Author-illustrator Mini Grey on birth, books, and her infatuation with food

Your name comes from being born in the front seat of a Mini Cooper in South Wales. Did you name your son, Herbie, after the Volkswagen bug in the Disney film?

I don’t know whether the film had any influence. But at one point, when I was about to have Herbie, our car was a Rover, and I thought, if he’s born in the car, we’re going to have to call him Rover.

Three by the Sea, your latest picture book, is about friends who live together happily—or so they think.

Three by the Sea is a departure, really, because my previous books have mostly been about inanimate objects coming to life. Three by the Sea is about real animals. I drew this black cat with an eye patch and the little fat white dog and a little mouse. Mice and dogs and cats are sworn enemies in the natural scheme of things, but this is a household where they are a little unit. I put them in a beach hut, and then I had this stranger come to invade their little lifestyle.

Right. A mysterious fox, clutching a battered suitcase labeled “Winds of Change,” invites himself in and immediately starts to sow discord. What does he represent?

He’s a mirror that makes you look at your life. The story is a bit about discontentment. It’s about someone making you look at things from a slightly different point of view. You suddenly wake up and look at your surroundings, and suddenly they don’t seem to be quite so good anymore.

The mutual affection among the three ultimately saves them from making a fatal mistake. Does the story have a message?

It’s very ambiguous. It might say that you’re not so far away from happiness as you think. It was there all along, but you just have to be able to see it. And maybe if you nearly drown, you get a better perspective on looking at your life.

I love that your artwork is always engaging and never cutesy.

I don’t like sentimentalizing the world. It looks so much more interesting if it’s a bit scruffy, a bit slightly angular, slightly uncomfortable. Sometimes visually, that’s more exciting. And often slightly dangerous-looking is good as well.

Speaking of dangerous, your illustrations typically include items that most parents would never have near their kids.

Yeah, I always try to include a knife. [Laughter]

What’s that about?

Firstly, it’s exciting to be scared. Part of the reason you read books is because you want to have an exciting moment. But also it’s like a rehearsal for the worst that could happen. This life-and-death thing is a really important part of being human, and little children wonder about it.

You’ve also managed to sneak food into all of your books.

Yeah. I absolutely love food. There’s something about food that’s so excitingly visual. It’s got textures and colors that are beautiful to draw. I just love drawing food. I’m a terrible drawer of people. I find people the hardest possible thing to draw, because somehow they’re going to be a particular person. So I’ve got to get them exactly right. But give me a sausage to draw, and I can make a sausage into any person you want.