Kipwik came to me in a dream over twenty years ago. I’m mussophobic, so anything vaguely furry and rodent-like would send me gibbering and screaming in the opposite direction.ĭavid’s relationship with Kipwick reminded me of Edmund’s relationship with the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

If you’d been in a similar situation, which reaction do you think you would have had? The portal itself was always going to be an element of the story, but the name is just something that appeared.ĭavid and Penny both have very different reactions when they first met Pog. I wish I knew! Pog said it one day and it just sounded right. Where did the name ‘the Necessary’ come from? I only really remember my paternal grandmother, and I was very young when she died. Did you have a similar relationship with your grandparents? Pog obviously had a very close relationship with his grandfa and he regularly looks to him for guidance. Writing for me has to be fun, even if I am dealing with emotional topics or dark and terrifying scenes. It’s hard to say, but I think maybe I did feel a bit closer to the material of Pog. Your first book, Tin, is a steampunk book themed around mechanicals and robotics while Pog is much more nature-based. I had an image of a strange furry creature hiding in an attic, and he became the glue that bound the whole story together. I suppose the real reason he arrived was because I had two elements for a story – a bereaved family and a villain, but I didn’t have anything to tie these two elements together until Pog arrived. Like a lot of things that I write he just popped into my head. Pog is such a fantastic character, with his peculiar way of speaking, protective nature and love of pancakes. His latest novel, Pog, is about grief, monsters and a furry little creature you’ll love! Here Pádraig talks to Sarah Farrell about his new atmospheric, moving and exciting new story…Ĭover illustration by Jane Newland and Helen Crawford-White.

His debut novel Tin was a science-fiction thriller about robots.

Tin by Pádraig Kenny