Autumn Chaos and Conker Mayhem: A Q&A with Amy Wilson on Julia Peculiar and the Conker Catastrophe

Amy Wilson returns with a delightfully chaotic new adventure in Julia Peculiar and the Conker Catastrophe, the third instalment in her much-loved Julia Peculiar series. This time, what begins as a peaceful autumn day quickly spirals into complete mayhem as a tree full of conkers takes on a life of its own - leading to brawls, races, and a garden thrown into glorious disarray.

With its rich, rhythmic language and wonderfully imaginative scenes, the story captures the magic of the season while celebrating humour, resilience, and the joy of embracing the unexpected.

We caught up with Amy to find out more about this latest escapade, what it’s like returning to Julia’s peculiar world, and how she brings such lively chaos to life on the page.

This is your third Julia Peculiar book - what was it like returning to Julia and her wonderfully unpredictable world for another adventure?

It's always a joy to slip into the wild and wonderful world of Julia. I think I've mentioned a few times that she is living my dream life. A Teapot Cottage with an enchanted garden – can you imagine a more exciting place to return to?

The Conker Catastrophe is full of autumnal energy and mischief. What inspired the idea of conkers causing such complete chaos?

I actually have a photo of the moment I was inspired by conkers! There is a very large conker tree just around the corner from our house, but it's on a very popular walking route, so we usually only get a small handful if we're lucky. The autumn before I wrote Conker Catastrophe, however, I came across an ocean of conkers that must have fallen in the night, with no other conker pickers in sight.

I immediately called my husband, who drove our children straight round with a bucket each. They were so excited; it felt like coming across a haul of treasure! They went home with a bucket each and thousands still under the tree for other children to find. This might be one of my happiest memories!

The language in this story is incredibly playful and rhythmic, with phrases like “bucketfulls, boatloads and bouquets” bringing the scenes to life. How do you approach writing in such a musical and expressive way?

The more flourishing, dramatic and bubbly – the better! I read my stories aloud for educational settings, so I like to have some really expressive language to use when bringing the stories to life for children. I also use lots of advanced language in my stories, and there is a reason for this: it helps build a large and varied vocabulary at a young age, and I think children should know as many beautiful words as possible. 

Julia remains calm and capable even when everything around her is in total disarray. What do you enjoy most about writing her character?

I like that she always has a go at managing the problems herself before the gnomes step in. She gives it a good go, and I love her gusto: "Well, I do believe these conkers have gone absolutely bonkers!"

The story builds from a small suspicion into full-blown pandemonium. How do you approach pacing in a story that escalates so dramatically?

I think Julia helps with this. Once she gets involved, the naughty nature ramps it up a notch. On the technical side, I follow the same structure with each story: Julia potters around, then something happens to rouse her suspicions, then nature performs three different levels of ascending chaos, followed by Julia accepting her fate and stepping aside to let the gnomes take over. It works well!

The imagery is wonderfully vivid - from battling conkers to pumpkin “bumper cars.” Where do you draw inspiration for such imaginative and humorous scenes?

Well, the bumper cars actually took a few days. I had no idea what else they could possibly do to cause chaos, so I sat with the imagery for a few days and decided I wanted to involve pumpkins, what with it being autumnal. I then had to figure out what on earth a conker could do with a pumpkin. There was a time in which they launched them at Teapot Cottage and made a huge mess, but then I had the idea of bumper cars, and I liked that much more.

The garden gnomes return to help restore order. How important is it to have those familiar elements across the series for young readers?

The structure of Julia's adventures is important for word count, pacing and consistency. I wanted this to read like a uniformed trilogy, all the stories the same, just with different events. However, the garden gnomes themselves are so very important to the universal message. I want children to leave Julia's adventures with the sense that no matter how bad things get in Julia's garden, she always has help to pull things back to normality. She is never alone and never in too deep, even when it feels like this time she might be. 

When you’re not writing, what inspires your creativity or helps you come up with new ideas for Julia’s world?

Nature, always. The naughtier the better. Flowers growing between paving cracks. Ivy climbing across walls. Trees reaching beyond their boundaries. Big fluffy dandelions popping up anywhere and everywhere (free wishes, anyone?!) 

Where can readers keep up to date with you and your Julia Peculiar series?

On my website, www.amywilsonreads.co.uk