Some years ago, I discovered a handful of stories I’d written while staying regularly in Hans Christian Andersen’s house in Copenhagen. As the stories – fables – were somewhat similar (unintentionally) in style and content to what HCA might have written, I like to think that being so close to his lingering presence might have helped. Gratifyingly, in the opinion of some friends on whom I trialled the stories, they were too ‘unusual’ to waste (as one reader commented, ‘brilliant to see the world from a cockroach’s point of view. Not many writers have ever attempted that!’), so rather than leave them in a drawer I set up QuizzicalWorks and the ‘hatman’ logo (for more see The Origins of QW) and, with illustrations by award-winning Grant Cathro and profits going to a charity, published them in 2017 in a limited edition as a Christmas stocking filler.
Although the book was enthusiastically received in private sales and on Amazon there were no profits! Encouraged by flattery, however, the following year I brought out a second collection for Christmas (again with illustrations by Cathro) for a different charity.
By then I should have concluded that donating stories to charities without proper marketing doesn’t yield sales. Nevertheless, my growing number of readers gave me a reason to continue. Two years later, I published a third book for charity, this time with illustrations by Alice (www.dogsdogscatsdogs.com).
In 2020 Covid struck. I had intended a new set of Silly Stories, but somehow the emerging ones (already quite dark in some cases) were becoming darker and perhaps too negative for that challenging time. So, I shelved them. But then came the Schnoodle Bag and the magical book within. It inspired a new collection (In and Out of the Schnoodle Bag), suitable as before for ages 10 to 110 – which, together with artwork by Cathro and a few of the previously published stories, I donated to yet another charity.
There were some proceeds but hardly enough to make the venture the success we had hoped for. Three years on from there, I’ve learned my lesson, which is why I am reissuing a revised version of the first Schnoodle book for, I hope, a much wider audience, and launching a second collection: More from the Schnoodle Bag
Future collections will feature more of the ‘simple and slightly silly’ type of story plus some of the Schnoodle Bag’s darker ones from the Covid and present days. As for the previous books, they’ve been deleted and are no longer available. Also in the pipeline for QuizzicalWorks are some other very different titles. But more of them later, so watch this space.
London; January 2026