The Adventures of Horatio Mowzl - Volume Three: ‘The Great Rising’ Review

The Adventures of Horatio Mowzl  - Volume Three: ‘The Great Rising’ 

By Paul Thornycroft

Book description: 

I love these children's books and would highly recommend them for your children.

"The Great Rising brings us to the dramatic climax of this, the third volume in the Mowzl Trilogy. Having learned ‘purling’ – how to dream into Mowzl-sized woollen pouches – the children purl in the Glade talking the wild talk with creatures of all kinds. Their purling then takes them on adventures worldwide, discovering Wild Nature for themselves. Their eyes and hearts are opened; the wild web is revealed as alive and aware – as something they are intimately part of; they see the terrible damage to Wild Nature and feel it as wounding to themselves. Shocked, they resolve to act urgently to transform the way grown-ups see Nature. Their enthusiasm spreads throughout their school, where they start projects which soon spread from their school to other schools across the country; these projects, and the art of purling, spread around the world – and the Great Rising begins"

An Appeal 

Two Thousand & Nineteen was a memorable year for Paul Thornycroft with the publication of all three of his Mowzl books, books for children and anyone interested in reading a dramatic children's story about climate breakdown and the ecological crisis.

These books are Mowzl's gift to children, for them to enjoy fabulous stories while glimpsing innovative and original insights about Nature, wildness, and what their future holds.

The books are self-published via Amazon-KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) under the imprint MowzlPrint Publishing, so Paul needs support from people to buy his wonderful books and rate them.

Volume One: Little Humans

Volume Two: First Purlings

Volume Three: The Great Rising

Mowzl Books

Mowzl's website: www.mowzl.co.uk

Amazon books: https://amzn.to/372vlIV

All three Mowzl books are now published for all to enjoy fabulous stories while glimpsing innovative and original insights about Nature, wildness, and what the future holds.

Read a dramatic children's story about climate breakdown and the ecological crisis, a story daring to look deep, asking the questions we all avoid asking.

Available as printed book or eBook (Kindle), from Amazon and other platforms, and may also be ordered from bookshops. The book titles are:

Volume One: Little Humans

Volume Two: First Purlings

Volume Three: The Great Rising


About the Author

Young environmentalist and birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig 

Copyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig

17-year-old young British Bangladeshi Dr Mya-Rose Craig AKA Birdgirl from the Chew Valley near Bristol is a prominent birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, race activist, writer, speaker and broadcaster, writing the Birdgirl Blog since January 2014 when she was 11 years old, which is extremely popular with both adults and children and now has over 4 million views. She has travelled all her life, visiting all seven continents when she was 13 years old, giving her a global perspective on conservation and the needs of indigenous peoples.  She writes posts about birding, nature, stopping climate breakdown, conservation and stopping species loss,  other environmental issues and racism from around the world. 

Expertise in birds and nature

She has been birding all her life with her parents and sister as well as birding abroad. She is passionate about birds, obtained her BTO Bird ringing licence at the youngest possible age of 16, takes part in the BTO Nest Record Scheme and became the youngest person to see half the worlds’ birds when she was 17 in Brazil in August 2019. 

Climate Activist

Mya-Rose has been highlighting the urgent need to tackle climate change since she was 8 years old, raising the issue with pupils, teachers in school and local people. She continued with her campaigning from January 2014, blogging about climate change and quickly building a huge following and reaching 1 million views. In 2015, she was recognised for her climate campaigning work by being made a Bristol 2015 European Green Capital Ambassador along with Miranda Krestovnikoff, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Kevin McCloud and Simon King and spoke at the Bristol Climate Change Rally Nov 2015 in front of 3,000 people. She continued writing, speaking and campaigning about the need for governments and big businesses to take urgent action to stop a climate catastrophe, particularly within the context of Bangladesh being at the top of the list of countries that will be most affected, the need for Global Climate Justice and a fair transition. In 2019, she camped and protested at Extinction Rebellion uprisings in London and Bristol, appeared in the video that launched the successful Stop Bristol Airport Expansion Campaign, set up XR Chew Valley, is a Bristol Youth Strike organiser, speaking three times at the Bristol Youth Strikes in March, May and July 2019 and sits on the Bristol Mayor’s One City Environmental Sustainability Board. In February 2020, she shared a stage with Greta Thunberg in Bristol, speaking in front of a crowd of 40,000 youth strikers. Mya-Rose also campaigns and gives talks arguing for global climate justice and a fair and just transition.

Conservation work

As well as educating people about the benefits of nature Mya-Rose has also campaigned to protect species from extinction and fight against environmental damage since she was 8 years old, then in January 2014  starting to blog about conservation issues such as palm oil, GMO, pesticides and other issues, for instance, campaigning for the immediate clean up of a devastating oil spill in the  Unesco World Heritage site, the Sundarbans mangroves in Bangladesh, writing in the American Birding Association Blog and raising $35,000 for the cleanup in 3 days. She has travelled all her life, visiting all seven continents when she was 13 years old, giving her a global perspective on conservation and the needs of indigenous peoples. 

Awards

In 2014 Mya-Rose was listed with singer-songwriter George Ezra and Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She was nominated in the Birdwatch Magazine Birder's Choice Awards 2015 in the Blogger of the Year category and she was the runner up after Mark Avery and was nominated in the Bristol Young Heroes Awards 2016. In 2017 she won the Royal Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award, she was the Minister of Diversity in Nature and Conservation in Chris Packham's A Peoples Manifesto for Wildlife. In 2019, she was listed in Bristol's BME Top 100 Powerlist, The Guardian’s 10 everyday heroes fighting to save the planet, was nominated in the Birdwatch Magazine Birder's Choice Awards 2019  Conservation Hero of the Year with Sir David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot. coming joint second after Greta Thunberg, was included in the Bristol Powerlist 2020, a list of the City’s 50 most powerful and influential people and The Guardian’s Top 15 World's Biodiversity Activists. 

Honorary Doctorate

In February 2020 Mya-Rose became the youngest person to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science D.Sc. h.c from Bristol University, one of the top universities in the UK and is receiving it for her five years of campaigning for diversity in the environmental sector. The sixth-former, yet to finish her A-Levels, is being recognised for her activism and the much-needed pioneering change through Black2Nature including nature camps and her Race Equality in Nature Conferences.

Connecting with children

Mya-Rose has huge experience engaging children and teenagers of all ages, ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds with nature and environmental issues, having engaged approximately 50,000 so far.  As President of her organisation Black2Nature she has led the fight for equal access to the natural environment for Visible Minority Ethnic people, organising nine nature camps, Camp Avalon, for VME children and teenagers and two high profile conferences, Race Equality in Nature and is organising more for 2020. She also wrote to five of the biggest NGO's in 2015, after her first camp, asking them what steps they were taking to make their organisations ethnically diverse and has continued putting pressure on nature, conservation, environmental, environmental education and wildlife film-making sectors to change. In 2020, she has two teenage camps being arranged in conjunction with the RSPB and hopes that these will expand over the next 3 years.

Race Activist

Her first conference was in 2016, which aimed to increase the ethnic diversity in nature by looking at the barriers to Visual Minority Ethnic (VME) people going out into nature, what can be done to overcome these barriers and how we can create VME role models. Speakers included Bill Oddie, Kerry McCarthy MP, Stephen Moss and Dr Richard Benwell. She also organised a second conference, Race Equality in Nature: The Next Generation 13-30 in October 2019 with Speakers Chris Packham, Bristol Deputy Mayor, Councillor Asher Craig, Green Party Councillor Cleo Lake, RSPB CEO Beccy Speight and Survival International CEO Stephen Corry.

She has also set up Black2Nature in 2016 with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of VME people and is President. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. 

Articles, interviews and books

She has written articles for and appeared in many newspapers including BBC News Online, The Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Observer, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Mail, The Metro, New Statesman, Big Issue, New Internationalist, Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine, Friends of the Earth Magazine and Triodos Bank Magazine. She has been published in The Willowherb Review, New Networks for Nature, Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and Red Sixty Seven. She is writing a children’s book and an autobiography about growing up with a passion for birds and her journey to seeing half the world’s birds.

Talks

She has given over 50 talks including her first hour and a half entertaining look at growing up birding, Born to Bird, in 2014, speaking at Tedx in 2016, being on a Panel with George Monbiot & Caroline Lucas MP in 2017, appearing at the Hay Festival 2018 Main Stage, speaking to 500 pupils at Millfield School, speaking at Chris Packham’s 2018 Peoples Walk for Wildlife in front of 10,000 people in Hyde Park and at English Nature’s 2019 Staff Conference to 1,500 conservationists.

Television and Radio

She has appeared on TV and Radio including BBC Springwatch, BBC Countryfile, BBC The One Show, Inside Out, BBC Radio Four Tweet of the Day, ITV West Film Feature plus a second and third, BBC Radio Four Saturday Live as well News such as Channel Four News, ITV News, Channel 5 News, The Today Programme appearing in BBC Four Twitchers: A Very British Obsession age 7 and featured in the 2017 BFI/BBC Four Silent Roars, presenting a German-French Arte/ARD documentary Missing - Where have all the birds gone? investigating the decline of grassland and farmland bird species, a 2020 short film by Josh Dury, short videos for EarthWatch Institute Wild Days Programme and BBC2 Front Row Late.

Ambassadorships

Mya-Rose also campaigns to stop biodiversity loss and species extinction and the rights of indigenous peoples. She is involved with Youth for our Planet UK, is a Voluntary Sector Leader Representative on Bristol City Council Strategic Boards, on the Catalyse Change Advisory Board and has attended many meetings at Downing Street and Parliament. She is a Patron for The Bristol Global Goals Centre, Global Ambassador for Burns Price Foundation, Earthwatch Europe, Survival International, World Shorebird Day and Leica Optics as well as being a Charter Champion for The Charter for Trees, Woods and People.

Mya-Rose above all has a passion and love of birds and wildlife driving her in everything. Her favourite birds are Harpy Eagle seen in Brazil and Southern Cassowary in Queensland, Australia. Other animal favourites are Orangutang in Borneo, Mountain Gorillas in Uganda, Emperor Penguin in Antarctica and Komodo Dragon in Indonesia.

Social Media

Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page, follow her on Birdgirl Twitter, Birdgirl Instagram and Birdgirl LinkedIn. If you would like to contact Mya-Rose about her work, please e-mail helenabcraig@hotmail.co.uk.

A must read for children & adults - The Adventures of Horatio Mowzl - First Purlings

A must-read for children and young adults –– The Adventures of Horatio Mowzl 

A trilogy of illustrated novels by Paul Thornycroft 

Volume Two: ‘First Purlings’ 

Copyright Paul Thornycroft

Children –– you ARE changing the World! 

Mya-Rose Craig’s second interview with the author: 

Mya-Rose: Before we talk about ‘First Purlings’, Paul, I want to recall ‘Little Humans’, the first book in the trilogy, with Mowzl’s stories of his home world and his mysterious arrival in the human world. He’s upset to discover how much humans are harming Nature, and he invents surprising ways to show people what is happening. Mowzl somehow helps us to feel more deeply, and he encourages us to find out more. How does the story develop in the second book, “First Purlings’? 

Paul: Mowzl finds new ways to entice young people, and grown up’s too, into seeing nature differently, looking sideways at the ordinary, as it were. It’s not always easy, and Mowzl calls it being ‘re-knitted’, an expression he uses after watching LuLu unravel some knitting only to re-knit it slightly differently. 

Copyright Paul Thornycroft

Mya-Rose: That sounds like a riddle, or mystery code! Is Mowzl a Wizard? 

Paul: He’s more shamanic; he loves simply being part of the wild web, and his generous heart empowers him to invite children to be immersed in deep Nature. 

Mya-Rose: It sounds like the ‘re-knitting’ changes the way we see things, is this what purling is about?

Paul: Yes. Mowzl is able to purl, which means he can fly through air, water or empty space in his pouch of magic wool. The humans who are drawn to him find that they can talk with animals and experience deep Nature, but only when they are 

with him. It’s so wonderful, they want to learn purling for themselves! Little do they know how hard it will be, for some anyway, to change their ‘settings’ enough to succeed. Mowzl insists on this resetting, or re-knitting. He knows that humans need to become more sensitive in order to see how Nature really is, and what part they play in Nature’s distress. He knows, too, that this is a rediscovering of long-lost wisdom. 

Copyright Paul Thornycroft

Mya-Rose: How do people learn to purl? 

Paul: A lot of that happens by being with Mowzl, listening to his stories and being in Nature. But there are also specific tasks to be done: wool, gathered from moorland hills, is washed, carded and spun on a spindle; then crocheted into Mowzl sized pouches. These gentle, repetitive tasks weave a beingness, or receptiveness wherein the children, and some of their parents, may dream into purling. It is a rite of passage, it happens only when they are ready, when they are fully re-knitted. And yes, when the children are purling, they are the size of a mouse! 

Mya-Rose: That sounds wonderful! I’d like to do that myself. I spend a lot of time in Nature and make a big effort to go to wonderful places. But I do see Nature being damaged or destroyed by development and industry. It’s upsetting. Won’t purling make people feel this distress even more and make them feel more vulnerable and powerless? 

Paul: Ah! Exactly so. Becoming attuned, purlers see deep Nature, and marvel at it and love exploring the world. But they will also see that life on Earth is wounded by human activity and continues to be depleted ever faster. It is hard to bear. They are upset and angry, feeling this wounding in their own being. Feeling as they do, they release a heartfelt cry: ‘What can we DO?’. 

Mya-Rose: You’ve left that question hanging . . . What’s the answer? What do we do? 

Paul: Even Mowzl has no compass, but his passion is infectious, and the children are inspired to attract ever more people to purling. The first thing to do is to become aware of the state of Nature, and for everybody to join in! This is what you are already doing in your own life, Mya-Rose. 

Copyright Paul Thornycroft

Mya-Rose: Does the answer to the question ‘What can we do?’ get answered in Volume Three? There’s got to be more to it than lots of people jumping up and down crying out ‘what can we do?’. 

Paul: Volume Three is called ‘The Great Rising’. As the children become more experienced in purling and discovering the state of Nature worldwide, it becomes clear that whatever it is they must do, it won’t be rooted in the beliefs and stories of the past, but in lifeforce arising now, in their young hearts; a force that has no weapons but love and belonging. 

The rising is already happening in the real world, as we speak. 

It is my hope that these books will help to encourage and sustain what has already begun. 

Mya-Rose: That’s a very positive vision; Mowzl is more ambitious than his size might suggest! Thank you, Paul. 

Paul: Yes, that’s his lion-sized heart! Thank you, Mya-Rose, for this interview and for all that you do bringing people to Nature. 

Copyright Paul Thornycroft

For more information about Mowzl, visit www.mowzl.co.uk. 


Review of ‘First Purlings’

Amazing! I slipped right into it and simply DEVOURED, I was hungry for more all the way through! The story is deep, full of feeling and it made me think and sympathise more as the book went on. The book felt so real to me that it was a shock to be pulled out of it to find that I was not purling with the others, chatting with the animals in the glade. 

Leela (A.K.) Age 10

Copyright Paul Thornycroft

About the Author

Young environmentalist and birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig 
Copyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 16-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes posts about birding, conservation and environmental issues  from around the world. 

She has been involved in the UK organisation of the Youth Strikes encouraging young people from around the world to not go to school once a month and protest instead demanding immediate action to prevent climate breakdown. This is an interview in New Statesman.

She was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. 

She organised four narure camps for children and teenagers since 2015 and is helping to run four more in 2019. She also organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans two more in 2019. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Visible Minority Ethnic people and is President. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. 

She has given over 50 talks, speaking at conferences such as being on a panel with George Monbiot and Caroline Lucas on Sustainability and the Future of Cities. She is a Minister in Chris Packham's Manifesto for Nature in 2018 and spoke in front of 10,000 people at the Walk for Nature. She has also appeared on TV and radio and is particularly proud of being in Silent Roars, a short film which was part of Listen to Britain 2017 https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online. 

She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. She was also listed as one of Bristol's BME top 100 powerlist.

She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. She became the youngest person to see 5000 birds in 2019 age 16 and is looking forward to visiting Brazil birding in 2019 and hopes to see half the birds in the world there. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter. If you would like to contact Mya-Rose about her work, please e-mail helenabcraig@hotmail.co.uk.