Leighton Buzzard author pens touching children's book about the importance of Remembrance Day

Its author – Inez Bunclark, who lives in Leighton and teaches in Hemel Hempstead – wrote it over the summer in what she describes as “tiny pockets of time in between visiting the zoo and farm and local parks.”

She says: “It’s about a little boy and his experience of Remembrance Day. This is a topic close to my heart as I spent many years in the Air Cadets and as a Cubs leader, and it’s something I searched for when I was teaching this important and sensitive subject.”

The mother-of-one started creating picture books for her daughter when she couldn’t find what she was looking in local bookshops and libraries. So when she was unable to source a book on Remembrance for her Year One class last year, she decided to write one herself.

She explains: “I wanted to treat it sensitively and in a way that held weight, but was appropriate for young children.

"I took great care to include a suitable level of information about such an important subject: Bertie attends a Remembrance parade in town and wonders about the significance of his paper poppy.

“Over the next few days, he finds out more about its meaning from his mum and teacher - but also from his Grandad and Granny, who tell him of their own parents and grandparents, linking memories from both World Wars.”

There are five double-page textless illustrations in the book which Inez suggests could offer young readers a chance for quiet reflection during the two minute silence on Armistice Day – November 11.

She says: “We revisit Remembrance Day every year with each class at my school and hold a collective two minute silence.

"It’s important this doesn’t just become ‘something we do’ so we always put effort into linking it to real people and asking how we ourselves would feel and respond.”

She adds: “My daughter’s school is taken to the Act of Remembrance at All Saints Church war memorial. That sense of community in Leighton Buzzard is one of the things I love most about living here.”

Inez, who hails from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, graduated with a degree in model design. She went back to uni to do her teacher training.

She’s always enjoyed writing and drawing and says if you’d asked her what she wanted to be when she was younger, the answer would have been ‘author.’

She’s published several books including Black and White Nursery Rhymes – one of her favourites - and I See Three, a first counting guide.

In fact she so enjoyed doing the Nursery Rhymes book, she’s just completed Black and White Christmas Carols in the same high contrast style, which is suitable for babies.

Still on the back burner is a half-finished children’s novel and a new Montessori-themed picture book, to go with her previous three.

In her spare time, she plays the violin and has an unusual hobby – painting old instruments and turning them into works of art.

Inez also loves going for runs or walks along the canal and in the woods at Rushmere.

> Contact [email protected] or buy Bertie’s Poppy on Amazon.