The Little island is a picture book story inspired by Brexit and aims to ‘encourage the debate around the subject”. The book adopts the position of ‘Remain’ and addresses issues of strength together, remaining together despite differences and the potential hazards of striking out on one’s own. The illustrated story is set on a farm where the sun shines and the grass grows tall and green. The opening double page spread depicts all the different farm animal species working together growing crops and gathering hay. The geese live on an island on the farm with a bridge that connects them to the main part of the farm where all the other animals live. Then one day the geese decide to go it alone, and, taking the ducks with them, aim to build an idyllic island life; they destroy the bridge that connects them with the main part of the farm and the cows, the pigs, the sheep and other farm animals. 

My take on the book is unconcerned with Brexit and any analogies with it; I am concerned with the analogy of farm as a haven for farm animals; by and large things do not end well for farm animals. Whether a reader agrees that it is better to to all stick together or strike out alone, surely, if we think about it for a moment, surely it is clear that a farm is not a decent analogy for a safe place to be for its inhabitants – it is a place of forced impregnation, where babies are taken from mothers, where animals are fattened; it is a waiting room before the horrors and inevitability of the abattoir. How has the picture book farm become so distant from the truth that it finally ends up as an analogy for home, for sanctuary. How removed from the truth have we as writers, illustrators, publishers, story-tellers, become so removed from the reality that we can no longer see past the distortions of truth ingrained in our own minds – this book’s idea and illustrations are built from other picture book farm myths and pseudo-idylls; what research, if any has gone into the lives of those who likenesses have been so casually used?