The seed for Guess How Much I Love You was planted during a conversation between Sam McBratney and his editor Caroline Royds, at Walker Books. Sam explains how it all began...

One day, my editor at Walker Books in London said, “Why don’t you write a picture book, Sam?”

I said, “Do I not need to know an illustrator, Caroline?”

“No.”

“Wouldn’t I have to work with an illustrator? You know, match text with drawing sort of thing.”

She shook her head.

I said, “You mean, you want me to send you ... a page?”

“Sam,” said Caroline, “we have illustrators who can render in exquisite detail whatever your imagination can dream up. What we don’t have are people who can write a powerful story using hardly any words at all. It looks as though it should be easy, Sam, but it’s not easy.”



What she was saying was what I later came to believe: it’s as difficult to write a fine picture book, one that stands out from the crowd, as it is to write a fine novel.



I took up the challenge and the result was Guess How Much I Love You, published in 1994. About 400 words. And Caroline was right, it wasn’t easy – it was a new experience over six months to have every word fighting for its existence in the finished text. But that’s another story, a different story.