Exploring BIG feelings in Kerfuffle Bird
About Author
Helen Docherty and Gwen Millward introduces Kerfuffle Bird, a story about finding your voice and sharing those 'BIG feelings'.
Helen Docherty's rhyming picture books have been translated into 27 languages, shortlisted for awards and adapted for the stage. Helen often collaborates with her husband, Thomas Docherty, creating picture books like Superwolf. They live and work in Swansea.
Gwen Millward grew up in Wales, studied at Edinburgh College of Art, and is now based in Bristol. She has illustrated over 50 books for children and authored four of her own. Her work has been showcased at the Illustrators Exhibition in Bologna.
Interview
June 2025
Helen Docherty explores BIG feelings in Kerfuffle Bird (OUP)
Author Helen Docherty's new picture book, Kerfuffle Bird, illustrated by Gwen Millward, is a story about finding your voice and communicating how you feel when those 'BIG feelings' emerge.
Young Maeve? is a 'Hushling', small stripy creatures with long ears who love quiet, and peace. Maeve, however, wants to be loud and wild! She tries her best to be quiet until the day a Kerfuffle arrives; a large bird with a loud voice, who teaches the Hushlings that sometimes, it's best to let those 'BIG feelings' out!
Q&A with Helen Docherty and Gwen Millward
"I hope it will lead to some really helpful discussions about how we express ourselves in different ways,
and how we should all take one another's feelings and needs into account."
1. Can you tell us a little about yourselves and how started creating children's books? What are your favourite things about the work you do?
Helen: I wanted to be an author (and illustrator, initially!) from a very young age. I spent my childhood years writing stories and creating books, as well as numerous editions of a magazine for witches, WHOOSH. But then I got sidetracked by a love of languages and exploring the world, and ended up becoming a teacher and working abroad. It wasn't until I had children of my own that I returned to my first love, writing. My first rhyming picture book, The Snatchabook, was illustrated by my husband Thomas Docherty and published in 2013.
Aside from the writing itself, my favourite thing about being an author is visiting schools and meeting the children who read my books. And sometimes, people turn my stories into stage plays or musicals, which is incredibly exciting! Who knows, maybe this will happen to Kerfuffle Bird one day…
Gwen: I began writing and illustrating my own stories when I was five years old. The stories were written in Welsh and mostly about a brother and sister going about their day, doing pretty normal things like having dinner and going for a walk. This love of writing and illustrating continued through secondary school (I was very much influenced by my mum, who is a writer, and father, who was an artist).
I did an art foundation at Edinburgh College of Art and in my first year knew I wanted to pursue a degree in illustration. Many terrible jobs in insurance and retail later, I finally found an agent and got my first illustration contract to work with Puffin books!
2. What is your new book together, Kerfuffle Bird, about?
Helen: Kerfuffle Bird is about what happens when a mysterious blue egg hatches in the quiet community of Hushville, where everyone talks in a whisper and keeps their feelings tightly shut in. Maeve is the only Hushling who is delighted to meet the exuberant Kerfuffle Bird, who leaves a trail of chaos in his wake. But will Kerfuffle Bird, Maeve and the other Hushlings find a way to live together?
3. What inspired you to explore expressing our 'BIG feelings' through a picture book? Was this a difficult concept to develop in a picture book?
Helen: It wasn't too difficult, because I started with the character of Kerfuffle Bird, who is all about expressing BIG feelings…with no filter! As someone who has lived in different countries with different ideas about how we should express ourselves, I've always been fascinated by that tension between the British stiff upper lip model - keeping everything in, like the Hushlings - and its opposite.
I could see the potential for a lot of humour - and drama - in the clash between Kerfuffle Bird's way of being and the Hushlings' emotionally-repressed lives. In the end, of course, they have to reach a compromise, respecting their differences and accommodating one another's needs.
4. Why did you decide on the name, 'Kerfuffle Bird', and how would you explain the name to young readers? What kind of character is Kerfuffle?
Helen: The name 'Kerfuffle Bird' just flew into my head one day! I've always loved the word 'kerfuffle,' which means a fuss or commotion. It originally comes from Scotland, probably from Scots Gaelic, so as a fellow Celt (I'm Welsh) I definitely feel an affinity with the word! Kerfuffle Bird doesn't mean to upset anyone, but he can't help being loud and wild and bumping into things. He likes to dance and make a lot of noise and he LOVES a party. I think we all know a Kerfuffle Bird or two.
5. Did you identify most with the Kerfuffle Bird or the Hushlings when you were at school?
Helen: I was definitely more of a Hushling when I was at school - I was small and quite shy - but I did have some Kerfuffle Bird in me too. I was a bit clumsy and I remember getting told off for spilling the paint everywhere and accidentally bashing somebody with a chair leg. And I loved acting! Everybody used to be surprised at how loud my voice was on stage. As I got older, the Kerfuffle Bird in me came out more, and I enjoyed letting go and going a bit wild sometimes. I also learned how to talk about my feelings, which I think is really important. It's not a good idea to keep them all buttoned up inside, as the Hushlings discover.
Gwen: I was a Hushling, for sure. I always felt a bit different in a school full of farmers as a strange arty-type so didn't want to draw too much attention to myself. I've definitely learnt to embrace my arty-oddness later in life and wish I'd been a bit more Kerfuffle-like when I was at school!
6. What kinds of discussions do you hope a reading of Kerfuffle Bird will encourage with young children and their adults?
Helen: I hope it will lead to some really helpful discussions about how we express ourselves in different ways, and how we should all take one another's feelings and needs into account. Also, about the importance of telling other people how we feel, rather than keeping our feelings locked up inside.
7. The Hushlings and Kerfuffle Bird are very different characters. How did you decide what the Hushlings and Kerfuffle Bird would look like, and the colours you'd use for them?
Gwen: I think it was important to make the Kerfuffle bird as bright and bold as possible. The way he crashes into the delicate Hushlings' lives needed to be an explosion of colour. The Hushlings, in contrast, are coloured in blue and purple hues which reflects their straight-laced temperament.
8. Do you have a favourite spread or moment in the story?
Helen: For the reactions of Maeve and the other Hushlings, my favourite moment is when Kerfuffle Bird lets out his first 'glorious, deafening shriek' - but I also really love the spread where Maeve flies off Kerfuffle Bird's back for the first time. The colours are amazing, and I love the way Kerfuffle Bird fills the whole page! And the scene on the last page, where the Hushlings are enjoying a nice rest, is very sweet.
Gwen: I love (and loved drawing) the first opening spread. I absolutely love creating little scenes - houses and trees with little moments going on - like the Hushlings enjoying a cup of tea in the background and others walking about with their shopping.
9. Can you suggest any other picture books about 'big feelings' that our readers might also enjoy? What are you working on currently?
Helen: My husband, Thomas Docherty, has illustrated two wonderful books written by John Dougherty (no relation) about how we deal with grief and loss: The Hare-Shaped Hole and The Bear-Shaped Hole. The characters in these stories experience really big and difficult feelings, and I think it's so important to be able to talk about these. I also love Barbara Throws a Wobbler by Nadia Shireen: hilarious, and very relatable.
I am currently working on my next book with Gwen Millward (also with OUP), Ramona's Tail. It's a story about friendship, difference and courage, and I can't say any more about it yet, but I'm really excited to be working with Gwen again. I know she will do another fantastic job illustrating our next book together!
Gwen: I wrote and illustrated a book called Meet The Wildlings, about a brother and sister who struggle to share. They have a big old shout at each other over the ownership of a beloved red-truck, then there is a fateful grabbing incident…their wild behaviour gets so bad they literally turn into Wildlings. The story is based on my son and his cousin who had an argument when they were both five. It escalated so much we all thought they resembled little wild creatures instead of human children. Hilarious but rather alarming!
I'm currently writing and illustrating a book about friendship dynamics set in a very visually surreal world. There are some very big feelings to work through between friends, but they get there in the end!
10. What is your favourite way to spend a day away from writing / illustrating?
Helen: I'm very lucky to live on the beautiful Gower peninsula, so you'd probably find me walking my dog through the woods to a beach, and maybe calling in at a café or visiting Bridge Pottery (one of my favourite places). Or, I'd hop on the train to Cardiff or Bristol and spend the day catching up with an old friend.
Gwen: I love just hanging out with my toddler. He is at an age where his conversation is completely hilarious and also very inspiring. I've actually begun to create a series of board books inspired by our chats about nature. I don't think I ever stop thinking about writing or illustrating really!
Kerfuffle Bird
