Exclusive Q&A: Suz Hughes

October 12th 2016

We recently caught up with the fantastic children's book illustrator, Suz Hughes, who's bringing out her newest book, The Night the Stars Went Out. From the book's wonderful themes, to her inspirations and what is in the pipeline, we loved talking to Suz all about her future in the world of children's literature. Here's how we got on... 

Peters: We’re excited to get our hands on your new book, ‘The Night the Stars Went Out’. Can you tell us a little more about the book and its themes?

Suz: The book is about friendship, the importance of happiness, and making time for fun stuff (basically don’t work too hard)

P: What inspired you to create this story? S: Space is something I've always loved and been interested in. One day I was doodling in my sketch book and happened to draw a little alien (Alien) and for some reason I thought it would be cute if he was shining a star and the story just grew from there.

P: When Alien travels to Earth he dons an ingenious disguise – a moustache! What would your disguise of choice be?

S: Fab question! It would have to be a big pair of specs, a massive hat, and a wig; I might even steal Alien’s I love Earth t-shirt.

P: What were your favourite picture books from your childhood?

S: I loved so many books…my favourites would have to be Roald Dahl’s ‘James and the Giant Peach’, I had it in audio format, as well as the printed book, and I’d listen to it over and over again. I also had a favourite book called ‘My Bedtime Book’, which was illustrated by Garth Williams, apparently I would giggle at all the illustrations, I'm not sure why.

P: Are you working on any new projects that we should look out for?

S: I’m currently working on 2 book projects, they are both about animals and very much in the ideas stage, but watch this space :)