Children’s author Charlotte Guillain on how it all started

When Adam and I spent Christmas together in 1997, we had no idea how many more times we’d share the festive season.

We were both working with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) in Zanzibar.

VSO sends professionals to work as volunteers alongside local colleagues in developing countries; Adam was training primary teachers and I was teaching English to students at a health college.

We were spending the Christmas break exploring Zimbabwe with a big group of friends.

We were only acquaintances back then; while Adam spent Christmas Day canoeing up the Zambezi dodging crocodiles and hippos, I helped a friend recover from the previous night’s excesses Still, we’re both in the photos of that Christmas and look back on the adventures we had with a lot of pleasure.

Fast forward almost 20 years and we find ourselves not only married with two children, but we even write picture books together.

Having our son and daughter is what prompted us to write children’s books.

Like many parents, we were always making up silly stories and songs when our son was a baby.

One day, he was eating spaghetti and covered himself in pasta and tomato sauce. It was in his hair, his ears, his toes.

Thinking how funny he looked, we started to play with the word ‘spaghetti’ and words that rhyme with it.

Before we knew it we had a first draft of a story about a boy called George who goes to look for the Yeti and our first picture book, Spaghetti with the Yeti, was born.

Our own family life and experiences seem to lie behind all our picture books: the beautiful sandy beach in Pizza for Pirates always takes Adam and I back to the deserted white sands of our beloved Zanzibar.

Our daughter’s favourite sweets feature in Marshmallows for Martians and we must have had her in mind when we created the adventurous princess in Doughnuts for a Dragon.

And, after years of watching us write a series of picture books about a character inspired by her brother, next year sees the publication of our new book, School for Dads; we’ll finally have a book published with a lead character based on her. But our latest book – Socks for Santa – feels especially personal, as Christmas is such a special time for us.

Like so many families, we have the cosy little rituals that we all love: decorating the tree, baking mince pies and spiced biscuits, watching The Polar Express and The Grinch, spending time with family and friends and putting empty stockings out on Christmas Eve.

Writing Socks for Santa was a lovely opportunity for us to celebrate the magic of Christmas with small children, now that ours are getting older.

And it didn’t matter that we sat down to write it last August – if you can spend Christmas surrounded by hippos and admiring Victoria Falls, then it’s easy to conjure up Rudolph and a bunch of dancing elves in the middle of the summer!

We’re already enjoying sharing it with our friends’ little ones and hope it brings the spirit of Christmas to young families everywhere.

* Charlotte and Adam Guillain will be signing copies of Socks for Santa at Blackwell’s, Oxford, on Saturday, December 12, at 1.30pm and the Woodstock Bookshop on Sunday, December 13, at 4pm.