was published in 1996 by Jonathan Cape.
It is still available for purchase. Buy yourself a copy and read the whole story
Albert and his parents were walking in the mountains when something terrible happened. Albert tripped and fell off a cliff.
Albert’s mother and father looked everywhere but they couldn’t find him. They were very sad because they loved their little Albert.
Albert was lucky. The children who live in the clouds had seen him falling and said some magic words.
“Fumble gralley goggle ho hee,”
or
“Teetum waggle bari se nee,”
Albert found himself becoming really light and the Cloud Children caught him.
“We’ll make you a bed in the clouds, Albert,” they said. “You must be really tired after your fall.”
“After breakfast we’re all going to climb up those tall clouds and play jumping games,” they told him
Albert really enjoyed jumping. He wasn’t afraid at all because he felt light as a feather. After the jumping games they played cloud ball – but the clouds were becoming darker and darker.
“There’s going to be a thunderstorm. Let’s make as much noise as we can,” said the children
By using photographic backgrounds in this story it could be construed that I had cheated by not drawing the clouds but, with hindsight it would have been much easier to draw them.
On various flights by aeroplane, I took photographs of that moment when the plane breaks through the clouds. This puzzled other passengers who looked though their windows wondering what it was I could see. I ended up short of a rainbow and was constantly on guard with a camera. When I was in Western Ireland a wonderful rainbow appeared which I was in a panic to photograph before it vanished.
“People have all sorts of ideas on what the story is about. Perhaps it’s about death and reconstruction. Who knows?”
Cloudland is still available for purchase. Buy yourself a copy and read the whole story
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