Love Ssega unveils The Elementals series, exploring nature, the environment and friendship
About Author
Musician, producer and performing artist Love Ssega chats to ReadingZone about his debut Wanzu Sets Sail (The Elementals series), exploring climate change and teamwork.
Love Ssega has Ugandan heritage, and his work often explores themes of justice and climate activism. He is currently Associate Artist at the Southbank Centre and has also had work commissioned by the National Gallery, Royal Shakespeare Company, Serpentine and Whitechapel Gallery. He was the Philharmonia Orchestra's Artist in Residence for 2022-23, and was a featured co-writer for the Southbank's Imagine a Story project, as chosen by lead author Sita Brahmachari.
Interview
March 2026
Love Ssega unveils his new Elementals series, exploring friendship and the environment
Wanzu Sets Sail, the first in Love Ssega's Elementals series (Little Tiger), follows four children on a quest to save their island home. Through their adventures, readers discover a community that lives alongside nature, embedding it in their lives and learning how to work with the environment to keep their homes safe.
The Elementals: Wanzu Sets Sail: Wanzu and his friends will do whatever it takes to keep Sealand - their island home - safe. They all have magical powers connected to the four elements: air, water, earth and fire. But curious and playful Wanzu hasn't discovered what his power is yet. When storms threaten to flood the island, Wanzu leads his friends on a rescue mission to learn how to stop the water taking over their home.
Review: "This early chapter book combines all the elements that you would want in a fantastic children's book - adventure, friendship, discovery and the amazing outdoors." Read a Chapter from Wanzu Sets Sail.
Q&A with Love Ssega
"It's great to go on adventures but also great to share it with people when you return.
After all, that's being a storyteller!"
1. Thank you for joining us on ReadingZone! Can you start by telling us a little about your life as a performer and song writer?
Being an artist and a performer is all about taking inspiration from daily life. It's a great privilege to be able to create something and then perform it to an audience. As a songwriter, you hope that your choruses and hooks will capture imaginations and be sung back by people you know and people you don't know - that's the power of how art can connect us as humans.
2. How has your creative work led you into writing children's stories with your debut and the first in The Elementals series, Wanzu Sets Sail, published by Little Tiger?
I've written songs that put big ideas into three minutes. I've also created performances that stretch out those ideas to thirty minutes. Then on the longer scale I've created installations that could be experienced for hours or over different days. Writing a book is the chance to create something that children can potentially enjoy for weeks and even longer. There is something magical about books, be it receiving as a present, to picking one up in a library.
3. What happens in The Elementals: Wanzu Sets Sail? What inspired you to write about children who have a strong affinity with nature, and distinctive powers?
Childhood is the most naturally curious times of our lives and there is more variety in nature than there is in my imagination. Nature has to be the ultimate inspiration and in this first book I feel the characters are just scratching the surface. As Wanzu's grandma, Jjajja, reminds him we are all part of nature.
4. Do you also draw on your Ugandan heritage in your writing?
The Elementals have an element. In the Baganda Kingdom our clans have totems, therefore my culture links me to nature from birth. It's pretty exciting, so I'm translating that culture, and other Bantu teachings, into this magical story.
5. How important is the environmental element in the story to you, and what kinds of things will readers learn about the environment through this adventure?
What we call technology today has only been around 50 to 100 years, maximum. Whereas nature has been doing its clever and beautiful thing for millennia. I'm sure readers will read about things that they know, but perhaps there can be some new wonders they can learn about, too.
6. Can you tell us about the children in this group, and how their characters developed?
You have Wanzu, Maali, Peo, Elu and Kikay. This book is about friendship and how that is important in life. They all have different elements they are connected to, but immediately we learn that differences are not a reason to not get along or work together. And in fact, when they do work together, that's when they have the most fun.
7. If you could discover a special power like these children, what power / element would it be and how would you use it?
Unsurprisingly, I'd probably chose air! As a musician, I need air to carry my notes and sounds. I would also like to fly, but that doesn't happen in this book. Instead, they have to make friends with animals that can. Maybe for the better, because they get up to enough mischief on land and sea.
8. The Elementals is a great adventure story, but what else would you like your readers to take from the children's adventures?
There is a sense of responsibility for home and protecting it. They go on adventures but remember home can be magical, too. In fact, it's great to go on adventures but also great to share it with people when you return. After all, that's being a storyteller.
9. Do you have more adventures planned for The Elementals? What kinds of adventures might they face in future? What are you writing currently?
There is! All I can say is Peo Saves the Trees has already been announced by a well-known bookseller before book one came out. It's exciting to know there's anticipation for more fun. Writing this was so much fun that I couldn't be finished with Wanzu Sets Sail.
10. What kinds of activities do you do - or places do you go to - to get inspired for your next creative project?
I try to walk a lot. Once I walked for three hours when I was in Berlin. You see so much rather than being on an underground train. During the pandemic I did more train trips around the country which was great. I am also trying to go to great places like Horniman Gardens to learn more about plants. Gardening, whether you have a few pots, window space or more, is so relaxing and something that I want to get better at. Bring me closer to nature like Wanzu and friends!
The Elementals: Wanzu Sets Sail
