Percy the Park Keeper returns for 30th anniversary

Percy the Park Keeper is set to return in brand-new picture book that will introduce Nick Butterworth’s "iconic and heart-warming’ character to a new generation of children", 30 years after the publication of One Snowy Night. 

Percy will return in April 2019 in One Springy Day after HarperCollins Children’s Books acquired world rights together with audio and digital rights in Butterworth’s backlist in a deal struck between picture book publishing director Alice Blacker and Veronique Baxter at David Higham. 

To mark 30 years of Percy the Park Keeper, the classic picture books, including After the Storm and The Secret Path, will be re-issued in a new livery with the celebrations culminating in the anniversary edition of One Snowy Night. An anniversary marketing and PR campaign will run throughout the year and will include partnerships and author appearances. The Percy series has sold 800,934 copies since 1998, according to Nielsen BookScan, and HarperCollins said global sales have topped nine million.

Blacker said: “Nick Butterworth is a genius creator of character and Percy the Park Keeper has been delighting families for generations.  It’s so wonderful to be publishing One Springy Day, a brand-new picture book that introduces Percy and his animal friends to a whole new generation of readers!”

Butterworth added: “It’s great to be back in Percy’s Park for a new story. People often ask where my ideas come from. With Percy and his chums, the ideas seem to come from the characters themselves. I simply tune into their world. I walk through the park gates and there they all are. Percy, the fox, the hedgehog, the whole gang. The characters that I first imagined are now feeding my imagination. I watch. They’re playing hide and seek. A new story is taking shape – all I have to do is write it down and draw the pictures. Easy peasy.”