/ News from Rangoon (Feb 2025 / Release Feb 2026)
Hollywood comes to Rangoon!!
Claudia Harrison best known for her part as Princess Anne from Netflix's The Crown 🤩 took some time out from her current role as Gertrude in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet Hail to the Thief to record the narration of The Raccoon from Rangoon audiobook!!
I've known Claudia since I was a teenager and I'm lucky to call her a great friend but both Andrew DeLong and I were understandably a little nervous when she stepped into the studio. 😆
Claudia quickly put us at ease and like the consummate professional she is, managed to do her lines in pretty much the first take! 😎
Yours truly on the other hand, racked up a score well into double figures and had to return to the studio to re-record all my lines🤣
We had tremendous fun pretending to be raccoons, baboons and a whole cast of jungle creatures, while Andy did an incredible job on the production (and everything in between)!
It was another wonderful day and one that reminded me just how grateful I am to be able to do what I do, collaborating with such brilliantly talented people and bring my stories to life, sharing them with you all.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it!
Please do let me know what you and your kids think of it.🙏
Raccoon Mayhem at Story Stomp
The Kenilworth Fringe Story Stomp 2026 certainly didn't disappoint! There wasn't an inch of spare carpet as parents, grandparents and children packed the room for a wonderful morning of stories and fun! 🤩
I'll admit, I was a little anxious...😬 it was the very first time I'd played the new The Raccoon from Rangoon audiobook, narrated by the wonderful Claudia Harrison, so Kenilworth you were officially the first audience in the UK to hear it! 😲
Thankfully your reaction was everything I'd hoped for. Thank you for your enthusiasm, your laughter, your brilliant participation, and to everyone who took home a signed copy of the book.
It was a truly wonderful event, and a huge thank you to Judy, Kenilworth Books and Kenilworth Library for organising it and making it all happen!
Days like these remind me why I love sharing my stories with children and families!
/ News from Rangoon - Feb 2026
/ News from Rangoon - August 2025
Bunkfest 2025 Raccoon vibes!🦝
What a fantastic day in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, at BunkFest! One of Europe's largest free community festivals, featuring over 100 live music acts!
I was invited to read The Raccoon from Rangoon and run some creative storytelling workshops for children and families. Thankfully, the weather was on our side for some of the day, with beautiful sunshine helping to create a brilliant festival atmosphere. ☀️
At one point, we had a huge speaker pumping out "I Am Raccoon" down the road and, to my delight, people actually started dancing along to the beat! 🎶🕺💃🦝
The workshops were great fun. We created some wonderfully imaginative characters and sent them off on all sorts of exciting and hilarious adventures. It's always amazing to see where children's imaginations can take a story.
A huge thank you to all the parents, grandparents and children who came along, joined in, and picked up signed copies of the book. It was lovely to meet so many of you, chat about books, and sign copies throughout the day.
A special thank you to the organisers for inviting me. Any event where a crowd of children can spend the afternoon creating stories while a song about a raccoon echoes across a festival is a good event in my book 🦝❤️📚
Kenfest 2025, 2 day Racoonathon!
Kenfest 2025 was my first Kenfest and it was brilliant! Judy from Kenilworth Books had organised a fantastic Story Corner featuring some superb authors, including Julia Rawlinson and her wonderful Fletcher Fox books🦊and The Brothers McLeod!
Everyone was incredibly welcoming and helped me get set up for a bit of Raccoon crooning, 🦝🎤 storytelling and book signing.
The sun was shining, the Story Corner was buzzing, and everyone had a fantastic time. ☀️
A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by to listen, join in and pick up a signed copy of The Raccoon from Rangoon. It was a pleasure meeting you all! ☀️📚🦝
/ News from Rangoon - May 2025
/ News from Rangoon - May 2025
Supersized Raccoon from Rangoon!🦝📚
Massive Thanks to Ralph @RPRINT Warwick for this SUPERSIZED copy of The Raccoon from Rangoon! 🦝📚
With a reading scheduled at KenFest this weekend, I was slightly concerned that if I used a normal-sized copy of the book, the children wouldn't be able to properly see all of Andrew S Gray's fabulous illustrations. 😭 And we can't have that!
Thankfully, Ralph came to the rescue. ⛑️
Problem solved, I'd say! 🙌
The giant book was an instant hit and meant everyone could enjoy the story and artwork from a distance. The only minor drawback is that it appears to require two people to turn the pages...😄 and it isn't light! 💪
Thank you again, Ralph!
Waterstones Leamington Spa!
Thank you Waterstones Leamington Spa 📚🦝
I've been dreaming about this moment for the last year... walking into my local Waterstones and seeing The Raccoon from Rangoon sitting on the shelf.
It's funny. You write the book, then you spend months learning about publishing and discovering that writing the story is comparably the easy part! Bringing a picture book to life takes time, patience and a huge amount of collaboration. The illustrations are such an important part of the process, and working with Andrew S Gray for me has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of becoming an author.
Even so, you never quite believe that one day you'll walk into a huge nationwide bookshop like Waterstones and see a book with your name on it sitting there for parents and grandparents to buy for their children.
So when I walked into Waterstones Leamington Spa and spotted The Raccoon from Rangoon, not tucked away spine-out on a shelf as I'd expected when they said they would stock it, but displayed front-facing in the recommended section, I have to admit I felt incredibly proud. 😊✨🦝
I remember nervously walking into the store last month with a copy of the book and my speaker, half expecting to be turned away.
Thankfully, they loved it and did everything they could to get it on the shelf and trust me there's a lot of red tape for an indie author!
Seeing the book on display felt like one of those moments that makes all the hard work worthwhile.
A huge thank you to the team at Waterstones Leamington Spa for supporting local authors and for giving Raccoon a place on your shelves. It genuinely means a great deal. 🙏
/ News from Rangoon - Feb 2025
/ News from Rangoon - Jan 2025
My first PUBLIC reading!😱🤯
Serendipitously, the Team Manager for Warwick Library happened to be in Warwick Books when Mog agreed to stock The Raccoon from Rangoon. She introduced me to Laura from the library, who kindly asked if I'd like to do an author event during half term. 🙏
I said yes.... 😎
Then immediately regretted it 😬
I've never enjoyed public speaking, so the thought of standing in front of a room full of children and parents reading my own book was slightly terrifying.😱
Fortunately, a cup of tea and my daughter coming along for moral support helped settle the nerves.
Before I knew it, I was reading The Raccoon from Rangoon to a room full of children, parents and grandparents. 📚🦝
I'd completely forgotten that some children are incredibly confident and will happily join in, while others are so shy they'd rather hide behind a chair or bury themselves under a cushion! After all, it's been 17 years since my children were that age!
I'd also forgotten that children will likely do something completely random in the middle of a story. 🤣
I quickly realised that the secret is to expect the unexpected and act as though it was all part of the plan.
Once we'd finished the book, it was time for the song. To create my band, I handed out all the imaginary instruments 🎷🥁🎸🎹🎺and the children (and quite a few parents!) joined in brilliantly as we boogied along to I Am Raccoon. 🦝
To be honest, there's just something about that song and rhythm that just makes a room bounce. 🎶🎶🎶
As it turned out, all the worrying had been unnecessary. It was definitely a step into the unknown, but I suppose that's part of the fun!
A huge thank you to Laura and the team at Warwick Library for inviting me. It was my very first public reading and, looking back now, it feels like the start of a completely unexpected new chapter.
😊📚🦝
Raccoon hits the bookshelves in Warwick and Kenilworth!🦝📚
The day finally arrived. 🤞🙏✨📚🦝
Armed with a stack of freshly printed copies of The Raccoon from Rangoon and a healthy dose of fear and trepidation, I set off to visit two of the best independent bookshops near my hometown of Leamington Spa.
Naturally, I wasn't content with simply handing over a copy of the book.
Equipped with a Bluetooth speaker and perhaps more confidence than sense, I placed a copy of The Raccoon from Rangoon on the counter and, with a cheeky smile, pressed play:
"I am Raccoon from Rangoon and I love to croon a tune..."🎵🎶🎷🥁🦝🐒🐒🎵🎶
The song echoed around what had, until that moment, been a perfectly peaceful bookshop.
For a few seconds, I wasn't entirely convinced the staff hadn't concluded I was completely bonkers.
Thankfully, once they realised there was an actual book to accompany the song and that Andrew S Gray had created some fabulous illustrations, they started turning the pages.... I spotted a smile or two, a chuckle, followed by the words every new author hopes to hear:
"We'll take five copies."
Not once, but twice.
Both Warwick Books and Kenilworth Books agreed to stock The Raccoon from Rangoon, which was such a fantastic moment and a huge boost of confidence!
A massive thank you to Judy at Kenilworth Books and Pauline and Mog at Warwick Books for your support, encouragement and invaluable advice about schools, festivals and the world of children's books.
Happy Rob. 😊🦝📚
/ News from Rangoon - Jan 2025
/ News from Rangoon - Dec 2024
It's Arrived!!!!! 📚🦝
There are certain moments in life that feel a bit surreal.
Opening a box and pulling out my very first printed copy of The Raccoon from Rangoon is one of them. ✨
For months, this book has existed as a collection of ideas, scribbled notes, half-finished verses, endless edits and conversations. Then Andy (Andrew S Gray) worked his magic and transformed those words into a world filled with colour, characters and fun.
And suddenly, here it is...
A real book...
With my name on the cover!
I'll be honest, I just sat staring at it for a while. 🤯
Not because it's going to change the world.
Not because it's destined to become a bestseller.
Just because I actually did it!
Fifteen years ago, after being inspired by a Ray Gelato show, I wrote a limerick about a raccoon. That limerick sat quietly in a file on my computer for fourteen years before eventually becoming the seed that grew into this book! I'd never planned to become a children's author... I've never had the time!!
Today, I'm holding a finished children's book in my hands that started with that very same limerick.
That feels pretty special. ✨🥹
The scary part is that this is only the beginning.... The book now has to find its way into homes, schools, libraries and bookshops. It has to earn its place on the shelf amongst some very famous company. 🫣
But whatever happens next, nobody can take this moment away. ☺️
The Raccoon from Rangoon is officially out in the wild.🦝
And somewhere out there, I like to think a child is about to meet Raccoon and here his music for the very first time!!
😊📚🦝
