Author Georgia Byng visits Sherwood Primary School to inspire future writers and promote vegetarianism

Georgia Byng visited Sherwood Primary School on Friday, January 13 to talk to the pupils about her new book ‘Albi The Glowing Cow Boy’ and explore with them its agricultural and environmental themes. She also gave them a glimpse into the world of an author, hoping to inspire the children with their reading and writing.

Commenting on the day, Georgia said: “They were so well behaved, lovely children who were really keen and interested in the book, so we had a really great morning, and they all got given a book, which I think's a really special thing. They were all able to go away and read the book, having heard a bit from me about what it took to write it, and what sort of things inspired it, so I hope it really switched them on to the idea that writing isn't something that is just for the hugely intellectual type and actually, if you like telling a story on the playground, maybe you're a writer too. That's the message I take into schools, I try to encourage children to read and write and have faith in their own creative energy.”

‘Albi The Glowing Cow Boy’ follows a young albino calf who, thanks to some magical milk mushrooms, becomes more intelligent and boylike as the book progresses. Throughout the story, he escapes an abattoir and is hunted by the unloved son of the abattoir owner, with both learning much about how the world works and the relationship between humans and animals.

Explaining the book’s inspiration, Georgia, a vegan and animal lover herself, said: “It bothers me that eating meat is so condoned, and that there's such a remove with people when it comes to the killing of animals and the animals that they find on supermarket shelves. I started this book 23 years ago but put it down, and then I realised that now was a better time to write this. It's not just for the animals sake, I also wanted to communicate to people how damaging animal agriculture is to the planet, that global warming is hugely worsened because of animal agriculture. I think it produces 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions, and most of those come from the methane that's produced by the 1.5 billion cows on the planet. I thought if readers could see the world through the eyes of a really intelligent animal, perhaps this would switch people on to thinking about moving towards a plant-based diet for the sake of the animals and the planet.”

Throughout Georgia’s book tour, she will be visiting schools, bookshops and farms from across the country, and celebrity endorsed initiative ‘Meat Free Monday’ are also donating copies of Albi to the libraries of each school.

Despite her nationwide tour, Georgia explains that her visit to Preston had a special meaning for her as Albi was published by the city’s very own UCLan Publishing.

Georgia added: “UCLan’s publishing company, and Hazel Holmes, who runs it, are a great bunch, and they've been brilliant with this book. She's started such a good publishing house for children, so Preston should be really proud of them and buy all their books!”

With cover artwork by Levi Penfold and interior illustrations by Angela Cogo, Albi The Glowing Cow Boy, published to coincide with Veganuary, is an epic, one-of-a-kind story encouraging empathy and opening questioning minds.

Georgia Byng has written many books for children, her best known being the best-seller, Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism. This six-book series for 8–12-year-olds has sold in 39 territories and over 4 million books. It won the Sheffield, Salford, Stockton, and the Massachusetts children’s book awards. Georgia co-wrote and co-produced the movie, Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism starring Lesley Manville and Dominic Monaghan.