The book ‘Flossy and the Tiger’ has now made its debut in Northampton. The book, written by Northampton-based professional photographer and author, Peter Dietrich, is a story of a young girl who befriends a tiger.
Will the world of adults encroach on their attempts to learn more about each other? And how will the others who also live in the park react?
The story stems from when Peter encountered a lost tiger toy while on a walk in his local park and features real people that Peter encountered on the way. The tiger toy gave him the idea to create a photo book of the tiger’s adventures during the Covid lockdown. It then developed into a full-blown musical, but unfortunately for a variety of reasons that project had to be shelved for a while.
The story began its current iteration when Peter realised that his friend’s granddaughter, 9-year-old Florence and ultimate owner of the toy tiger, would make a perfect friend for the Tiger and so the adventure began.
It was during this time that Peter began searching for an artist to bring his colourful cast to life visually. At the Northants Town and County art exhibition, he met Fiona Jenney, an amateur artist from Rushden who had recently begun exhibiting and selling her work.
Despite having never illustrated before, Fiona took on the challenge and began designing everyone featured in the book from a gang of wild children to a wood sprite who live in the park.
Fiona Jenney is a longtime resident of Rushden and, after years of mental health issues, found art again after joining Scribble Studio in Rushden. The support and tutelage she received there has enabled her to develop her passion. She is very excited to have illustrated her first book along with a companion colouring book for any budding artists out there to have their own ideas about how the characters should look. She is now looking forward to developing her skills further and meeting whatever challenges may come her way next.
The book ‘Flossy and the Tiger’ by Peter Dietrich, should soon be available in independent book shops, and fans of Flossy will one day be able to sing along to her adventures when the musical is staged.
