Pandemonium reigns in story by a Cork author

Pups, Pancakes And Pandemonium, by Emma Davis and Spark Deeley (Fairy Fort Publications €12.50)

PICTURE the scene: Róisín and her younger sister Síofra are stuck inside on a rainy day, and Róisín is perfecting the mural she has been painting on the wall.

“Struck with a creative vision, she painted with fine precision… a landscape on a minute scale, with vibrant colour and detail. Róisín was thrilled and smiled with glee; she wished that the whole world could see.”

Enter her little sister, with an alternative approach to art.

“Síofa made her own impression, by choosing more free expression. She, who was young and very small, squirted paint on the whole wall. Róisín sobbed in deep despair; her sister wasn’t playing fair. Trickles, splodges and a streak, now she began to really freak. But Síofra did not understand; she thought it looked refined and grand. A splash in perfect position, a new abstract composition. She looked on in adoration at this great collaboration.”

Róisín gets her own back by turning Síofra into her artistic canvas, painting her hair, face, and clothes and standing back to admire her work.

A full-blown paintbrush fight ensues, and just as “operation paint pour” is about to be launched, Mammy enters the battle scene to impose a ceasefire - and a trip to the bathtub.

The peace process breaks down shortly afterwards, however, and with a messy pancake-making experience and a tussle over a treasured toy, involving the exuberant participation of the family’s two dogs, chaos reigns until the evening, when the whole family is fed and cuddled up together beside a blazing wood fire.

If these daily dramas of Irish family life ring true, with siblings switching from the worst of enemies to the best of friends within the space of minutes, that’s because Pups, Pancakes and Pandemonium is based on real-life events, as retold by Emma Davis, mother of Róisín and Síofra.

Emma appears as herself in the picture book, illustrated by Birmingham-born, Cork-based artist Spark Deeley, who worked from photographs to accurately portray Emma’s family and dogs as the story’s characters.

Despite her role as the harassed parent in the midst of the creative chaos, Emma says the writing and illustration process was “really good fun”.

“I was able to laugh at myself,” she says. “Sometimes I would overreact in a situation and come back later and think ‘what was the big deal? It was alright really’, and in the bigger picture whatever mess was made doesn’t really matter in a few weeks’ time.”

Her daughters, as they appear in the story, are “totally bored on a wet day”.

“They’ve tried this thing and that thing and nothing’s working and they get into squabbles and in the middle of it all, Mom is a basket case,” she says.

“It’s a day in the life. It is really us and the things that happen are what would happen - the mishaps and disagreements would all be, it’s safe to say, based on true facts and I don’t think it’s any different from any other house.”

At the end of the day of mayhem though, “it’s light-hearted and it all ends well, all on good terms”.

Written in verse, this is Emma’s second book featuring her own family, following on from Three Mucky Pups in 2019, also illustrated by Spark Deeley, who on each occasion “did an amazing job”, says Emma.

“She put in lovely little touches and included the dogs, even where they weren’t written into the story,” she says. “I had a really nice set of ware on the table [in the illustrations] and she was very consistent - even the calendar on the wall is in the same place - so there is real attention to detail and she put a lot of thought and care into it, and a lot of colour.”

Dublin-born Emma, who lived in Carrigaline and Garryvoe before moving 17 years ago with her husband Mark to Ráth, near the Cork village of Baile Mhic Íre, set her picture books “up in the mountains far away”, though in a distinctly Irish location.

“The first book I put together when Róisín was three was about our two puppies and herself,” says Emma.

“We were always going on mountain walks where we live - there’s lots of raw landscape, and Róisín had a lot of energy to expend. Siofra came along a few years later so I decided to write the second book,” says Emma, who while juggling her commitments as a full-time mother, writing poetry, and running the Facebook page ‘Shop Irish Writers’ in support of the writing community, is already planning a third book featuring the further adventures of her children and mucky pups.

• Pups, Pancakes And Pandemonium (Fairy Fort Publications €12.50) is available online at fairyfortpublications.bigcartel.com or from Nature’s Corner in Macroom, An Gadaí Dubh in Baile Mhic Íre, Carrigaline Bookshop, and Vibes and Scribes in Cork. Book launches in association with Cork-based charities are planned in the coming weeks. Details: See Fairy Fort Publications on Facebook.