Living the dream

Robertsbridge-based Sarah Massini always wanted to illustrate children’s books for a living and now she has two out in time for Christmas. Sarah tells Simone Hellyer how she made it happen

- Sarah Massini

It was a move to Robertsbridge in East Sussex that prompted Sarah Massini to fulfil her dream of becoming a children’s book illustrator. And now the Sussex countryside has inspired the landscape of her latest book, The Girl and the Dinosaur.

The book, written by Hollie Hughes, is publisher Bloomsbury’s picture book of the year and is a charming story about the friendship between a dinosaur and a girl called Marianne that proves that both boys and girls can love dinosaurs.

“I just loved this story the moment I first read the text, partly because there’s loads of adventure in it, which meant there was plenty of interesting stuff that I could illustrate,” Sarah says, adding: “I’d been doing lots of cutesy, lovey dovey and sentimental things and I really wanted to do something that I could get my teeth into.”

In the book Marianne creates her dinosaur pal from fossils found on the beach and Sarah drew inspiration from Hastings’ shoreline when creating the illustrations for the book, as she explains: “Hastings inspired the hilly aspect of the landscape and the boats on the beach. But I did make the beach sandy in the book and, to be honest, I’m not sure if boats can be pulled onto a sandy beach as it’s all pebbles in Hastings. I used a bit of artistic licence there.”