Father and daughter duo John and Fatti Burke on how they create their 'Little Library' of books
Illustrator Fatti Burke with her father, author John. Picture: Moya Nolan
John and Fatti Burke have a lively dynamic. Chatting to the two of them via Zoom in Fatti’s Drumcondra home is a delight: the father and daughter speak glowingly of each other’s work, gently rib one another, and occasionally finish each other’s thoughts. It’s a dynamic that translates to Little Library, their hugely successful series of illustrated biographies for kids, the latest edition of which is Michael Collins: The People’s Peacemaker, out now with Gill Books.
Fatti illustrates, John writes: it’s a simple formula for collaboration which has served them well since Irelandopedia, a compendium of facts about Ireland.
They followed this up with Historopedia and Foclóiropedia, quickly growing a young fanbase that loved Fatti’s witty, colourful illustrations alongside John’s gems of historical fact.
Leafing through Michael Collins: The People’s Peacemaker is as fun and thought-provoking for adults as it is for kids, with familiar historical scenes rendered through a new lens. The Bloody Sunday image, rich in symbolism, is a particular highlight, as is the double-page spread depicting Collins springing de Valera from jail with a key cleverly hidden in a fruit cake.
John and Fatti — also known as Kathi — have had a shared love of history since Fatti’s upbringing in Dunmore East, Co Waterford, where her primary school principal was none other than her father.
“I felt like I was a bit of a behind the scenes player in the school,” she says. “Me and my sister would often stay back after school and play on the computers and look through all the books while Dad was doing admin things, which was cool. I mean, I also got the mick taken out of me for being a swot — part of the charm of being the principal’s daughter.”
“You all called me ‘sir’ in school,” John adds. “As soon as we got into the car, I was Dad, but once we got inside the gate, I was Sir.”
John brought his lifelong interest in history into the classroom, even keeping a small museum of local finds, items and relics.
“I would not say I was a great history teacher, but I loved what I was doing. At the time it’s hard to tell if the pupils are getting it, but afterwards, when you’re talking to them as adults, you realise that they actually did enjoy it. And some of them have gone on to trace their family tree and things like that. You don’t always know how much it’s getting through, but it always does. It seeps in naturally.”
“You’re being modest,” says Fatti, “because I think when someone talks about something they’re really passionate about, it comes across. When Dad focuses in on local history or the personal stories of historical figures, he becomes a real storyteller. And he taught through music a lot, like teaching us ‘The Croppy Boy’ and singing songs about local history. For children, that’s a really fun way to learn.”
“I would’ve had the chalk in one hand and the guitar in the other,” John laughs.
They began collaborating when Fatti was approached to do Irelandopedia in 2015. Daunted by the volume of research required on top of creating the illustrations, she suggested drafting her father in to help dig up interesting facts.
“It required a really broad knowledge of Ireland, but also a niche factor, with tales that only somebody in Dad’s position would really know,” explains Fatti.
“I use the word serendipity because everything just worked out,” John adds. “I had been retired for a couple of years at that stage. I had the knowledge and more than that, I had the time.”
So far, the Little Library series includes Granuaile, Brian Boru, Constance Markievicz, Tom Crean and Mary Robinson, and the Burkes are pleased that there’s no shortage of notable Irish figures to keep the series going. Fatti would love to do an Oscar Wilde edition; John would like to take on Michael Davitt.
However, when adapting complex historical stories for kids, there are sometimes tough decisions to make in terms of what ends up on the cutting room floor. “The books have to be around 600 words,” says John. “You are tailoring it for a younger readership, and it requires a lot of discipline. I’ll sit down with Michael Collins and type out everything I want to put in and I’ll have maybe four or five thousand words. Then I have to redraft and redraft, every time cutting it back. So you have to leave out a lot of stuff that you would love to put in, and keep it to historical fact – you don’t want to get muddied with any bias or opinion.”
The book includes a beautiful take on John Lavery’s famous painting of Collins lying in state — only in Fatti’s rendering, he is surrounded by flowers.
“We often talk about him as a modern Irish martyr. So I wanted to show him in that position, but surrounded by a meadow to show the growth that came out of his death ultimately,” Fatti explains.
“I like to riff on photos and paintings associated with a person and then bring my own style to it, in a way that’s easy for children to copy. The real aim is for kids to make visual connections between the illustrations and the facts and retain information longer in an educational sense. Hopefully, the child who discovers these figures through the Little Library books will then go on to further reading.”
I ask Kathi what advice she would give to young artists about developing their own style. Try everything, she says – a lesson she learned while studying at NCAD. “You’re not really going to put your pen to paper and have something magical come out straightaway. You need to try lots of different things: realism, charcoal art, watercolours, sculpture. That was the whole first year of college for me, just trying things and making mistakes.
“Finding your own style just happens over time. After I graduated was when I started to trust myself more to go simple, pare things back, leave things off the page.” She smiles.
“It comes back to editing again.”
