Bathtime Chaos and Bedtime Giggles: Lesley Anderson on Bath Time at the Zoo

What happens when you mix one bubble bath, a zoo full of animals, and a very patient zookeeper named Neville? In Lesley Anderson’s joyful new picture book Bath Time at the Zoo, readers are treated to a rhyming romp through bathtime mayhem, featuring squeaky toys, muddy snouts, and a whole lot of animal antics.

From the stripe-conscious Zebra to the shampoo-shedding Ape, every animal wants their turn in the tub, but not everyone agrees on what makes a perfect bath! With playful rhyme, vibrant rhythm, and a warm bedtime wind-down, this story makes a splash while celebrating routine, silliness, and friendship.

We caught up with Lesley to find out what inspired this bubbly bedtime book, how she created such lively characters, and whether she'd dare share a bath with a baboon…

 What first inspired the idea for Bath Time at the Zoo? Did the animals arrive first, or the bubbles?

So if I tell you I chose to have a day at Edinburgh Zoo for my 50th, you will get my drift. Animals first! Always! Edinburgh Zoo is such a special place – we had the pandas there! Such brilliant conservation there. I love Edinburgh Zoo!

Then, and this is funny – when my kids were wee, their dad used to create Bubble Island in the bath. Our kids screamed with delight and roared with laughter when bath time was Bubble Island. Sometimes the bubbles were above the height of them standing up! So animals first, bubbles second – but bubbles are absolutely essential.

The rhymes are so fun and full of personality - how did you go about creating each animal’s voice and bath-related complaints?

It just came naturally! They just spoke to me in dreams – that’s weird, isn’t it! But they did. I woke up with visions of Baboon panicking and the Monkeys jesting about it all!

I also remember all my visits to Edinburgh Zoo when I was young and then with my own children and all the nature programmes I watched. I loved Steve Irwin. He was incredible, so inspiring. So honest in his passion. Other than my dad, who made sure we went to the zoo and to the museum too, Steve Irwin was so inspiring.

Neville the zookeeper keeps his cool through all the chaos! Was he based on anyone in particular?

My father-in-law, Rob. Such a lovely Papa to our kids. So loving and honest, and he never lost his cool, ever. Yeah, Neville is Rob! Rob would’ve definitely taken care of all the chaos and then quietly and calmly tucked them in goodnight. As he did to my kids very often.

Do you have a favourite animal in the story (or one you most relate to at bathtime)?

Haha That’s funny! Would I relate to an animal at bathtime? – Sloth. I love Sloth. Just take it easy, at all times! I will wait until I can own at least one uninterrupted hour in the bath!

What do you hope children (and parents!) take away from the book after story time?

For parents – that I've been there and that it's okay to be exhausted and still have fun, it's okay to be silly and tired, all at the same time. But please be silly lots and lots of times. Being silly is not just for bath time.

For children – just have lovely baths and lots of fun before it’s time for a story and getting cuddled to sleep.

As a mum and a granny, I know all about the tired chaos of bathtime. However, I do believe that maybe the right routine, with some laughs and lots of patience and love towards others, may help to release the tensions of everyone’s day, and that thoughtful words will allow children to fall asleep knowing that no matter how much chaos has been in their day, they are loved, they are valued, and they are listened to, and it’s perfectly safe to fall asleep.

Did you always want to write picture books, or was it something you discovered more recently?

So years ago, when I was younger than I am now, I started off toying about writing for children, with a character called Willy Nilly, He’s a Bit Silly. I wrote a wee comic strip for my local newspaper. That was fun. Around the same time, I wrote 2 summer tours for The Borders Youth Theatre. The first tour was for one of my stories – King and Pan Handle and His Soup River Diaries. Stuart Aitken, the director of the Youth Theatre, heard me reading that story aloud at a competition event, where we had to read our scripts in 15 mins! Stuart was enthralled and asked me to turn my children’s story into a script for a 75-minute show to tour around the Scottish Borders libraries during the summer holidays. I was so nervous. I’d never written a script. But it worked. It was a great summer. I ended up signing up for the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh’s Monday Lizard. This was where new writers were given the script idea on the Thursday and had to write it over the weekend, a script of 6 minutes, and then on the Sunday they told you if you were accepted – by a landline phone call, no less! If chosen, your play was performed then by professional actors on the Monday night. I was really fortunate to have many of my scripts accepted and performed.

The following year, Borders Youth Theatre contacted me to ask if I would take the children’s book Millie Morgan Pirate by Margaret Ryan and put it to script. It was such a great experience, and Margaret Ryan even came to see the Borders Youth Theatre perform my adaptation of her book.

So I suppose I have always had the vision. I’ve got a few more in my mind.

What was the writing process like for you? Did you plan the story out first, or did it grow verse by verse?

You might laugh, but when I write, I have no proper strategy! It often happens quite by chance – I'm on a walk (I talk to myself a lot on a walk!) or I’m painting or crocheting, or I might be in company – someone might say something that sends me to my notebook. My mind is always collecting notes and snippets of information, and I have notebooks everywhere! Then all of a sudden a collection of notes becomes a thread and then a story. I wish I was more disciplined in my approach, but this method seems to work for me.

If you could share a bath (bubble-filled or otherwise) with any animal from the story, who would you choose, and who would you avoid?

Haha, definitely avoid Baboon. I love getting my hair washed properly at the hairdressers, so I’d share with Lion! If he’d let me!

When you’re not writing, what brings you joy or helps you unwind?

How long have you got? Seriously though, as I’ve got older, I’ve realised that I can actually feel what joy is. It's not material things; it’s not likes on socials. It’s walking in the early winter evening, when it's 7pm and the sky is dark and the stars are bright and the air is frost-fresh (I used to be part of a writers' group, and we had a person join us from Asia. She said she liked a frost, as it cleaned her brain!).

Joy for me is peace of mind. Is meditation. Joy is finding fun in everything. Life is hard, and we only have one chance. So let's have fun and laugh at nonsense.

I write (oops, you knew that), I crochet, I’m an advanced Reiki practitioner, and I love to paint with watercolours.

I love music – but heavy stuff! My childhood heroes were Led Zeppelin and Rush. Even now when I walk my dog, I’ll put my earbuds in and listen to a whole album of Rush as I wander around woods and watersides. I think everyone should listen to Rush, to be honest! When I do, time collapses, and I’m transported back to when I was 15 years old – every dog walk! More folk should tune into that and be happy. I do also like a 70’s easy listening playlist of an evening!

Where can readers connect with you or keep up with your story?

Before this, I hadn’t thought of that. I will plan to set up an author page for myself on Facebook. Meantime, it would be here on Magic Moon Publishing’s website.