A life long love of stories spurs Jimmy to pen book

A life long love of stories spurs Jimmy to pen book

19 June 2013

INCH Abbey and Cranfield Lighthouse are some of the local landmarks which have inspired a new audio book of children’s stories.

Jimmy Smyth, from Newcastle, is the man behind the collection entitled Four Magical Adventures of Lucas, Jake and Amber — the adventures of a boy and his two Jack Russell dogs around County Down.

The collection is a follow-up from his first children’s book The Leprechaun, which sold over 3,000 copies locally.

The former psychiatric nurse and social worker, who came to attention in 2011 with his forthright book Don’t Let the Health Service Kill You, said it was writing children’s fiction during his retirement that gave him the greatest buzz. An avid reader from a young age, Jimmy said he was constantly surrounded by inspiration.

“I grew up in Kilkeel, between the mountains and the sea, in the heart of The Kingdom of Mourne — a place that has never ceased to captivate me, by its magic and beauty,” he said.

“My grandmother and many of her neighbours were great storytellers and hardly a week went by without a storytelling session. Many of the stories were about the fairies and had a local setting, and in the days following my friends and I would be playing in the fields or by the river where we were told the stories took place.”

Such was his early love of reading, Jimmy would be at the newsagents an hour early every week, waiting on The Dandy and Beano to arrive.

“When I got the comic I was so excited that I couldn’t even wait a few minutes until got to my grandmother’s house that was only a few hundred yards away,” he said. “So instead, I just kneeled down on the pavement outside the newsagent’s, spread out the comic and disappeared into the world of Desperate Dan, Korky the Cat, The Bash Street Kids and the rest of their comic friends. It was instant magic.”

It was some of this magic that Jimmy aimed to reproduce in his book The Leprechaun, which was released last year. Set in Newcastle’s Donard Park, this story is about a boy and his two dogs who rescue a Leprechaun from drowning. As a reward, the Leprechaun, using his Irish blackthorn wand, gives the two dogs special powers.

Lucas is based on Jimmy’s own grandson and his adventures continue in the new audio collection.

The first tale is based at Cranfield Lighthouse, where Lucas and his dogs have to rescue a stranded lighthouse keeper; the second at a circus, where the ringmaster wants to recruit the dogs with their special powers; the third at Inch Abbey, where Lucas, Jake and Amber stumble across a gold chalice lost hundreds of years ago; and the last is set during a Christmas snowstorm.

“As well as having books that can be touched and pages that can be turned forwards and backwards whenever the notion takes you, I thought that an audio book would add another dimension to my stories,” said Jimmy. “Reading is a wonderful gift, but there are times when it is more enjoyable to just sit back, relax and be read to. Also there are children who have problems with their vision and they would find reading difficult. Audio books enable them to enjoy the stories as much as anyone else.”

Trained as a psychiatric nurse, Jimmy spent time in general nursing in England and later became a senior social worker in the Downshire Hospital.

“It was always at the back of my mind to write a children’s book,” he said. “One day I was in a shop looking at children’s books and just thought, right it’s time to really do something about this. A lot of people die with their songs still in them.

“I set myself a target — that I was going to do something every day, should it only be five minutes a day. I broke it into small, accessible steps. Then when I saw the results of the small steps it really motivated me.

“This is something I really love.”

Jimmy’s works have retailed previously in Tesco and visitor centres such as the Titanic Centre in Belfast. He hopes Four Magical Adventures of Lucas, Jake and Amber will be on sale there again as well as on Amazon.