It’s not as if I usually wear my Hat of Surprise, but this hat is sometimes an important part of one of my many comic strip workshops, including those at schools, the Institute of Physics, the Guardian, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Swedenborg House, Isle of Lewis, British Science Festival, Beijing Bookworm Festival, Shetland Wordplay, Fitzrovia Fete, Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Canterbury University of the Arts, at London Zoo and many other venues.
The workshops encourage participants – from ages three to eighty so far – to make a visual narrative, or simplify complicated information in a clear and engaging way, with an emphasis on humour and/or surprise. The Hat of Surprise contains helpful written or visual prompts for each person to pick at random, for them to turn into their very own visual sequential narrative aka comic strip.
Why this style of hat? It has associations with magicians, a hat that conceals, then transforms or reveals. My events enable participants to increase their creative powers, develop personal confidence and even have fun. Check out my website and blog for info about some of the thirty or so of my published children’s books, and much more.
Contact me for more information if you’d like me to run an exciting workshop for you in 2026. Here’s one of the favourite books I illustrated. More adventures to come, although possibly not in space …
See my article about ‘Workshops/explorations’ in the latest edition of the Swedenborg Review, Winter 2025.