Nick Barnsby

Nick has learned most of what he knows from children and a little bit from the study of philosophy, psychology, counselling and social work. He has worked with children and those who look after them for many years and has also been a parent, foster parent and a grandad and enjoys telling stories to his grandchildren.

He set up Futures for Children over twenty years ago and during the Summer of 2020's lockdown he wrote every week to all those who worked with him and all of his foster parents.

The foster parents started reading his letters to their families and children and asked him to write something for children to read.

The story he wrote was his first book Heroes of Covid-19.

All of the animals in the story are real and were mentioned in the other letters and have stories of their own waiting to be written.

He had seen drawings and sketches by Anya many years ago and asked her to illustrate the story.

Anya sat down with her daughter Grace and decided to show Grace that a mum, working from her kitchen table and educating her daughter at home whose job may be in jeopardy because of the crisis could still do something positive and put her heart and soul into illustrating the story.

Grace is right to be very proud of her mum and her illustrations.

Nick likes to read stories that adults and children can all enjoy at their individual levels, and Heroes of Covid-19 recalls the lockdown as children will remember it and can be talked about and interpreted at all levels. It is written to help parents, carers and teachers to talk with children and gain a sense of their understanding of recent events and help to make them less confusing.

It is a happy story and mentions real events that children remember.

Feedback so far is that it makes most children laugh and some adults cry.

If you like this story there are many more to be written and Nick hopes to work with Anya again in the future.