Burniston girl inspiration for new fantasy art book 'Thorped' which aims to raise money for charity

Starting during the Covid lockdowns, Anne posted one of her pictures on Facebook with a write up of the inspiration behind it, or pointing out details and their meanings.

Deryck started adding humorous alternative stories about the pictures.

After a while, fans of Anne’s artwork were waiting for Deryck’s stories for their daily dose of light hearted humour.

Each year, Anne choses a charity to help raise money for.

This year's charity is The Childrens Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF), based at Leeds General Infirmary.

CHSF was founded in 1988, it supports the childrens’s cardiac services in LGI.

Since then they have awarded over £10 million in grants to the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit, its patients and their families, as well as funding important research proposals.

The funding has helped decorate the ward and supply toys to help the children feel more comfortable.

They give each child their own Katie bear after surgery. It has paid for training for the staff and even equipment.

To anyone who has a child with complex medical needs, these sorts of things are vital.

This is a charity which is very close to Deryck’s heart . Persephone was born with Down Syndrome and complex cardiac issues, which has required several open heart surgeries over the years at LGI, the first of which was when she was only 10 weeks old.

When deciding the best way to raise money for the charity, Deryck and Anne decided to put together a book with Annes pictures and explanations, with Deryck’s alternative stories underneath.

Hence the concept of ‘Thorped’ was born.

To make the book even more special, Anne decided to paint a new picture especially for the book - Persephone with a dragon, which she titled ‘Heart Warrior’.

The book was launched at this years Fantasy Forest Festival at Sudeley Castle in Winchcomb.

Thorped can be purchased from Anne’s Etsy site www.etsy.com/1530733734.thorped or if you know Deryck, he has a hoard of books being guarded by his faithful pet dragon Mavis.