-friendly publisher.

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It’s dark and damp and it smells of earth. It smells a million years old.

Bella’s Den is about a real girl called Bella Hardy, who lives in the same hamlet as I do. I first met her when she was 8, and she told me that she has 57 dens. I asked her if she would be kind enough to show me her favourite one, and when she took me there we had to make sure that no-one else saw us, because it was her secret. It was a wonderful den, with a sheep’s skull over the ‘door’, and well hidden with grasses and branches. It was the perfect hideaway. Just near the den I saw family of fox cubs tumbling about like kids in a playground, and I decided to write a story about the den and the foxes. I pretended in the story that I was the same age (as Bella was then), 8.

Why I wrote ‘Bella’s Den’

Michael Morpurgo invited me to write a story to contribute to his anthology of countryside stories, Muck and Magic. As you know, he is a farmer, and I live in a farmyard, so the countryside is a very real and wonderful place for both of us. That was about the same time as I met Bella, and visited her den, and saw the foxes. Everything seemed to fall into place then. There is a note of darkness in the book. Foxes and farmers really don’t get on very well. In the story, as in real life, I decided not to tell the farmer who lives next door to me that there was a fox family living so close. That was my secret. Sssh! What would you have done?

Muck and Magic was launched in London, and I took Bella and her mum with me. The main guest was Princess Anne! Michael Morpurgo asked me if I would read Bella’s Den out at the launch, which I thought was a great honour, as there were many other authors contributing to the book. Bella presented Princess Anne with a bouquet after I’d read my story, and Princess Anne said how lovely it was to live in a place that was so big that the children could run about and play and hide in dens. I think she must have been talking about her own garden, which will be a lot bigger than mine. We are lucky though, because our cottages are surrounded by the Peak District, and the local children play out freely.

Bella’s Den was later published on its own as a Yellow Banana, with lovely illustrations by Peter Melnyzcuk.

The current, very lovely edition is beautifully illustrated by the Welsh artist Ellie Snowdon. It is published by Barrington Stoke, who design their books to make them dyslexia friendly, with a special font on cream paper and illustrations that don’t overlap the text. It is suitable for KS1/2.

The real Bella is now a very successful folk singer, Bella Hardy.