The beloved author discusses her new book, the diary left by her late husband and the long-awaited return of Britain’s favourite monster.
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She’s the best-selling author of the decade, having shifted an astonishing 19 million books in the UK since 2020. So you might think that Dame Julia Donaldson considers her hotly anticipated new story, Gruffalo Granny, to be the most important thing she’s worked on recently. The project was so secret it was given a codename by the publishers, and only a tiny team was permitted to read the latest adventures of everyone’s favourite purple-prickled beast prior to publication.
But it’s actually a different manuscript that’s been occupying Julia’s thoughts recently: the diary kept by her late husband Malcolm, which tells some of the story of their half century together. The 78-year-old author cherishes the bits where he says he loves her and gets cross at the entries where their recollections vary.
Her 200-plus books have helped generations of children understand life, but it’s clear his words are helping her deal with her loss after his death from cancer in 2024 aged 75.
“Malcolm kept this diary – luckily on the computer, not handwritten, and very, very detailed – every day for the last 15 years or so,” Julia explains. “I’m reading through it and putting in photographs. It brings alive all these lovely – well, mostly lovely – memories.”
Although Malcolm was an eminent paediatrician – which is why Julia jokes about his doctor’s handwriting – he was also her first reader, as well as an accomplished actor and musician who accompanied her songs and performed in her plays.
"When a story was half written, I’d give it to him, and he’d read it out in this cod Welsh accent. He called it his Dylan Thomas voice and thought it made things sound more poetic. With my songs, we’d sit and sing together. I’d play the tune in my head on the piano, and he’d be there strumming his guitar.
Thankfully, Malcolm lived long enough to read the manuscript of Gruffalo Granny, the third book to feature the orange-eyed, purple prickled beast with terrible tusks and turned out toes and the poisonous wart on the end of its nose.
It’s Julia’s first Gruffalo book in two decades, following the blockbuster original in 1999 and its sequel, The Gruffalo’s Child, five years later. The first book has sold 17 million copies in 100 languages, including Russian, Thai and Maori. It’s become a stage show and an Oscar-nominated film, and there’s even a tiny edition in the royal dolls’ house in Windsor Castle. The Gruffalo’s Child was also an instant hit, but Julia felt no urgency to write the third.
She carried the seed of the story around for years until finally discussing it with one of her sons when they were out for a walk and he said, “Go on, Mum, give it a go”.
In it we re-enter the deep dark wood and again meet the clever brown mouse which, this time, is set to be turned into a celebration stew for the visit of Gruffalo Granny. Held captive in a cage, the wily little creature tells tale after tale, ending on a nightly cliffhanger to keep himself alive until he’s had time to gnaw his way to freedom. His stories are Julia’s own classics, such as The Snail and the Whale, which Gruffalo Granny encourages the Gruffalo’s Child to write down for posterity.
Gruffalo Granny by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children’s Books) RRP: £14.99
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