Winner of the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award, 2017.
(Chosen by the children of Hawick's schools, which makes it - for me - even more of an honour. Because I was up against some stiff competition.)
I was visiting the Dutch island of Ameland when I first heard of the horses that used to pull the lifeboat out into the waves. Right then and there the idea for a story popped into my head. It all went through many, many changes in the writing, but the initial idea - of a lonely boy and a lost horse - remained.
Documentaire over de Amelandse Paardenreddingboot, gemaakt voor het reddingmuseum Abraham Fock op Ameland. Deze productie haalde een 3e prijs tijdens het US International Film and Video Festival in Hollywood - ©2001 PKFV. Documentary on the Horses-drawn lifeboat stationed at the Dutch Wadden Isle Ameland, made for rescue museum Abraham Fock on Ameland .
Here's a little film I found on YouTube, showing the horses in action. It's in Dutch, but if you skip to the 3.00 minute mark, everything is pretty easy to follow.
Een demonstratie van de Paarden Reddingsboot door het Maritiem Centrum Abraham Fock in Hollum op Ameland.
A 5-minute film showing the Ameland lifeboat horses at work - in a demonstration staged several times a year for visitors to the island. (my photos from one such event are at the bottom of the page.)
This is how I've always pictured Storm, although perhaps without such a long mane.
The trailer for the Dutch translation.
And here's a short YouTube clip of me reading an extract from the book.
Nick Garlick reads from STORM HORSE, an atmospheric and moving story set on a storm-tossed island. Coming August 2015! With his mother missing and his father dead, 12-year-old Flip's new home is a remote Dutch island. Menaced by the local bullies and followed everywhere by a mysterious girl, he wonders how he'll ever adapt to life on his uncle's farm.
Several times a Year, the Abraham Fock lifeboat museum - on the island of Ameland - puts on a demonstration of the old way of getting the lifeboat into the sea. I took all the pictures below at one such demo.
eBook
UK & Australia edition
UK - troubador book club edition
Dutch edition
Latin America edition
US edition
Swedish edition
(The quality of some of them isn't so hot: with so many people watching, I couldn't get close enough for a good shot. It's a very popular attraction: spectators turn out in their hundreds.)
