Artist and author Adam Gillson, who produces the Puffin & Booby cartoon strip for the Guernsey Press, has now written a series of books in which his two avian characters go on adventures that incorporate the use of some Guernesiais words and phrases.
Adam says the unlikely combination of a Channel Island puffin and a blue-footed booby from the remote Pacific archipelago owes much to a bucket-list holiday he took several years ago.
‘As they speak Spanish there, I brushed up on my limited Spanish before going and upon returning to Guernsey, I got thinking about languages and how I personally learn them,’ Adam said.
‘I learn by the context of things, so I wanted to preserve the local language by creating fun contexts for people to read and learn. And Puffin and Booby were born.’
The two friends learn ‘gentle lessons woven throughout every tale’, in the new series, which features colour illustrations.
The first three books are called The Monster Mystery, The Foggy Day and The Flying Pot and can be read in any order.
Every Guernesiais word is explained in a glossary at the back of each book, with pronunciations available at the puffinandbooby.com website.
Adam described the similarities and contrasts between writing cartoon strips with just two or three black-and-white illustrations, and putting his characters into colourful storybook adventures.
‘They both need to be concise and not have too much that distracts from the core content,’ he said.
‘I grew up on Snoopy, Garfield, Dilbert and Andy Capp as newspaper comics, and combined it all from there. Using the didactic learning theory of context of the Guernsey French words with a joke context is a finicky thing to figure out, but when you get it, you’ve got it. Kids' books have more room to expand a story with more fun and, being full colour, is always fun to draw. The drawings sometimes dictate and change the story.’
‘Whether read at home or taken further afield, each book offers readers the chance to carry a little of Guernsey’s language, culture and island spirit with them wherever they go,’ said Steve Foote of publisher Blue Ormer.
These are the first Blue Ormer books to be endorsed by the Guernsey Language Commission’s ‘Nou-z Est Pour L’Guernesiais’ trademark.
Joy Liggett of the Guernsey Language Commission congratulated Adam on his ‘innovative and creative approach towards introducing Guernesiais in this way’.
The books add to a wide array of writing and illustration work which Adam has embarked upon, with previous projects producing graphic novels, comics, children’s books, medical illustration and public art – one of his illustrations adorns a panel on the north side of the markets building in St Peter Port.
The Puffin & Booby books are priced at £8 each and are available from www.blueormer.gg and from local stores including The Lexicon, Writer’s Block, Guernsey Museum, Cadeaux, the Visitor Information Centre, the airport’s duty free shop, Sula Gallery and Herm Gift Shop.
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