Kevin's dark tale to stretch youngsters' minds
STAMFORD's very own J K Rowling, 57-year-old Kevin Troop, says his latest children's book has been a 30-year labour of love.
Originally performed by the 11 to 13-year-old children he taught at the Vale of Catmose College in Oakham in the late 1980s, The Rejects' Revenge tells the story of a group of toys who have locked themselves in the cellar of a doll's house to avoid being thrown on a bonfire.
But the author insists the book is for children, especially fans of Harry Potter and other more serious adventure tales.
He said: "I think kids these days want something that really stretches them. I certainly got more and more out of it the darker the story got."
Kevin, of Fane Close, Stamford, was an English teacher for 20 years and first came up with the script for The Rejects' Revenge when he was teaching at Vale of Catmose College in Oakham.
It was originally written as a play and performed by his drama group there in the late 1980s, where it received rave reviews from parents and local newspapers alike - but was only finished as a full-length novel last year.
He insists the characters such as Griselda, the mean fairy, and the bully, Sergeant Majors, were all the children's idea - it was simply up to Kevin to weave them into a story.
He said: "They had this idea about toys in a doll's house who had shut themselves up in the cellar to avoid being thrown onto the bonfire.
"We all worked together and I remember just loving it – all I did was sort of blend their ideas together.
"The manuscript has remained in the cupboard all this time, until I recently decided to work on it again and publish it."
Kevin, who grew up in Stamford and attended Stamford School, left teaching after he attended the Corby Festival of Literature in 1987 and was inspired by the poets and writers he met there.
A few of his new acquaintances at the convention started sending him poems and short stories to read.
He was soon swamped with manuscripts from people all over the world, which he began to compile into a monthly literary magazine known as the Third Half.
Despite selling well, Kevin dropped the magazine in 1990 to concentrate on publishing books which authors were sending him in their droves.
But he found himself working on hundreds of titles at a time and longed to be back in the world of writing himself.
It was thanks to the support of Walkers bookshop in Stamford High Street that his literary career sprung into life, when in the mid 1990s, a friend let him put on a book launch there for his first children's adventure story, Spike and Co.
He later went on to write a book-length poem, the Mist, which was illustrated with pictures and like his first work, sold well at Walkers.
The Rejects' Revenge marks Kevin's third independently published piece, all from a shed in his back garden.
"Even though it is just a few yards away from the back door, it gets me out the house," he said. "I had some money left over a while ago and I decided to build one to act as my office - I'm at my best when I'm working outside."
When he isn't busy writing stories or redrafting other people's in his garden, Kevin enjoys walking along the Meadows in Stamford to cure his writers block or watching either the Wakes or the Daniels on match days.
Currently Kevin is working on redrafting his father Arthur Troop's book, Service Through Friendship, which is due to be published again in July.
The Reject's Revenge is available to buy from Walker's Bookshop, High Street, Richard Peel at Stamford Models and Collectables in Maiden Lane, and the Post Office, Ryhall Road, all in Stamford, priced 4.95.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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