Patrick Cahill was travelling on a train to Dublin when the idea came to him.
With two books already under his belt, the Mullaghbawn man was gifted the inspiration for his third.
“I overheard a conversation between a mother and her kids,” said Patrick, matter-of-factly, when asked how Someone Stole the Sun, his latest, came to be. “At that time there was a solar eclipse and the kids were asking what it was.”
Like JK Rowling, travelling back to London when the idea for Harry Potter came to her, that mundane train journey was to set Patrick firmly on track for an exciting new book and the next chapter in his writing career.
“Basically the book is about five animals in a field,” he told Armagh I, “the Owl being the wisest one of all five, and the other four little animals think the sun has been stolen.
“The alignment of the sun and the moon may be a rare thing, but it is a very special, life-changing sensory experience.”
Woodland pals Fox, Mole and Badger are thrown into a state of confusion when it suddenly goes dark in the middle of the day and Rabbit shouts: ‘Someone has stolen the sun!’
They all have funny ideas about what may have happened to the sun. Could a fire-eating dragon have swallowed it whole?
Alas not, as Patrick – who writes as PB Cahill – says: “The owl explains to them, via the use of a firefly, that the sun hasn’t been stolen, it’s only been covered up for a while.”
Aimed at children in the four to eight-year-old age group, the book has been described as a heartwarming tale of friendship, curiosity and the joy of discovery, gently encouraging little ones to stay calm and ask questions.
And as with all the best children’s books, there’s a moral and a happy ending from which to draw reassurance.
“There’s a little bit of science involved there, that it basically is explaining what an eclipse is,” explained Patrick. “But in the very last stanza of the book, if you read it, it’s basically not to worry or fear, that the sun will always be here.”
Someone Stole the Sun is a captivating tale for children and features enchanting illustrations by Brittany Wilson throughout, bringing the woodland friends to life.
It is being well-received by an appreciative young audience – and a wider audience at that!
“I have had two other books out – The Tales of Young King Arthur and What Little Robin Saw,” said Patrick. “Those books did very well, but with this third book now I have an Australian publishing house and they have a worldwide reach. They go into Waterstones, distribute through Gardners, so much more than I had with the first two books.
“So the new book is going really, really well at the moment, on our own website and on Amazon.”
All of Patrick’s books have that wildlife wonder and farmyard feel.
For, originally from Belleeks before moving to Mullaghbawn, at the foot of Slieve Gullion, his upbringing made him deeply aware of the connection between nature and the animals with which we share our planet.
“I was brought up on a farm in the ’60s and early ’70s,” explained Patrick. “With that farm, I sort of had a great love of animals, a great love of nature.
“And being brought up in rural Ireland, childhood was different. There was no mobile phones. Nobody even had a landline. There was no TV. If you had a TV it had two channels.
“Life was different then. Most people I know, my generation, they spent all their time in the fields.”
Now aged 66, the children’s author had previously been a bus driver with Translink for 21 years, before retiring, in his mid-50s, on the grounds of ill health.
But not one to simply sit with his feet up, Patrick seized on the empty hours and opportunity…
“Because I’d worked all my life, I wanted something to do with my time,” he explained. “So I wrote two prior children’s books, and I used to go into many schools, pre-COVID, and do book readings. It was a fabulous thing to do.
“That’s what initially got me into writing and, of course, my kids had grown up and left home at that stage.”
To say he is prolific in his writing is something of an under-statement.
For having now published his third, Patrick already has two further books in the pipeline and nearing completion.
And, true to form, that love of nature and animals comes shining through once more.
“They’re like young junior novels,” added Patrick. “One is called Ronaldo the Lamb, which is about a lamb that plays football up in the Cotswolds. It’s a very funny story.
“The other is Connemara Sam. It’s about a donkey who lives with two old bachelors in the west of Ireland, and he gets hit by lightning and has a near death experience, goes up to heaven and he meets Jesus. It’s all very, very riotous and funny!”
Perfect for bedtime reading, Someone Stole the Sun is published by Leschenault Press in Western Australia and details on how to purchase are available via the author’s website www.pbcahill.com. It is also available through Amazon and all good book stores.
