Our crew and mission
The Starlike Books crew
Charlotte Tarrant, Starlike Books Founder and Story Maker
Charlotte’s love of words and stories started to take off in English lessons at school. Her teacher, Mrs Turner, dished out A++ grades to pretty much everyone and her hair changed colour most weeks. Mrs Turner’s lessons and demeanour were entirely unpredictable, creating a bubbling cauldron of a classroom! Charlotte’s mum, Liz, has always been a source of inspiration too, thanks to her lifelong devotion to reading.
Since the birth of her daughter, Natalie, then the death of her dad, John, Charlotte has discovered her purpose. She encourages fellow humans to be starlike, living with courage, hope, love and joy. She founded Starlike Books with this mission in mind.
Other than writing, Charlotte’s gateways to wonder include strong tea, nature walks, chats with friends, lazy cat amounts of sleep and Lindt dark chocolate (sea salt or chilli variety).
Ivy Trazsi, Illustrator
Ivy grew up in a tiny village surrounded with wildlife. As a child, she drew and painted on every surface: the brick walls of her family home, snail shells and once she even attempted to colour the wind.
Later, she moved away and lived in multiple countries but her love for nature and colours has never changed. In her artistic and personal life, she is driven by curiosity and kindness, building relationships without borders and creating vibrant images layered with textures. The foundation of her style lies in her rich childhood memories, travels and endless imagination.
Ivy and her husband are raising their children with the intention that their everyday lives are filled with fun, colourful curiosities and magical stories because magic exists. ‘You just need to look for it and create your own stories,’ Ivy says.
Phil Bourne, Web Whizz and Head Tea Boy
Phil provides the know-how on world wide webbery. He isn’t afraid of a spot of custom coding, which is rather brilliant because it helps to make things look lovelier online. He drinks plenty of tea and always brings Charlotte a cup when he’s making, which is a very kind thing indeed.
Phil is also a wonderful photographer and he sells vintage and vintage reissue guitars at 20th Century Toys.
Glumbags
As characters go, Glumbags is a little shy and rather averse to the whole idea of a profile here. However, the rest of the Starlike Books crew wouldn’t feel right without him here. So Ivy painted his picture beneath a rainbow sunset. Just look at his lovely little face.
Glumbags loves random acts of kindness above everything else in the universe. He particularly enjoys a spot of cleaning, polishing and planting. He likes walking and walking in his heavy boots. He’s full of surprises and he comes and goes, as if by magic.
He’s a much-loved member of the crew, our first born on this starlike publishing adventure through space and time. Many more other-worldly creatures are set to follow him but for now, you can order Glumbags’s story here.
The Starlike Books mission
Starlike Books first began to brew in 2016…
…when the youngest member of the Starlike Books crew, Natalie, was an infinite whizz-bang of promising stardust. Her mum and dad, Charlotte and Phil, had been hoping for some time for a small human to land in their arms. They looked up to Milky Way and they hoped some more.
At this time, characters started knocking on the door of their Stoke Newington flat.
Amongst those strange visitors was Glumbags, a bright blue fellow with indigo hair. He carried two heavy bags and plodded around in big boots. He was odd, for sure, but he seemed to have a very kind heart. He brought with him a helpful dose of courage too.
Charlotte did a basic sketch of Glumbags to remember his visit and wrote a few lines about his character. There was something so captivating about his shyness and kindness. Charlotte sent a note to the future, promising to write Glumbags’s story one day. She also knew she needed to find a superb illustrator to help bring Glumbags here!
Along with Glumbags, many other-worldly characters landed at this time.
They brought with them courage, hope, love and joy in different measures. The timing of their arrival was always perfect. They were a brightly coloured bunch with fabulous footwear and peculiar names!
All these characters helped to bring a much-loved human to Earth.
It took four journeys around the sun for Natalie to beam down from the stars. The joy explosion was instant and infinite. She brought with her all kinds of possibilities and huge belief. Her mum and dad remain awestruck (and fairly sleep-deprived) since her arrival.
The next piece in the Starlike Books puzzle is John Tarrant, Charlotte’s dad.
John was writing children’s stories and drawing characters in a notebook just before his death in 2019. Charlotte always knew that her father wanted to write books but it was a wonderful surprise that he was inventing tales for kids. It was the boy in him, playing and having fun, testing his stories out on his beloved wife, Kathy, his grandkids and the neighbours’ children.
After John’s heart stopped on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea, Charlotte started writing a series of letters to her father. In them, the Starlike Books mission and identity became clear. She wrote the first three stories in the first coronavirus lockdown of 2020, after promising her dad she would focus! The letters to John continue to this day, as a source of connection, inspiration and healing.
Encouraged by the Life Remixed crew, Charlotte started her own publishing company.
Pictured are Mark and Emma Wilkinson of Life Remixed. Just look at them on their wedding day! This photo shows everything you need to know about them. Their excellent example of how to take massive action with the greatest enthusiasm, as well as the generous opportunities they give to practise visibility within their Life Remixed multiverse, have been key to building up confidence to launch Starlike Books.
With Mark and Emma’s constant belief, suddenly it felt adventurous and the right kind of risky to create, publish and market books without waiting for permission. Their Life Remixed community, filled with the most wonderful humans on their own daring mission, is a powerful source of courage, hope, love and joy.
After a worldwide search, our Ivy joined the crew.
After searching in the kitchen cupboards and under the staircase, then right across the UK, in Europe, over to Brazil, the U.S. and New Zealand, Charlotte found the one! Meet our exceptional illustrator, Ivy Trazsi.
Ivy is a versatile artist with an incredible understanding of texture and colour. Most importantly, Ivy understands the beating heart of human emotions including the starlike feelings of courage, hope, love and joy. She captures them with such light wonder on the page.
With Ivy on board, we have the full crew to bring you all our characters and stories. We’ve launched orders for the first book in the Starlike Books series, Glumbags. We think there will be something you will love in this book.
Further acknowledgments
Thank you to Josie Pearse for her excellent editorial input. She added sprinkles of magic to the first three stories in the Starlike Books series. Josie helped to cut unnecessary words, polished up the language and made brilliant character suggestions including to give Granny a voice in Glumbags.
Thank you to Chas, Laura, Daisy, Siobhan, Ellie, Sue, Ciara, Sabbir and Aiyesha for their unfaltering friendship, enthusiasm and belief, as well as their steady eyes on managing a new business. Friends like these make everything feel possible. They take the pressure off whilst always encouraging the next action.
Thank you to Jen Parker of Fuzzy Flamingo for book design skills and publishing advice. Jen is the perfect combination of publishing professional and best friend, always there with great ideas, doses of reassurance and her lovely smile.
Thank you to Gary Kitchen at Doveton Press for caring about the tiniest details of the highest quality print production, such an important part of producing beautiful books. Gary is also very funny and probably belongs on the stage (at the very least, he should be headlining Friday night comedy at the Dog and Duck).
Thank you to Mark Lemon of Lemon Drop Books for the inspiration and encouragement early on in the process of creating the first starlike book. Mark also introduced us to the brilliant folk at Doveton Press, for which we’re eternally grateful!
We believe in the power of great stories to grow creative imagination.
We celebrate the courage, hope, love and joy to be found in the best books for children. In starlike stories, we trust!
We love ice cream at the seaside.
Is it a mint choc chip or a salted caramel kind of day? That’s our kind of question.
We love tea breaks.
Take a break, you splendid soul. Make a large tea. Slurp without reserve. Apply biscuit to mouth. And repeat.
We love making it up as we go along.
After all, everyone else is!
Did we mention the tea?
We’ve got a big pot and we’re not afraid to use it!
