Sinéad O'Hart
About Author
In the Lola and Larch series by Sinéad O'Hart, we follow a special friendship between Lola and a fairy, 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 Make a Winter Wish (Nosy Crow)
October 2024
Discover a world of fairies, nature and magic. . . When Lola, a human, and Larch, a fairy, meet, magic and mischief follow. Here is author Sinéad O'Hart to tell 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 Make a Winter Wish (Nosy Crow), a wishing spell has an unexpected outcome and Lola finds herself turned into a fairy, while fairy Larch becomes a human! All sorts of fun follows as Lola gets used to using wings and Larch has to control giant human limbs. We find out more from author Sinéad O'Hart.
Creative Challenge from Sinéad O'Hart: 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!
Sinéad O'Hart talks to ReadingZone about writing, daydreaming and hunting for fairies.
"I'd like readers to see that it's important not to judge people (or fairies!) and to see everyone
as an individual, worthy of respect for who they are."
1. Can you tell us what the Lola and Larch books are about, and what inspired this series about a young fairy and her human friend?
The Lola and Larch books are about a young girl named Lola Cleary who lives with her mum (a forest ranger) and her little brother Noah in a house that's just inside the edge of a large forest. Her grandma lives nearby. One night, as they're coming home from Grandma's house, Lola sees a bright light among the trees, which turns out to be a shining white rabbit. It seems lost, and Mum takes it home to take care of it until they can find its owner. But the next morning, when Lola goes to say 'hello' to the rabbit, she finds a very irritable fairy there instead! And so she meets Larch Mudwort, trouble-magnet. Larch is a fairy with a very unusual and unique power; she can turn into a rabbit. And there's a nasty fairy in the woods who wants to steal this power…
The inspiration for the book series came from a daydream I had while I was out walking one day, about how cool it would be to think you had an ordinary rabbit, only to find that it was really a fairy in disguise. I got so excited thinking about it that as soon as I got home, I wrote down some very sketchy ideas for the characters, and the story was born.
2. Can you describe the setting of the stories for us, both the human and fairy worlds? How important are the seasons and nature in each story?
Lola lives in a place which feels so amazing to me. The forest is all around her house, and her grandma's garden is often described in the books as having the forest right on the other side of the gate. I loved imagining this, and thinking about how amazing it would be to literally have a forest wonderland right outside your door.
Lola and her brother are very familiar with the forest and its creatures, and things like creepy-crawlies don't scare them or make them go 'eew' - I wanted this to be very much a part of who Lola is; that she loves and is amazed by all the creatures she meets. This is clearest in Book 1, Lola and Larch Fix a Fairy Forest, when she encounters a swarm of beetles and thinks 'there's something wrong with them, and they need help', rather than 'eeek, get me away from here!'
I love nature, too, though I'm not as lucky as Lola and Noah. Forests are one of my favourite things, and I love forests which are allowed to be completely wild, which is how I imagine Lola's forest. Larch's fairy village is deep in the forest, near an old circle of standing stones (which are important in all the books), and right at the centre of the forest, away from the other fairies, lives Euphorbia Spurge, the nasty fairy who's the villain of the tales.
So far with the books, the stories follow the seasons, beginning with Spring in Lola and Larch Fix a Fairy Forest, and nature - and a love of nature - is right at the heart of all of them. Protecting and caring for the forest, its creatures, its biodiversity and ecology, are important parts of the plot of all the stories so far.
Larch the fairy can turn into a white rabbit, and her clothes come from the larch tree, which she is named after.
3. Larch isn't the traditional idea of a sparkly pink fairy; how did she develop and why did you decide her special power would be turning into a rabbit?
I'm not really a very 'pink and sparkly' sort of person, and fairies like that don't really interest me much. I'm far more interested in the spiky, green, curious, naughty, sprite-like fairies, mischievous ones like Puck (or the Púca, in Ireland), and I think Larch and her village were born from my own Irishness, where fairies are part of the natural landscape and are often dangerous, tricky, and very much not fond of humans.
I loved coming up with fairies that are connected to trees and plants - so, each fairy in Larch's village has a link to a tree, and they each wear a hat which has something to do with their tree. Their clothes are often made from something that you'd find on their tree, too. So, Larch herself is connected to the larch tree, and her hat is made from a larch cone. Her dress is made from the larch-needles, like pine needles. King Ash, who's the king of the fairy clan, is connected to the ash tree, which is one of the guardian trees of Irish forest folklore. His crown is made from ash seedlings. Larch's mum Posy is a flower fairy, so her hat is made of flowers; her dad, Oakheart, has an acorn hat. I tried to match each fairy with a different tree or flower and give them characteristics and a costume to match!
As to why Larch turns into a rabbit - I'm honestly not sure. It's just how she first appeared in my imagination. I had dreamt up a child who finds a rabbit, and whose mum is a vet, and when the child checks on the rabbit they find a fairy there instead. That's literally how the characters discover each other in the published version of the story, and it's just how I first imagined it on that walk, years ago.
4. Lola and Larch are very different characters; why do they become such good friends?
I loved the idea of a human child who's quite well-behaved and a fairy who's complete chaos, because they are quite different and there's lots of fun to be had in putting them together. But, I think, deep down, they're quite similar insofar as they're both a bit lonely, and they feel a bit isolated at school and at home.
Lola has a small brother who takes up a lot of Mum and Grandma's time, and Larch is an only child who just can't seem to keep to the rules, so her family is often cross with her. So, it makes sense to me that they'd see, in each other, someone who understands them. It does take them a little time to get to know one another, but once they do - they're off!
Lola and Larch find themselves swapping bodies in Lola and Larch Make a Winter Wish
5. What happens in Lola and Larch's latest adventure, Lola and Larch Make a Winter Wish?
In Lola and Larch Make a Winter Wish, the friends have a disagreement about what fairies are actually all about. It's coming up to Midwinter, which the fairy clan calls Turningtide - the time when the year turns, and Spring starts to return - and as part of their celebration, every fairy gets to make a wish. Luckily, it's a wish that only lasts one day, which means most fairies use their wish to magic up something delicious to eat! But Larch uses hers to wish that Lola could really understand what it's like to be a fairy - and Euphorbia Spurge, always on the lookout for a way to nobble the fairy village and Larch in particular, sees a chance to meddle…
The next day, Lola and Larch find themselves swapping bodies! Lola has to learn what it's like to be a fairy, including how to fly, and Larch has to try to get through the day in a huge, clumsy, human body. Lots of chaos ensues, including a disastrous Christmas concert at Lola's school!
6. While they are good friends, Lola and Larch Make a Winter Wish focuses on the differences in the lives of Lola and Larch, a human and fairy. What would you like your readers to take from their adventure?
I'd like readers to see that it's important not to judge people (or fairies!) and to see everyone as an individual, worthy of respect for who they are. Larch gets very upset when Lola seems to 'make fun' of fairykind, thinking of all fairies as being sparkly, twinkly beings who are there just to look pretty. Of course, some fairies are like this, but others, like Larch, are not. And Lola doesn't mean to upset or offend Larch; she just means to have some fun, but she needs to be reminded that everyone's uniqueness is important.
But most of all, what I'd like readers to take from this adventure is a big belly-laugh at the idea of being small as a fairy, and being carried to school in the front pocket of your own schoolbag… Or to imagine how it must feel for Larch, trying to tie human shoelaces on her giant new feet!
'What Lola and Larch needed was a really good baddie.....Eurphorbia Spurge had found a home'
7. Euphorbia Spurge is the wonderful villain of these stories - how did she come to life, and do you have more plans for her, Lola and Larch?
A long time ago - before I even had the idea for Lola and Larch! - my family and I, while out for a walk, came across a very strange-looking plant that we'd never seen before. We looked it up on the internet and discovered it was called a caper spurge, which is completely toxic, even down to the roots! I was fascinated and did a bit more research, discovering that the proper name for the family of plants known as 'spurges' is Euphorbia, and that the caper spurge is properly called Euphorbia lathyris. But the name 'Euphorbia Spurge' stuck in my head, and I wrote it down, hoping that one day I could use it for a baddie in a story.
Then, when my editor at Nosy Crow suggested that what my original draft of Lola and Larch needed was a really good baddie, I immediately knew: Euphorbia Spurge had found a home. I was delighted that the name I loved so much had found the perfect character. There is one more story to be told in the Lola and Larch series, where Euphorbia has a slightly unusual role, and after that, I'm not too sure. But - never say never.
8. Have you enjoyed seeing the characters come to life in Rachel Seago's illustrations? Do the characters look how you imagine them?
All I can say about Rachel Seago is: she's a genius. I loved her work from the beginning, and was delighted that she made her illustration debut with this fantastic series that we've created together. The characters are exactly as I imagined them - even better, perhaps! - and Rachel was generous enough to ask me when she wasn't clear on how something should look. We collaborated a little on the overall look for Euphorbia, and for King Ash.
I adore how she draws King Ash, who is twice as lovely on the page as he ever was in my head! It's been an amazing experience for me to watch an artist bring something I imagined to life in a way that I could never do. I love to draw, but I don't have the illustration skill that Rachel has. It's such a privilege to be part of the process.
9. How do you get into the 'head space' for writing your Lola and Larch stories?
Walking in nature is one of my favourite things, so that's definitely something I do when I want to find inspiration. Where I live, unfortunately, there's not a lot of nature left! But there are two forests I love, one in Wexford where I grew up, and one in Sligo where my husband's family is from, and when I need to 'get into the zone', I try to imagine being in one of those forests - the smells, the sounds, the peace, the special feeling that being in a forest gives you - and all those things make it easier to imagine a brand-new story.
Nearer to my house, there's a canal with a forest walk beside it, and when I really need to smell some clear air and see some leaves dancing in the breeze (or, fluttering because a fairy has just darted away behind them), I go there. I love walking, and when I'm walking by myself, I seem to gather together my ideas in the most useful way.
10. What are your favourite activities when you're not at your desk, and where do you go for inspiration for new stories?
When I'm not at my desk, I love being in my reading chair! This is a special chair in my living room which is easy to settle into, but very hard to get out of, and it's tucked in beside my bookshelves. There's space for me to put a cup of tea down, and there's a light right overhead, and there's no shortage of books… So, this is my favourite place. I really do love to read, and I try to get as much reading time as possible every day.
I also love walking, and I walk a lot - I don't drive, unlike most grown-ups, so I walk everywhere! I also like to look out the windows when I'm on a bus or a train and imagine what's going on in all the houses and towns I'm passing through. I love to draw, and sometimes I find ideas that way. I also love music, and nothing touches my heart more deeply than a beautiful melody or some moving song lyrics.
I find inspiration for new stories absolutely everywhere. I am a Storyfinder - in fact, everyone is! - and this means I'm a person who's always on the lookout for the stories that live in all places. That interesting-looking snail on the wall as you walk to school, or that really cool crack in the pavement that you hopped over, or those super-shiny stones you found at the beach, or that beautiful pattern on a wrought-iron railing that seems to wink at you as you pass by… All those are stories, just waiting to be found and told.
Stories hold our world together, and all it takes to be a Storyfinder is knowing they're there, and keeping your eyes peeled.
Sinéad O'Hart introduces the first book in her Lola and Larch series, Lola and Larch fix a Fairy Forest