Gary Panton introduces The Notwitches
About Author
Gary Panton describes himself as a 'writer, scribbler and constant doodler' and The Notwitches is his first children's novel. He hopes it will make you laugh!
Gary is based in Perth in Scotland and has been writing for as long as he can remember, writing stories about dinosaurs and hedgehogs as a kid, and as an adult for children's brands such as Hey Duggee and Bluey.
Interview
Gary Panton introduces his hilarious debut, The Notwitches (Chicken House)
February 2025
Look out for revolting villains, feuding families and some remarkable mermaids in The Notwitches, a funny, fantastical adventure by Gary Panton. We asked Gary what happens in his new series, how Roald Dahl helps inspire his writing, and for writing tips on creating ridiculously revolting villains!
Read a Chapter from The Notwitches
Review: "The Notwitches is strongly reminiscent in tone of Roald Dahl. The villains are truly awful, with stomach-churning habits and horrible dispositions."
Q&A with Gary Panton, introducing revolting villains and hilarious family feuds in The Notwitches!
"I'm a massive fan of Roald Dahl's work and his books have definitely been influential on my writing....
I love villains who are nasty and repulsive in a completely ridiculous and over-the-top way."
1. Hello Gary, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone this month! Can you tell us a little about becoming a writer, and what kinds of things you enjoy writing about?
Hi! I've been a writer for as long as I can remember. When I was little, I used to love writing stories and drawing comics, and I suppose that's something I never really grew out of! I've gone on to write lots of different things over the years. For a while I was a football reporter, then I wrote features and interviews for a few magazines. I've also written TV listings, movie reviews and puzzle books, so a bit of everything, really!
More recently I've been lucky enough to write board books and activity books for some brilliant pre-school brands such as Hey Duggee and Bluey. I also edit children's non-fiction and activity books as my regular day job, so pretty much all of my work revolves around writing and kid's books.
2. What is your debut book, The Notwitches, about - and what gave you the early ideas for it?
The Notwitches is the story of a little girl called Melanda Notwitch, and her efforts to escape from her three horrible aunts. Melanda has lived with her aunts since she was a baby so it's the only life she knows, but she finally sees an opportunity to escape when she meets a young witch called Mitch. Together, Melanda and Mitch go on an adventure to find the one ingredient they need for a magic spell that they hope will free Melanda from her aunts forever. Along the way they meet a whole host of surreal characters, my personal favourites being a dancing biker gang called the Hairy Skulls.
I had the initial idea for the book when I joined a writing group with some friends. Each member of the group had to share one chapter of something they were working on each month, and I had absolutely no clue what to write. I ended up scribbling down a few paragraphs off the top of my head about a girl who lived with three monstrous aunts, and that basically became Chapter One of The Notwitches.
That chapter remained essentially the same throughout the writing process and appears in the finished book with very few changes, but figuring out what should happen after that chapter was a lot more challenging! In one aborted draft I had Melanda meet a monster who lived under her bed. In another, she was sucked into a whole other universe. Eventually I reached an idea I was happy with, but it took a while!
3. Who are the Notwitches, and are they really not witches?
The Notwitches are essentially a very, very dysfunctional family! Melanda has no knowledge of where her parents are, or why she has ended up living with her rotten old aunts, or even if she has any other family at all. Much of The Notwitches story is about following Melanda as she tries to find out the answers to these questions.
As for whether or not they're really 'not witches' - that's also something Melanda will (hopefully) get to the bottom of!
4. We love the three terrible aunts - can you tell us about them? They remind us of some other revolting Dahl characters - are you a fan of Roald Dahl's novels, and villains?
Thank you so much! I'm a massive fan of Roald Dahl's work and his books have definitely been influential on my writing. I've always enjoyed reading horror novels and scary stories but I still maintain that the scene in The Witches, with the girl trapped in the painting, is the most chilling thing I've ever read. And that's in a children's book!
I love villains who are nasty and repulsive in a completely ridiculous and over-the-top way, and I hope I've managed to capture that with Melanda's aunts. Aunt Claggy is a mean-spirited, spidery woman who lives entirely on a diet of stationary, for reasons that are never quite explained. Aunt Thumb essentially exists in her own little world and is barely even aware of Melanda's existence. But I think my favourite is Aunt Rear Admiral Barbara Notwitch, who claims to have once been a high-ranking naval officer and insists on making sure everyone around her is aware of it.
5. What are your top tips for children to help them create their own revolting villain?
Go big or go home! Truly revolting villains are never subtle. They're loud, brash, rude, smelly, snotty and anything else you can think of that is horrible. When you have an idea, push it as far as you can. When you come up with something that would make your villain bad, think about what you could add on to that to make them even worse. Have fun with it!
6. The book is also very funny - did you enjoy writing it? What is the funniest thing that happens to your characters, and what kinds of things make you laugh in real life?
It was always really important to me that the book would be funny, so I'm very relieved that you said that! I made myself laugh a lot while I was writing it, which I think is always a good sign. People sometimes say you shouldn't laugh at your own jokes, but that's something I really disagree with. If you don't find your own jokes funny, you can't really expect anyone else to like them. I really feel that if I don't make myself laugh when I'm writing, it's a sign that something's not working and I need to try something else.
I've always been a bit of a comedy nerd and I've spent a lot of my time watching comedy on TV and going to stand-up gigs. I'd like to think some of that has rubbed off on my own work in some small way and helped me to come up with something funny. The Mighty Boosh definitely had an influence on the world I've created, and I'm also a big fan of shows like Gravity Falls and Over the Garden Wall.
Personally I think the funniest parts of the book are the scenes with Melanda's aunts, and I also really enjoyed creating the exchanges between Melanda and the biker gang. But my hope is that there are lots of bits throughout the book that will make readers laugh. And possibly cry. But mainly laugh.
7. As well as a fun read, we also learn about kindness and resilience through the story. What kinds of discussions do you hope The Notwitches will encourage?
Although the story is played for laughs, I hope readers will be able to empathise with Melanda and the horrible life she has had to endure, and see that her kindness shines through despite it all. She is a child who is unsure of herself, lacking in confidence and often sad, but she still sees the best in the people she meets and she never judges anyone, however strange they may initially seem. If Melanda's way of looking at the world has even a small impact on the book's readers, I'll be very happy.
8. The illustrations by Dotty Sutton are brilliant - did she draw the characters as you had imagined them? Any favourites?
It's genuinely incredible how close Dotty has come to matching the characters as they existed in my head. I provided a few small notes to help along the way, but she has basically done it all using her own ideas and instincts.
I particularly love the way she has drawn the Hairy Skulls biker gang - I had to stop myself from spitting tea all over my desk when I saw her first sketches! They're just so funny and so perfect.
Dotty and I are both fans of Tim Burton's work and I think we like similar kinds of stories, so I think she immediately understood the tone I was going for and the world I wanted to create. I feel incredibly privileged to have someone so talented work on my stories.
9. Are you planning to write more about the Notwitches? Can you share what might happen next?
Well, Notwitches 2 is already written and will be out later this year, so I'm very excited about that! Without giving too much away, the story will continue Melanda's journey to find out more about her family, and she'll be meeting a lot of new friends (and enemies) who are absolutely ridiculous in the best possible way. There's one character in particular called Stag Fox who I can't wait for readers to meet. He's sort of a cross between The Rock, Johnny Bravo and Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. Writing him was a lot of fun!
I'm also in the very early stages of writing Notwitches 3, which will hopefully see the light of day in the future. All fingers and toes are very much crossed for that!
10. What else do you enjoy doing when you're away from your notebook, and where do you go for inspiration?
I moved from London to my home city of Perth in Scotland during the pandemic, so I'm lucky to have a lot of beautiful places near my home where I can go for walks. I also have a bit of an obsession with ghosts and love reading ghost stories and listening to spooky podcasts. I'm a football fan too and have a season ticket for St Johnstone in the Scottish Premier League. I'm also a big foodie, and love to cook. And, like so many people in 2025, I spend way too much time on social media.
I find inspiration can hit at any time, but really my best ideas come when I'm actually sitting at my desk and writing. I'm awful at planning stories in advance, but I find that if I sit down and force myself to write, even if I'm not sure what I'm going to write about, the ideas will flow from there. I just hope that flow doesn't stop any time soon!
The Notwitches by Gary Panton, illustrated by Dotty Sutton is out now in paperback (£7.99)
The Notwitches
