Sinéad O'Hart introduces her Lola and Larch series

About Author

In the Lola and Larch series by Sinéad O'Hart, we follow the adventures of Lola and her fairy friend, Larch, and the challenges they face together.

Sinéad O'Hart lives in the midlands of Ireland with her family, where it rains a lot (perfect staying-in-to-read weather!). She loves going for walks, autumn weather, getting things in the post, and (of course) reading, writing, and being creative. If she couldn't be an author, she'd probably be an artist - and she DEFINITELY believes in fairies!

Interview

Lola and Larch Mend a Magic Mess (Nosy Crow)

April 2025

Discover a world of fairies, nature and magic. . . When Lola, a human, and Larch, a fairy, meet, magic and mischief follow. Author Sinéad O'Hart tells us more about her young fiction series for readers aged 7+, illustrated by Rachel Seago.

Lola and Larch Fix a Fairy Forest Lola and Larch Save the Sunshine Spell Lola and Larch Make a Winter Wish

In the latest book, Lola and Larch Mend a Magic Mess (Nosy Crow), the fairies - good and bad - have to work together to try to save the fairy forest when it is threatened with development. Can human girl Larch and her family help to save the forest, or will the fairies find a way using their own special kind of magic? We find out more from author Sinéad O'Hart.

Sinéad O'Hart talks to ReadingZone about writing, daydreaming and hunting for fairies.

"I wanted to write stories that show how everyone has a role to play in protecting our
natural world, no matter how small they are."

1. Can you tell us what happens in the Lola and Larch series, and the latest book Lola and Larch Mend a Magic Mess? What kinds of readers do you think will fall in love with these books?

The Lola and Larch series came from a daydream! I was out walking one day and had one of those brilliantly fun 'What If?' thoughts, which usually lead to good places. 'What if… someone found a lost rabbit, and when they went to check it the next morning, they discovered a fairy in the hutch instead?' So, that's our starting point: Lola, my human main character, finds a lost rabbit one stormy night, but the 'rabbit' is really a fairy with a fun shape-changing power that she sometimes can't control very well.

Book 1, Lola and Larch Fix a Fairy Forest, is about them getting to know one another, and helping Larch (the fairy-rabbit) to find her way home, as well as nobbling the naughty fairy Euphorbia Spurge, who's trying to steal Larch's magic!

Book 2, Lola and Larch Save the Sunshine Spell, is a summery adventure where Euphorbia is making all the plants grow out of control, wreaking havoc on Grandma's vegetables, and also spelling trouble for the forest where the fairies live. My favourite illustration in this book is of a very cheeky leek which wiggles its 'bottom' at Lola!

Book 3, Lola and Larch Make a Winter Wish, is the wintry adventure, a very fun story about what happens when a wish goes wrong and Lola and Larch swap bodies for a while - and, of course, Euphorbia's attempt to make the most of it for her own nefarious ends.

And Book 4, Lola and Larch Mend a Magic Mess, is back to springtime again, and it's a tale about a long-ago spell cast by Euphorbia which is finally beginning to work, a spell that makes humans decide to do strange things like cut the whole forest down to build a holiday resort… Can Lola and Larch unravel the magic mess before it's too late?

I hope readers who like adventure stories and mysteries would enjoy the books, as there's a little bit of a mystery to unravel in each one, and sometimes there's brilliantly adventurous things going on, like flying over a bubbling swamp or trying to escape from a bubble of Euphorbia Spurge's magic; I also think people who like to giggle would enjoy my books, as Larch is very funny and sometimes she even makes me giggle, and I thought her up!

2. What gave you the idea for the first book, about a human girl making friends with a young fairy? Why do the human girl and fairy work so well together?

I think it just seemed really fun to me to have a fairy and a pet, sort of rolled into one! As soon as I thought of the idea, I could 'see' Lola coming downstairs to check the rabbit's hutch and finding a very irritable fairy there instead, and it made me laugh.

I really enjoyed writing Larch - she is rather chaotic! But I love that about her. She's not at all twinkly; instead, she likes to eat snail slime and dandelion leaves, she travels by pigeon, she burps regularly, and she has no time for being polite when talking to the king of her clan, much to her mum's embarrassment. She's so much fun, and when she's in her rabbit form she can do great things too, like aim very hard kicks at baddies, or run extremely fast through snow, or smell bad magic… Having a fairy with her unique power in a story is really exciting to write about. And I guess, wouldn't we all like to have a tiny sidekick who can do all these brilliant things?

I reckon she and Lola work well together because Lola has to follow rules - at school, at home, at Grandma's, all the usual places - and Larch doesn't follow anyone's rules but her own. So, Lola gets Larch to chill out a bit, while Larch gets Lola to let out her inner explorer once in a while!

3. How have you created the magical world of Lola and Larch, where Larch's magic can be a little troublesome, and the fairies have traditions and rules to follow for their magic?

I had an idea which I thought was really funny, but I wasn't sure if I could make a whole story out of it - but I felt it would slot nicely into Larch's 'backstory', and it explains where her unique magic comes from.

Larch had a fairy godmother, who was trying to give her a lovely power as a gift for her naming day, back when Larch was a baby, but the fairy godmother was a bit scatty and managed to mangle up her magic. Instead of giving Larch the power to 'become whatever she wanted to be in life', the baby Larch was given the gift of being able to become a rabbit, not quite at will, but sort of whenever her magic felt like it! She tells Lola this in Book 1. Larch is the only fairy in the clan with this magic, which means she's a target for the baddie, Euphorbia Spurge, who's always looking for ways to create mischief, both in the human world and in the fairies' world. With shapeshifting magic, she could do lots of terrible things!

Inspired by Irish fairy lore, the clan that Larch belongs to is like the 'trooping fairies', who live in a group, while Euphorbia is a 'solitary fairy', the type that lives alone and who are sort of bad by nature. I loved having that tension between Larch, who sometimes fears that she'll be turned out of the clan and forced to become a solitary fairy because of her chaotic power, and the real solitary fairy, Euphorbia.

And, like any 'clan' or family, I felt the fairies needed some rules - most important of which is the First Rule: 'Never reveal yourself to an Adult Human Creature, for they are Foolish and Not to be Trusted!' This rule comes into force regularly in the stories.

I was inspired by my knowledge of fairy lore from other stories, and I wanted to create something which had bits and pieces of existing lore, but which felt unique to me.

4. Why have you linked each of the Lola and Larch books with the seasons and how have you done so for each story?

The books are quite closely connected with the natural world, so it felt like a natural - no pun intended! - thing to do. I grew up in quite a rural area, in a town which has since been developed beyond all recognition, and most of the trees and open fields I played in as a child are all gone, now. I remember when they began to excavate behind my parents' home, preparing to build a huge shopping centre on the land, how emotional I got as I watched the layers and layers of soil being torn out, thinking of how many hundreds and hundreds of years of history were being destroyed, and all the stories and legends and tiny little lives which were being ended, all for nothing.

There's something about the destruction of forests and nature that really gets to me, so that's why it's a theme that plays through several of the Lola and Larch books. The forest Lola and her family live in, and which her mum works to protect, seems very precious to me, and I wanted to write stories that show how everyone has a role to play in protecting our natural world, no matter how small they are.

In the first book, the forest is placed under threat from rampaging beetles, which are under magical control; it was really important to me that the beetles weren't harmed in the undoing of the spell! And in the summer-themed book, it was overgrowth of plants which did the damage, as I know balance is important in the natural world. Nature is quiet and sleepy in the winter book, and I loved writing about the snowy landscape and the care taken by the fairies of their beloved stone circle, where their magic lives. And in book four, we see humans beginning to destroy the forest for what seem like ecological reasons, but which - of course! - are nothing of the sort. Humans try to convince themselves that they're not really doing damage, even when they are, and I wanted to write about that.

5. Lola and Larch Mend a Magic Mess has a very strong environmental message. Do you hope the books will inspire young readers to see the natural world differently?

Yes, absolutely. In book 1, when Lola realises that the beetles are going to destroy the forest, I was determined that she found a way to help stop the destruction without harming a single insect. It was also really important to me that she wasn't scared of, or icked out by, the sight of all the beetles - mainly because she's grown up in the forest, so it's all familiar to her, but also because I wanted to show readers that our first instinct when we see a bug shouldn't be to go 'squash it!', but instead to look, and admire, and learn - and leave it alone!

I also had a lot of fun with the idea in book 2, where Euphorbia causes the forest's plants to over-grow. You might think 'more plants is a good thing!', but sometimes it isn't, especially when it causes the environment to become impossible for other organisms to live in. An example would be nitrogen or phosphorous from farming ending up in rivers, which causes algae to grow too much, and makes life hard for the fish!

I'm not an expert in the environment - I'm more of a passionate amateur - but it is important for me to show that the natural world is full of incredible wonder, that bugs aren't to be feared, that balance is important, and that every season brings something which is vital, including the winter, where everything rests and we need to take extra care of nature while it sleeps.

6. Your villain, Eurphorbia Spurge, is wonderful, but why did you want to show another side to her in Lola and Larch Mend a Magic Mess? What do you hope readers will take from her story?

I absolutely loved creating Euphorbia Spurge - everything from her name to her 'look' to her outlook on life has been so much fun. But I always wanted to delve into her backstory a bit, and find out more about where she came from and how she ended up being the Euphorbia we know and love today.

The best thing about writing 'baddies' is when you give them a rich story of their own, with really compelling reasons why they do the things they do. That way, they avoid being 'cardboard cut-out' characters, who are just bad because that's what baddies are for! So, Euphorbia has been cast out of her clan, mostly because she's trouble, but also because she and King Ash had a falling-out when they were children - as we learn in Book 4 - and that becomes a part of the plot.

I wanted to show her doing something that is sort of kind (even if there's plenty in it for her!), and I also wanted to change things up a bit and give her some genuine reasons to smile - because, usually, all she does is glower! I hope readers take the idea that everyone has hidden depths, and that people (and fairies) can sometimes surprise you. Though, eagle-eyed readers might wonder whether the end of the book holds a hint that Euphorbia hasn't had a full change of heart… Maybe we can expect more shenanigans from her in the future!

7. Do you have any favourite illustrations from the new book? What has it been like to see Rachel Seago bringing your characters to life in her illustrations?

In this book, I think my favourite illustration is the one Rachel has drawn of Aunt Florrie (a new character for the fourth book), King Ash, and Euphorbia, when Aunt Florrie has to face up to something she's done wrong. I just love the way Rachel has captured the essence of Aunt Florrie, another character I absolutely adore. I also love the drawings she made of the octopus, the horse, the jelly-tree, and all the other marvellous things that happen in the forest when the magic goes a little wonky!

Working with Rachel on these books has been the most perfect joy. I often think she must have some sort of super-power where she can see into other people's heads, because for sure she has read my mind when it comes to these characters! Her illustrations have been the best part about bringing Lola and Larch to publication, and I'm so grateful to her for her expertise and skill.

8. Do you have more adventures planned for Lola and Larch? What are you writing currently?

I do have other ideas for Lola and Larch and there are plenty of adventures this duo could go on, but I don't currently have anything that's under contract. But keep your eyes peeled (and your fingers crossed!) if you'd like to see more!

I have another series of books for younger readers which will start to publish later this year, following the adventures of the brave Ellora McGee and her very interesting friends… but you'll have to wait a bit for more details about that! I'm also working on another novel for 8+ readers, though it doesn't have a publisher just yet.

9. Where do you go to seek out inspiration for new stories? What is your most magical place?

Unfortunately, a lot of green spaces around where I live have been built on over the past few years, so we've lost a lot of the open land and the fresh air that we used to have. I am lucky to have a garden, even if there's not a lot in it - but it's great to have that space to wander round and take deep breaths in (and, of course, look for evidence that fairies have been for a visit). A canal runs not far from where I live, and sometimes I like to walk alongside it, listening to the plop of fish, the buzz of insects, and the singing of birds, and if there are wildflowers in bloom, I can take a big long look at them, which always stills my mind.

As to my most magical place: there's a huge oak tree in my town which I always feel is like a guardian tree, similar to the ones that protect Larch's fairy village. I know that, whenever I feel sad or stressed or worried, all I have to do is visit it and touch the bark and whisper whatever's on my mind, and the tree understands. It's such a beautiful comfort, and I love it.

10. What would a perfect day away from your desk and notebook look like?

I grew up not far from the sea, but where I live now is miles away from the sea. I miss it! So, a perfect day would involve me and all my loved ones having a good long walk on a beach, followed by a cosy meal somewhere nice. I think that sounds wonderful.

Creative Challenge: If you could find any magical creature you wanted at the bottom of
your garden, what would you want it to be?

Think about: how you first suspected there was a creature at the end of your garden. Did you see a spout of water? Or a spurt of fire? Was there a scaly tail wiggling on the lawn? Did you hear any funny noises or smell any strange smells? Maybe your pet came yowling in from outside with their fur on end, refusing to go back outdoors! Is your magical creature trying to hide, or blend in?

Why is it there - did it get lost? Is it on an adventure of its own? Is it hurt? Does it need your help? Is it playing hide-and-seek with its brothers and sisters? Has someone dared it to sneak into your garden to see if it can catch a glimpse of a real-life human?

Can you find out the creature's name? Can your creature change its shape to become something else - maybe something small that you can bring indoors without your grown-ups knowing? How exciting!

School Events: I have a Lola and Larch event where participants can design and draw their own fairies - this one is aimed at children aged six to eight, and for children aged four or five, I offer a draw-along event, where participants can make their own picture of Larch, and we draw it together.

The event has a PowerPoint feature, where children help me to banish some naughty magic, cast by Euphorbia Spurge - this involves us all making a big loud spell to send her magic away! - and then, we finish with the creative aspect.

To get in touch, visit my website to find all the details you need to get in touch.

Sinéad O'Hart introduces the first book in her Lola and Larch series, Lola and Larch fix a Fairy Forest

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