Did You Know?
Laughing clowns
As a kid, Flip loved the laughing clowns ball machines at amusement parks.
​
She once got a very high score and won a shiny silver tray which she proudly presented to her mum when she got home.
Forty years later, that tray is still in use. It's the tray Flip's mum uses for oven potatoes.
Fairy bread
Did you know there's a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson called Fairy Bread?
Could this be how fairy bread got its name?
​
(Broom is a shrub with yellow flowers. It smells like vanilla.)
Fairy Bread
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Come up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread to eat.
Here in my retiring room,
Children, you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell.
Mudlarking
Did you know that mudlarking really is a thing?
​
Mudlarkers find all sorts of remarkable items when they trudge through muddy riverbanks at low tide. From Tudor rings to Roman pottery, 17th and 18th Century wig curlers, buttons, coins, beads, broken toys and dolls, weapons and clay pipes. Even bones are sometimes found - animal and human.
The vase
Did you know that the vase Jinx finds (Chapter 16) is a nod to a famous photograph by Victor Baldwin?
Baldwin's 1971 black and white photo featured a cat, similar the black one here, clinging to a bamboo pole. It was often accompanied by the motivational catchphrase: "Hang in there!"
​
Adhaere is Latin for "hang on."
The painting
Did you know that the painting the maneki-neko buys from the vending machine (Chapter 12) really exists?
​
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee was painted in 1633 by Rembrandt ​van Rijn. It was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts on March 18th 1990. It's valued at $100,000,000 ($100 million).
​
It remains missing.
Kill Cuckoos
Did you know that the idea for kill cuckoos came about one day when Flip was playing with her cat, Stella?
Stella shot out of her igloo, grabbed the toy Flip had been waving, and withdrew backwards taking the toy with her. It reminded Flip of a cuckoo bird popping out of a clock.
The Bairn
Did you know that "bairn" is another word for child?
It's a word commonly used in Scotland and Northern England.
Comanche
Comanche (Chapter 5) is not only named after the Native American Indian tribe, he is also named after a real pony.
​
When Flip was a child, a boy at her pony club rode a white pony named Comanche. For the sake of privacy, we'll call that boy "John."
​
​
One day, Flip was at a One Day Event - this is a riding competition with three categories: dressage, show jumping, and cross-country.
​
A popular place for spectators to stand and watch the cross-country event was the water jump. This is where Flip was standing, with the rest of the crowd. Along came Comanche. He had a thunderous canter, like a mini Clydesdale. He sprang over the jump awkwardly, causing John to lose his seat and fall into the water. Comanche, now riderless, galloped back to the horse floats.
​
Many people gasped when John fell off. Some people laughed. Flip was silent with shock. When John stood up, soaking wet, and started sprinting after Comanche, the crowd cheered and clapped their approval.
​
In one fleeting moment, John became the bravest boy she'd ever seen.
Train Delays
Did you know that the idea for the Miscellaneous Elite was triggered after Flip read a news article online about NYC train delays and the animals that cause them?
Banquet
still life
Did you know that the Adriaen van Utrecht painting in Chapter 11 really exists? It's on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Flip visited the Rijksmuseum on her honeymoon in 2018.
The idea for Banquet Still Life - The Aftermath came about when Flip's two cocker spaniels, Cato and Emma, got into a fight over a piece of Parmagiano Reggiano. The two dogs brawled all round the living room. The fight ended when they knocked over the Christmas tree.
Schadenfreude
girl
Schadenfreude Girl is first mentioned in Humpty Doo Book 1.
Personality-wise, Flip says she's a mash up of Clytie and Schadenfreude Girl.
Working with an illustrator
For Flip, the best part of working with illustrator Leo Lätti is seeing him bring her "awful" stick figure drawings to life.
Flip's sketch
Leo's illustration