The Story Behind Mrs Te-wit & Mr Te-woo

I nearly forgot about this little book.

Mrs Te-wit & Mr Te-woo was made during one of those hazy, tender times when my children were babies, when the days blur a little and the nights feel strangely full of life.

There’s something about having a baby that makes me very creative. I don’t quite know why. Perhaps it’s the stillness, or the quiet hours when the world is asleep. Or maybe it’s just being more open, more aware.

This was in winter, when Ash was very small. I would be up late feeding him, sitting quietly while everyone else slept. Outside, in the dark, there was a family of owls living near our house.

I remember the cold, and the silence… and then their calls.

The female owl would call out, te-wit, te-wit…
And somewhere in the distance, the male would answer, te-woo…

Back and forth, through the night.

I sat there listening to them, and I just thought, that’s a story.

So I got up, and it almost wrote itself.

It became a story about calling out into the darkness and waiting for an answer… and what it feels like when one finally comes.

And of course, if two owls find each other, there must be little ones. Three felt exactly right, because I had my three boys.

Making the book

The images came just as clearly as the words.

I could see the owls in chalk pastel, soft and textured, their feathers almost glowing against the dark. Black paper felt right straight away, like the night sky itself.

The book I used was one I’d been carrying around for years. It had belonged to my mum, an old black paper book with tassels and a gold diamond on the front. I’d always thought, I’ll do something with this one day.

This was it.

I drew straight into the book, letting the story unfold page by page. Then over the following week, I photographed each spread and added the text digitally (back then in Illustrator, long before I discovered Canva).

It was probably the fastest children’s book I’ve ever made. From start to finish, it took about a month.