I was reading to the class and had reached the part of the story where Grandad tells Syd that he is thinking of staying on the island. Up until this point, I have to admit that my reading of the book had been rather superficial, reminding me even now that revisiting a story, re-reading it and allowing ourselves time to slowly pore over the illustrations is vital and time well spend. I managed to compose myself and, on reaching the end of the story, when Syd receives a mysterious envelope, asked the children what they thought might be in the envelope. “A letter from Grandad!” they chorused. It had to be! They soon set about writing their own letters in the role of Grandad and it was at this point that I had to leave the classroom. Once again, I had started crying. I sat in the toilets for a while sobbing, feeling very foolish. Which means you don’t have to go all the way to Borneo (East Malaysia) to see orangutans! As Orang Utan Island is close to Taiping, Ipoh, and Penang. So it’s worth your while to visit it! I had a moment when I was on set, watching all the actors and film crew. I thought how rewarding it was that so many people have been employed on a project that started as an idea in my head 33 years ago. That gives me a great feeling, better than anything else. And the knowledge that Katie Morag is a real ambassador for the Scottish Highlands and Islands, a part of our country that a lot of people don’t know about.

Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies (Simon and Schuster) - CLPE Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies (Simon and Schuster) - CLPE

I was completely stumped. Why was I crying? I felt embarrassed, flustered, hot and like I had lost control. The biggest challenge was retaining Katie Morag’s perspective on the world. I think they have definitely done it. It’s still her island and they have captured it. Katie Morag is a feisty, red-headed girl who lives with her family on the magical Scottish Island of Struay. Her life is full of stories of jealousy, bravery and rivalry, peopled by an annoying little brother, busy shopkeeper parents, a perfectly perfect best friend and a couple of grandmothers who between them know everything about everything. Katie Morag is played by Cherry Campbell. There are definitely some characters in the first book that were based on people living on the island at the time. There are also some family members who have provided inspiration too. Granma Mainland is based on my own mother a little bit. My mother was urban based and I remember when she would come to visit us on the island, and she would get off the boat wearing her good court shoes. Grannie Island is the Grannie I always wanted to be. To read the artist’s picture is to mobilise our memories and our experience of the visible world and to test his image through tentative projections…It is not the ‘innocent eye’, however, that can achieve this match but only the inquiring mind that knows how to probe the ambiguities of vision.” (Gombrich, 1962: 264 cited in Arizpe and Styles, 2003, 2015)

I never got a chance to say goodbye to my Grandads. I like to think that both of them are somewhere on an island faraway, where the waterfalls cascade and a large chimpanzee serves them tea, or maybe even a ‘Footballer’s Dinner’. Perhaps I’ll see them again one day. Up until this point, the sessions had been brilliant. The children had drawn colourful pictures to predict what might be on the island, written immersive descriptions of the jungle, developed their vocabulary (not many knew what an ‘attic’ was and enjoyed discussing what ‘an ocean of rooftops’ might look like). They had nudged each other and giggled over all the things they spotted in Grandad’s dusty attic and gasped at the beauty of the island – I had displayed the book on the interactive whiteboard for maximum effect. Where will the big metal door lead to? A few months ago, I was completing a series of lessons with my Year 2 class on Benji Davies’ wonderfully moving picture book Grandad’s Island. I'm asked quite often which Grannie Katie Morag prefers but she likes them both the same. Katie Morag sees Grannie Island more often because she lives nearer but it is great when Granma Mainland to visit. She usually comes on the ferry. I’ve got a Grannie Island and Granma Mainland in real life too! The book certainly developed what Michael Rosen calls ‘intratextual skills’ or ‘harvesting’ – the ability to relate one part of the text to another and find clues along the way. One boy was beside himself to discover that he had already seen the animals helping to build the shelter…in Grandad’s attic!

Katie Morag - Media Centre - BBC Katie Morag - Media Centre - BBC

I asked my children if they thought Grandad would return and almost all of them thought that no, he was happy on his island and the big, metal door in the attic had vanished anyway. Syd hugged Grandad one last time. He would miss him very much. Somewhere in Perak is Bukit Merah Orangutan Island Malaysia. This is a rehabilitation center of 35 acres just for orangutans! What did it mean? Was the big metal door in Grandad’s attic of memories and curiosities really a magic portal that turned inanimate objects into living, breathing creatures? Had Grandad taken the contents of his attic to the island? If so, why? Cue lots of excited chatter and debate!Filming is brilliant! I really like my own bedroom in the studio. It's not real though. I get to run up the stairs and flash my torch to Grannie Island. Her house is a different set in the studio. I suddenly found that I had a lump in my throat and I had begun to cry. My children looked at me and I wiped the tears away. Reading Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies allowed my inquiring Year 2 class to explore a fascinating new world and prompted me to remember two very special men… My mum looked at me, with tears in her eyes, then nodded with determination and, thankfully, seamlessly carried on reading to the children, while I turned away and dried my eyes. Never in a thousand years! With the first book, I was given a brief to write and illustrate a picture storybook. My own children were teenagers by this point and so it was a self-indulgent nostalgia re-run of my children’s upbringing on the Isle of Coll.