17. Incredible places

As a kid I used to love reading about incredible places—Enid Blyton’s magic faraway tree, Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, the alien worlds described in horror comics and, of course, the strange world that Alice discovered at the bottom of a rabbit hole in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

As an adult I still love thinking up incredible places of my own—crazy, wonderful places I would like to visit or live in.

Two of the incredible lands from The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow.

When I was young I was always a bit envious of kids who had treehouses. I loved the experience of climbing up into a tree and feeling like I was in a secret world. One day I asked Terry to draw a multi-level treehouse with a bowling alley and a tank full of man-eating sharks.

The 13-Storey Treehouse

As always, Terry added a whole lot of other stuff that I hadn’t even thought about: a see-through swimming pool, a giant catapult and a lemonade fountain. I was pretty confident that this had to be the coolest treehouse in the world—until we added another 13 levels and created The 26-Storey treehouse.

One of the fun things about the treehouse is that as well as being an incredible place in its own right, there are lots of incredible places within it.

THE MAZE OF DOOM: a maze so complicated that nobody who has gone in has ever come out again! (The 26-Storey Treehouse).

Incredible places can be places you’d like to live (e.g. the treehouse, the unusual lands shown in The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow), places nearby (e.g. inside a human body), places far away (other planets), places in other times (imaginary prehistoric places) even disgusting places (the world of the Bum novels).

While I would love to live in an amazing treehouse, I wouldn’t necessarily want to live in all of the incredible places that Terry and I have created: for instance, the inside of a stomach doesn’t look like much fun.

What Body Part is That?

TRY THIS

Draw an incredible place

Your place could be underground, underwater, in a tree, at the top of a tall tower: the sky’s the limit. No, hang on, there is no limit! Your incredible place can be anywhere, even in space if you want.

Let your imagination run wild. Think of all the things you’d like around you, all the things you’d like to be able to do or see. Draw and label your incredible place.

… OR THIS

Write a travel brochure

Fold an A4 sheet of paper into three to make a brochure.

Imagine you are a travel agent and you have to write a 50–100 word description of your incredible place.

Try to make your incredible place sound as attractive as possible to any potential holidaymakers looking for the perfect spot for their next vacation.

Don’t forget to include pictures.