Zoologist and children’s author Nicola Davies says she has loved animals all her life. Her books focus on exciting animals like elephants and lions but she also writes about the people who live alongside these magnificent creatures.

Davies, as part of the Brighton Festival 26 Letters, gave a talk about how her work is inspired. An audience of children and parents listened as she told how her hit book The Lion who Stole My Arm about a young African boy who is attacked by a lion was based on fact. She explained how she was driven to write the book after finding out about a real boy who lost an arm in a lion attack.

She went on to tell how villagers in African villages in Kenya are working with charities to learn how to keep themselves safe from lion attacks with such simple means as holding hands at night and carrying a torch.

Davies moved on to discuss her love of whales, which she studied for many years in her career as a zoologist. She then engaged the audience by teaching us how to recreate the sound of a hump-backed whale which was lots of fun.