Good morning!

I hope you are all well!

It is my absolute honour today to be on the blog tour for Greenwild: The World Behind The Door – a brilliant new book that my kids are just ADORING.. so much so, I had to give both of my copies to them!

I am incredibly lucky today to have Pari on my blog answering a few of my questions!

***

Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind Greenwild?
Like many stories, Greenwild began with a single question: a big ‘what if?’ For me, that question was this: What if nature was magic? What if trees could grow chocolate drops, and flytraps could pounce on you? What if you could set sail on a giant lily-pad boat, and become invisible by eating a magic seed? What if all of these wonders existed in a world behind a secret door? Well, that world became the Greenwild – the place that Daisy Thistledown discovers when she steps through a hidden entrance in Kew Gardens.

Did you do any research while you were writing Greenwild?
I’m lucky enough to live near Kew myself, and that provided lots of material as I was writing, because some of the plants there really are stranger than fiction. There are carnivorous plants, and hairy pink bananas, and orchids that feed on moisture in the air – and of course those amazing glasshouses! Many of my ideas also came from the Persian fairy tales my mum used to tell me when I was small. In Iran, gardens have always been associated with myths and magic, and there are wonderful stories of magical birds and magical pomegranates with the power to grant wishes.

Are there any books from your own childhood that inspired you when you were writing the
book?
I was a huge bookworm as a child – my parents had to bribe me to stop reading and come down for meals. Of course, I loved books about stepping through magical doorways, like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But I also loved books about adventure in general, particularly when they were balanced by an element of cosiness. These are books that allow you to feel safe while letting you to be wild and free in your imagination.
 
Take The Hobbit for example, which combines all the snugness of Bilbo’s hobbit hole in the Shire with the great fire-breathing danger of Smaug the dragon. Or the Redwall series, where the great abbey with its dappled orchards and magnificent feasts sits alongside the intrepid exploits of its brave warrior mice. Or The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, where you have howling wolves and chilling winter snowstorms, but also warmth and food and crackling fires.

What do you hope readers will take away from GREENWILD? 
I hope that they’ll feel inspired to pay attention to the sheer wonder and beauty of the natural world around us – and to get out into nature and to look for wildness wherever it appears, even if it’s only a flower in a pavement crack. I hope they’ll think about how in so many ways, nature really is magic. And most importantly, I hope the book offers fun and escapism, and inspires kids to love reading.

***

As I say, this book is going down an absolute storm in my classroom and I can’t wait to see everyone enjoying it too!

A massive thanks to Pari for her time! Check out the rest of the blog tour because it’s also filled with gorgeous posts!

S x