Member of St Matthias Church in Malvern Link, Philippa Lowe, has written a children’s book, telling the Christmas story and featuring the church, local school and the church mice!
“The Angels of Malvern Link” tells the story of two children from the local Primary School who are performing the nativity in St Matthias Church. After they find the bus pass of a local lady, the children themselves become real-life angels!
“Our vicar made a throwaway comment last year that he’d always wanted to have a children’s book to use at Christmas and so I had a go at writing something!” Said Philippa. “The aim was to tell the Christmas story but reflect local people and local places and include our church at the heart of the book. It features some of our traditions, such as inviting the school in to hold their nativity play and the nativity characters that we display in our porch, as well as our three ‘Mouseman’ mice, which are carved into our church!”
Philippa worked with local illustrator Sophie Dainty to create the pictures for the book, having seen her work on the Hereford College’s website. “This is Sophie’s first commission since graduating and her style is absolutely perfect for what we wanted,” said Philippa. “She came to the church to see the key locations and meet some of the people to make sure that the drawings were representative. There are secret mice for people to find on each page and Sophie has even included herself as a tree in the nativity – a part she played when she was at school!”
The Church has printed the book themselves and is selling it through the local bookshop and through the church website (https://mlwc.church/). It costs just £6. Vicar, Phillip Johnson will also use the book when he visits the local primary schools, and all the children are being given craft packs to create angels from wooden spoons.
“We hope that it’s a story that people will really enjoy,” said Philippa. “It reminds people what Christmas is all about and also places the church at the centre of the community. Hopefully those that read it will want to come into St Matthias to discover the mice for themselves!
