A PRIMARY SCHOOL teacher turned children’s author who hailed her adopted home of Keith as the perfect location to develop her writing is set to enthral children at the Elgin Museum this week.
Susan Clifford is behind the major success that is “Dream with me now of – A Dinosaur Dash’, a book published this year aimed at three to five year olds which has been designed “to encourage them to use their imagination – to escape and create a world of dreams”.
“Taking a journey with the story teller we find ourselves in a land of ferocious dinosaurs – and having an exciting adventure and avoiding being stomped on or being a dinosaur’s tea,” Susan said of the book that has already become a favourite for parents and children alike.
Susan said: “My intended audience for this book is nursery age 3-5 year olds. It is a fun book full of fantasy that will help children to use their imagination, which in turn will help them to develop their social and verbal skills whilst playing.
“It is not intended to provide a lesson or a moral, but rather to give children freedom to explore their imagination.”
Brought up in Reading, Susan was herself inspired by the bed-time stories made up and related to her by her father, believing that his imagination was passed on to her from an early age. She now lives in Keith of which she says: “It has a much quieter pace of life which has enabled me to start writing and to fulfil my dreams of becoming an author.
“If I could live anywhere at all, I still think that I would live here in Scotland. It is a truly beautiful country, rich in history and full of wonderful people!”
Citing her literary inspirations as Beartrix Potter and Enid Blyton, Susan hopes that her own efforts will one day find their way into the bedrooms of children around the world – but already she is finding seeing her work published as a fantastic journey: “After penning some notes on a piece of paper, to suddenly realising a dream and becoming an author, is the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me.
“So all I can say is yes I did dream and yes you can now ‘Dream with me now’”
Susan will be at the Elgin Museum at 11am on Wednesday, July 8 where parents and children can meet the author herself. She will read from her book and sign copies from 11am.