I am over the moon to announce that my first book is finally here! For more information on where you can buy Mim the Mouse & The Christmas Gift, click here.

I thought this month’s blog post might be a good opportunity to talk about how I came up with the original Mim the Mouse character and the inspiration behind expanding her tiny world.

Living with two cats back at my parents’ house, we would often receive little gifts in the form of mice which made us rather sad. We would always try to save the little creatures and I’m pleased to say that we succeeded numerous times. When I moved away from home, Mum sent me updates on how the cats were doing and whether she had managed to save any mice. She would describe their dear little faces with their twitching noses and little black shiny eyes with such empathy – it was clear how much she loved them!

One day, we were out shopping and Mum spotted a little wooden clock with two mice attached, looking as though they were climbing over the clock. Mum picked it up and practically squeaked like an excited mouse herself as she gushed over her ideas of putting holly around the clock at Christmas time and how lovely it would look. She said “I don’t know what it is about them but I really do love mice!” so I ended up buying the clock for her birthday.

Given that Mum was so fond of mice, I spent hours scrolling through Pinterest trying to find ideas and patterns to make the perfect mouse for her. There were some seriously adorable felted mice and cute cartoon-style amigurumi patterns but none of them were exactly what I wanted. So one day, I picked up some grey wool and a crochet hook and started to crochet my ideal mouse.

The first one’s legs were much too long… she looked like she was wearing fluffy grey stilts. However, I didn’t give up and eventually, I ended up crocheting two little white mice – a boy and a girl and I dressed them in miniature clothes. Mum was absolutely thrilled with them both. She named them Mim and Morris and thus, that is how Mim the Mouse and her tiny world was born.

Since then, I have perfected my pattern and have spent an extortionate amount of money on the perfect wool to make their fluffy coats.  One mouse, plus an outfit probably takes me about five hours to make as the work is so intricate. However, once I started making a variety of mice in a variety of colours and outfits, my imagination began to take over and I realised there was no end to this world I could create. What an exciting thought!

In 2020, I built an entire miniature house from scratch and began to write short stories about Mim, her family and their mouseventures. After I wrote The Christmas Gift, I knew I had to share this story with the world. I just hope the world will love Mim the Mouse as much as I do!