PRH to publish last picture book from Michael Bond

Penguin Random House Children’s is to posthumously publish Michael Bond’s The Ups and Downs of the Castle Mice, a sequel to his 2016 picture book The Tale of the Castle Mice.

Emily Sutton will again illustrate the book, which is about the Perk family of mice who live in a doll’s house in a grand castle, and which was written before Bond's death last year.

Karen Jankel, Michael Bond’s daughter, said: “The Tale of the Castle Mice is such a charming book that I was really pleased to discover that my father had written a sequel before he died. I know that he would have been equally delighted to learn that Emily has worked her magic and brought his characters to life once again.”

Sutton added: “It was such an honour to collaborate with Michael on both Castle Mice books.  We celebrated the publication of the first with afternoon tea on a sunny September afternoon in 2016 and his enthusiasm and energy was inspiring.”

“The process of working on this second and final instalment was all the more poignant as it was finished posthumously.  Michael’s beautiful way with words, his wonderful ability to create characters and his wry sense of humour all sang out and helped me a great deal in creating the illustrations. I couldn’t be happier with the results and can only hope that I’ve done Michael’s lovely story justice.”

PRH acquired world rights in a deal with Hilary Delamere at the Agency and will publish in hardback in September 2019.

Michael Bond has never been out of print since his first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was released in 1958. He has sold 1.8 million books for £10.3m through Nielsen BookScan (which measures sales since 1998 only) and  The Tale of the Castle Mice sold 6,128 copies in paperback and 2,320 in hardback.