Jim Field: ‘This was the rabbit design that “stuck”, it captured his grumpy qualities and it felt like he had plenty of scope for further characterisation.

Jim Field: ‘I was lucky enough to visit Yosemite National Park and Kings Canyon in California a couple of years ago, both are utterly incredible places and it was great to have the opportunity to put pencil to paper and try and capture these beautiful landscapes for this book. You couldn’t tell any of the animals apart: they all talked the same, and acted the same, and were nice and friendly to each other, until the book ended, or the reader died of boredom, whichever came first. And, finally – with her help – I think I found a way to combine Winnie the Pooh, and wildlife documentaries. Dealing with themes of purpose, loss, grief, depression, the book brings its reader along for the ride, letting them know that finding and sharing light is not only possible, but probable with the help of friends and insight. Gorgeously illustrated and with a classic feel, this is a brilliantly funny story of a rabbit and a bear whose friendship is tested by a very noisy woodpecker … Ideal for readers moving on from picture books.From novelist and playwright Julian Gough, and the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Jim Field, this is a story of friends, enemies, and how to avoid being pooped on by an icebear. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Animals wee on the carpet sometimes, and sniff each other’s bottoms ALL the time, and chew the furniture.

You’ll find yourself drawn to this book again and again, reading it alone or sharing with others, always finding something new to behold and enjoy between its pages.So my daughter and I started talking about how terrible the book was, and about how it could be better. goes from strength to strength with The Pest in the Nest, in which Spring has sprung and Rabbit is out of sorts with everyone, whether they're loud and happy or sad and slow. And I wanted to do something quite hard: to combine the charm and humour and complicated, funny, interesting characters of Winnie the Pooh with the weird, different-kind-of-interesting, real-life facts of David Attenborough’s wildlife documentaries.

But of course it took AN INCREDIBLY LONG TIME to get from our rough and scruffy bedtime story to the finished book ( Rabbit’s Bad Habits, which was finally published this year with Jim Field’s amazing pictures).From novelist and playwright Julian Gough, and the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Jim Field, this is a tale of friendship, wisdom, and how to be REALLY NOISY. What is the point of having bears and rabbits in your story if they aren’t WILD, and doing the crazy, surprising, and often rather rude things real bears and rabbits do? The next book in the bestselling series for newly independent readers with these laugh-out-loud tales of friendship, adventure and a little bit of poo!

She enjoyed it enormously, but, of course, it wasn’t perfect (because nothing is perfect, especially the very rough first try at a story).Julian Gough’s poo-eating rabbit book, Rabbit’s Bad Habits, was a rebellion against reading ‘the most boring picture book on earth’ to his daughter one night.