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Writer and artist publish children's book 40 years on

Mixed Veg takes its hero, Tom on a tour of the vegetables of a walled garden.
Mixed Veg takes its hero, Tom on a tour of the vegetables of a walled garden. Mixed Veg takes its hero, Tom on a tour of the vegetables of a walled garden.

A children’s book written and illustrated by two friends in the late 1970s is set to be published - 40 years after it was first written.

“Mixed Veg” by Antrim actress, Sybil Allen and Co Derry artist and illustrator, Anne Montgomery was rejected by a number of publishers when it was first written by Allen.

However, the book, which has been nominated for a number of awards, is about to be published and is due to hit the bookshelves this week.

A chance comment by Montgomery to her actor and writer friend, Allen that she loved “drawing peas” led to the book’s incarnation. Based on the traditional childhood dislike of vegetables, “Mixed Veg” gives lives to the most common vegetables found in the walled garden of Montgomery’s Eglinton home.

Mixed Veg features Murphy the Potato, Boris Beetroot and peas-in-a-pod twins, Amelia and Celia and many others.

Many years after first writing and illustrating the book, the concept was taken up again by artist, Montgomery who has now retired from her position as a senior lecturer at the Belfast School of art.

The case was also taken up by friend, Mo Durkan, a sister of former SDLP leader Mark Durkan.

She showed the 40 year-old manuscript to Pearse Moore of Derry’s Nerve Centre who in turn contacted a friend at Whittrick Press in Limavady. The resulting publication combines perfectly the art work of Montgomery and the words of Allen.

The book has also been nominated for a number of awards, even before going on sale. It has been shortlisted in two categories in the annual Irish Printer Awards due to be announced on November 30. “Mixed Veg” is available at www.whittrickpress.com.”