The story behind Dustcart Bart and the Missing Growl...
I had seen a dirty, old teddy bear attached to the front of a council vehicle and fleetingly wondered how he and other old toys we all see from time to time came to end up in such a sorry state. Then a few weeks later my husband John came home from working on the Bristol Old Vic Renovation Project and mentioned that he had seen a skip full of old props and sad looking toys to be thrown away outside the theatre. The basic idea for ‘Dustcart Bart’ was born and I started making notes e.g. ‘Obnoxious Effluvia’ which is something my mother used say whenever there was a nasty smell and seemed to be the appropriate 'magic words' for a fairy in a rubbish dump to use! But I still didn’t have a ‘plot’, until one evening a few years later when my father-in-law Len told us about one of his visits home on leave, during his National Service.
For some time during WW2, Flight Lt. L. A. Tozer was stationed at RAF Leconfield (640 Squadron) in the East Riding of Yorkshire, piloting Halifax bombers. The survival rate for those brave men of Bomber Command was so abysmally low at that time, his parents must have concluded that Len would not be coming back because when he did arrive home on that occasion, he discovered that all of his possessions had been variously distributed throughout the family! To treat your son with quite such indifference when he is away fighting for his country appears as very odd, but I don’t suppose we can judge those who had already suffered years of war, by the standards of today. The most poignant part of his story was that the head had been cut off of his old teddy bear in order to remove the ‘Growl’ and re-use it in a toy duck which his mother was knitting!
Inspiration can come from the strangest places (from the sublime to the ridiculous it would seem) and in this case from such a dark time in our history! So, as I started working on ‘Dustcart Bart & the Missing Growl’, the story became a project which I wanted to complete for the Tozer family in the hope that perhaps those of his descendants (present and future) who did not know Len’s story, would themselves then be inspired to learn more about Len and the part he had played in WW2. Inspiration turning full-circle!
The next step was to get it published!
For some time during WW2, Flight Lt. L. A. Tozer was stationed at RAF Leconfield (640 Squadron) in the East Riding of Yorkshire, piloting Halifax bombers. The survival rate for those brave men of Bomber Command was so abysmally low at that time, his parents must have concluded that Len would not be coming back because when he did arrive home on that occasion, he discovered that all of his possessions had been variously distributed throughout the family! To treat your son with quite such indifference when he is away fighting for his country appears as very odd, but I don’t suppose we can judge those who had already suffered years of war, by the standards of today. The most poignant part of his story was that the head had been cut off of his old teddy bear in order to remove the ‘Growl’ and re-use it in a toy duck which his mother was knitting!
Inspiration can come from the strangest places (from the sublime to the ridiculous it would seem) and in this case from such a dark time in our history! So, as I started working on ‘Dustcart Bart & the Missing Growl’, the story became a project which I wanted to complete for the Tozer family in the hope that perhaps those of his descendants (present and future) who did not know Len’s story, would themselves then be inspired to learn more about Len and the part he had played in WW2. Inspiration turning full-circle!
The next step was to get it published!
Why self-publishing?
I tried sending the manuscript to a few publishing houses but it was unfortunately rejected. I wasn’t that discouraged by this rejection (which I understand is to be expected for an unknown author) but because I wanted to surprise Len who is now in his 97th year with the finished book and gain his approval for the use of his story, time being of the essence I decided that I was going to have to self-publish it. I discovered Carly Corlett and her company 'Peahen Publishing Ltd.' via the ‘Frome Festival’ Book Fair in 2018 and I could not be happier with the outcome. Carly has been wonderfully supportive and helpful throughout the whole process from editing to printing and I would like to take this opportunity to recommend Peahen Publishing Ltd. to anyone wanting to self-publish. I wanted the book to ‘Sparkle’ and therefore requested Gold-foiling on the cover, which is a first for Peahen Publishing. I would like to thank Carly & her team for the fantastic job they have done in giving my book the ‘Wow-factor’ which thanks to them can sit quite happily alongside any other book on the shelves of Bookshops & Libraries.
The Illustrations
Kate Davies www.lovefromtheartist.com/Artists/bath/kate-davies was suggested by Carly at Peahen as being ideal for the project, she was absolutely right. Up until that point after 6 years in the writing, Bart and Stinks were like my children so I was a bit nervous about this process but Kate has done a brilliant job. Kate used her own old teddy bear as a model for Bart, took all of my suggestions on board and made her own humorous additions. I am sure you will agree that her Illustrations are perfect.
Why would anyone outside of our family want to read Dustcart Bart and the Missing Growl?
I wondered that at first! But the feedback I have received from those who have read it so far, whether young or old, family members or not has been so positive it has encouraged me to now produce a book which is Bookshop/Library ready, thanks again to Carly and her team at Peahen Publishing Ltd.
Who is the story aimed at?
The story just ‘happened’ therefore it was not aimed at a particular age-group, we have come to the conclusion that it would mostly appeal to ‘Early Readers’ i.e. children of 5 – 8 years of age or even up to 10 years, it will depend upon the reading age of the child. Adults also seem to enjoy it.
It’s a funny, happy story which without moralising, shows the characters as being unselfish and helping one another. It also holds an important message, though I did not realise quite how important this was going to be at the time of writing, where Stinkerbell says to Bart ‘Beauty is only skin deep, it’s what’s inside someone that counts’ is something which we have to reinforce to our children so much more these days. I have been told that it is an endearing story which took the reader back to his childhood, I suppose a lot of the background story has come from things I learned on Primary School ‘Nature Walks’ and simply being able to wander around the fields and lanes of a small, rural village during the 1960’s & 70’s.
I left the ending of ‘Dustcart Bart and the Missing Growl’ open to another adventure and I have been asked if I might write another. We’ll have to see what happens with DB and the MG, but if time allows I guess I could re-visit my original notes with a view to another adventure - ‘Dustcart Bart and the Missing …..?
It’s a funny, happy story which without moralising, shows the characters as being unselfish and helping one another. It also holds an important message, though I did not realise quite how important this was going to be at the time of writing, where Stinkerbell says to Bart ‘Beauty is only skin deep, it’s what’s inside someone that counts’ is something which we have to reinforce to our children so much more these days. I have been told that it is an endearing story which took the reader back to his childhood, I suppose a lot of the background story has come from things I learned on Primary School ‘Nature Walks’ and simply being able to wander around the fields and lanes of a small, rural village during the 1960’s & 70’s.
I left the ending of ‘Dustcart Bart and the Missing Growl’ open to another adventure and I have been asked if I might write another. We’ll have to see what happens with DB and the MG, but if time allows I guess I could re-visit my original notes with a view to another adventure - ‘Dustcart Bart and the Missing …..?
About the author
Sue Tozer is a Bookkeeper by day and a writer (!) in the evenings and weekends. This self-published book for children is her first.
She lives in Norton-St-Philip, Somerset with her husband John and a rather large black/white ex-rescue cat named Bam. If she has any spare time she loves to read, cook, practice Yoga and go for long walks.
She lives in Norton-St-Philip, Somerset with her husband John and a rather large black/white ex-rescue cat named Bam. If she has any spare time she loves to read, cook, practice Yoga and go for long walks.