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The man behind
captain satsuma !
J A M E S H O P S O N
My idea is to introduce children to fruit and vegetables
in a positive and interesting way. In the first book we
get to meet the characters that will form the basis of
my future stories. As time passes a number of new
faces will also appear alongside them, through books,
website and social media channels. By using my
characters to engage, I am able to deliver subtle
healthy messages throughout all of my content. All of
my stories came about after being inspired by my
granddaughter.
Spending an afternoon drawing with her, she placed a
satsuma in front of me for a snack later on. Thinking it
would be fun I started sketching it and was soon adding
features and body parts. As I constructed my sketch, my
granddaughter glanced over,
“Who’s that she asked?”
“Captain Satsuma,” I replied, making the first name up
that came into my head.
“Never heard of him,” my granddaughter replied, as she
turned away.
Proud of my little sketch I gave a quick response,
“He’s going to be famous. You’ll see him in loads of
places,” I told her [oh dear].
Two days later I found myself accosted on the front
doorstep to be told in no uncertain fashion.
“Mummy and I have been around all the shops, and
there’s no Captain Satsuma anywhere. You were talking
rubbish gangan!
Shot down in flames for a second time, I set about
writing a story to prove my granddaughter wrong. As
the characters developed I decided to use the word
rubbish to my advantage, by making the arch villain of
my plot ‘Count Rubbish.’
My dad was a greengrocer for twenty-five years, so
basing a character ‘Freddie Elf,’ on him was a small
tribute to him for being such a wonderful father and
for giving me my first job on a Saturday aged 13.
W E B S I T E
Having never written a book before there were significant
challenges for me. I’m extremely grateful to my illustrator,
story critic and proof reader for believing in me and making
this happen. The book is called Captain Satsuma has
Landed and tells the story of the Captain traveling from his
home Planet Superseed to Gnome Island in search of Evil
Spud Mouldy. Mouldy whose real name was Maris is the
half-brother of Superseed’s ruler King Edward. Jealous of
his half- brother, Mouldy has stolen a pod ship and fled his
planet, before crash landing on Gnome Island. It’s there he
meets the ruthless Count Rubbish who has desires to claim
the Island for his own benefit.
Captain Satsuma is joined in his pursuit of Evil Spud Mouldy
by the Frugee 4, who are Masked Pepper, Undercover
Carrot, Miss Sweetcorn and Cape Pear. Together they must
find Mouldy, whilst also foiling Count Rubbish’s dastardly
plans. Although a fun adventure with plenty of humour,
there are a number of subtle healthy messages contained.
I have produced rough drafts for five follow up adventures. Each
book will be a standalone title, although the story can be
continuous too if you wish. Every book will have healthy content,
with nature and the environment playing an important role. At
present Captain Satsuma has Landed is available only online,
although I’m working on a number of other channels at this time.
For children, learning to read is a major part of their development.
By combining this with messages about healthy eating, I hope to
not only encourage children to eat the suggested five portions of
fruit and veg a day, but to have a healthy balanced diet too.
W W W . C A P T A I N S A T S U M A . C O . U K
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