Bolton's David Bulmer releases Christmas children's picture book, Ed the Elf

And that was very much the case for new author David Bulmer, who was inspired by his daughter, seven-year-old Emilia, to take up writing children’s books.

David, from Heaton, said: “I wrote Ed the Elf for my daughter Emilia during lockdown.

(David Bulmer)

“Writing children’s books is something I never really wanted to do, I fell on it by chance as my main inspiration came from my daughter, who gave me the ideas for Santa and Ed.

“About a year and a half ago all the books I read to Emilia had to rhyme and she likes stories that are made up at bed time so the idea started from there.

“I started by writing some initial ideas and stories which Emilia and others loved and then from there I decided to publish it for other children to enjoy.”

He already already has book two written as well as ideas prepared for his third book.

ILLUSTRATIONS: Santa and Ed the Elf

Hotelier David said: “I then found local illustrator, Evee Lees, who illustrated the first book and is due to start the second book illustrations in coming weeks.”

Ed the Elf is one of Santa’s helpers on Christmas Eve helping to deliver presents, but when he gets left behind at a child’s house, Ed must find a way to get Santa to return.

The picture book is heavily inspired by Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo, and is targeted at children aged between two and seven.

The book is available online at Amazon and Waterstones for £6.99 but David is hoping he can branch out to in-store bookshops in the near future.

Following on from his first book, David has also written book number two in the Christmas Elf series called Search for Rudolph, which will be released just before Christmas 2022.

For children to interact with the books, David has also released a number of downloadable activities including word searches, crosswords, matching games and colouring pages on his website at www.edtheelf.com