Here’s a nice circle of completion. When I first started thinking hard about birds, I thought it might be interesting to make a series of cards depicting their qualities. This was before I realised there were such things as books. Even after writing the book, it niggled at me that the idea I had needed to be presented in a less linear way, and it dawned on my that I could make a set of cards…tarot cards. And so I did, with the help of an amazing lady, Linda Sutton, RA, who became as passionately involved in the project as anyone could wish. You can see more of her work at www.lindasutton.com

To give you a sense of perspective as to how long these things can take, I had the idea for the tarot in 2005 and worked on it fairly compulsively until it was accepted by Schiffer, one of the most innovative producers of lavish tarot decks in the world. The acceptance email came to me at about 4am on Christmas Eve, 2010, and the deck was published in September 2011. You have to be persistent if you have an idea that won’t go away!