‘The Voyage of the Poppykettle’ was inspired by Robert Ingpen’s time working for the United Nations in Peru. Part of his work was to collect folk stories that related to the fishing industry that might be used to explain and promote fishing science and conservation to local communities.
Poppykettle is the name of a special Peruvian clay teapot and one such teapot became the sailing vessel for a family of tiny gnomes called Hairy Peruvians to escape from their homeland which was under attack by the Shining Spaniards. The poppykettle was not the most stable of boats and the Hairy Peruvians had to be inventive and stole some brass keys from the Spaniards to use as ballast. Their voyage was long, dangerous and for a while directionless but they had help along the way including from a dolphin that helped them to land safety at what they called their ‘Unchosen Land’.
And where was this unchosen land? Exactly 263 years after the Hairy Peruvians arrived, some men whilst digging for lime in a cliff near Geelong, came across two ancient brass keys of possibly Spanish origin. No one could explain where they came from. Perhaps they were once used by some boat people escaping war and persecution? Ingpen describes the Poppykettle stories as ‘new folktales to help reveal the plight and saga of Boat people whoever they may be’.
Robert Ingpen is one of Australia’s most renowned illustrators and authors and the only, to date, Australian winner of the prestigious International Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration. His career has spanned four decades and over one hundred published books. Ingpen’s illustration style is distinctive for its extraordinary detail. He uses a variety of media including watercolour, pencil and pastel and his work has a strong sense of perspective and composition that emphasises the effects of light and shadow. His work has been compared to Rembrandt and Brugel though he claims not to be a fine artist but rather a craftsman.
‘The Voyage of the Poppykettle’ has several other editions and companion books about the Hairy Peruvians and gnomes in Australia. In Geelong, Ingpen’s hometown, there is an annual ‘Poppykettle Festival’ celebrating imagination and creativity in the young.
Picture Books for Older Readers
