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There's a Pig Up My Nose was my first picture book, but it took a long time to get into print - I wrote the story 21 years before it finally saw publication!
It's illustrated by the brilliant Laura Hughes, and would be worth getting for the pictures alone - they're just fab. I wrote the story in the early 1990s when I was a teacher working in Hillbrook Primary School in south-west London, and it was inspired by the class I was teaching. It's about a girl called Natalie who... well, who gets a pig stuck up her nose. How did the pig get there? Will she get it out? You'll have to read the book to find out! |
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There's a Pig Up My Nose won Oscar's Book Prize 2018.
Laura and I were delighted and honoured by the award. You can see videos of us talking about the book here, and the Evening Standard article about our win here. In 2023, Oscar's Book Prize co-founder James Ashton was interviewed by The Bookseller to mark the 10th anniversary of the prize, and gave our book a special mention, saying: “We really want to understand and pick out the books that kids want, as opposed to the books that adults think they should want. The winner that epitomises that more than any other is John Dougherty and Laura Hughes’ There’s A Pig Up My Nose from 2018, which is just glorious.” |
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Other nice things people have said
Nicolette Jones chose There's a Pig Up My Nose as her book of the week in the Sunday Times, calling it, "Delightfully funny... likely to prompt giggly hours of playing".
Imogen Russell-Williams gave the book a lovely review in The Guardian, saying, "Everything about There’s a Pig Up My Nose! is entrancing... it's a joy to read aloud."
And children's book legend Julia Eccleshare said, "The surprise comes right at the start, and what a wonderfully dotty premise to begin a story with, about problem solving in the classroom. Brilliantly structured too."
Imogen Russell-Williams gave the book a lovely review in The Guardian, saying, "Everything about There’s a Pig Up My Nose! is entrancing... it's a joy to read aloud."
And children's book legend Julia Eccleshare said, "The surprise comes right at the start, and what a wonderfully dotty premise to begin a story with, about problem solving in the classroom. Brilliantly structured too."
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If you've visited the Songwriter page you'll have seen this already...
Sometimes I like to write songs about my stories, and when Laura & I were asked to do some festival events I thought we ought to have a Pig Up My Nose song. So I wrote one.
Then in 2020, when the country was locked down and we had to stay at home, I got a bit bored and decided to record the song on my computer. My children helped me to make a video to go with it, and Laura sent me some pictures and a clip to use in it. And here it is! |
John & Laura doing the Pig Up My Nose song!
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