Hello!
My name is Ben. My wife, Beth, and I are pursuing the dream of building an independent publishing business, Monkey & Whale, from our home in Derbyshire, UK.
We're both committed Christians, seeking to publish works of beauty, wonder, and fun wherever they are to be found.
Our Mission
To enrich the lives of as many people as possible through the publication of the finest storytelling.
Our Values
Excellence
We strive to do our personal best every time.
Truthfulness
Storytelling which resonates with the real world.
Beauty
We aim to published work that fills the soul with wonder.
Fairness
Publication is always based on a work's merit.
We Believe Stories Matter
I remember feeling a strong sense of shame and failure as a boy of about 8. Others had mastered reading and were devouring books while I struggled to piece together a single phrase. At least I had the illustrations to look at. It was the inspiring artwork of E H Shepherd, Arthur Rackham, and Beatrix Potter that fired my imagination.
Stories matter because they're for everyone.
Then came the day I'll never forget when I absentmindedly opened up Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and realised I could make out enough of the words to have a guess at the rest and have a vague understanding of the story. I had been teaching myself to read without knowing it!
To this day, I struggle to read new words phonetically - my brain's not wired that way. But I can take a stab at the meaning of each series of unknown squiggles, based on the context. That's how I taught myself to read - one word at a time. Treasure Island, Ivanhoe, Great Expectations, Call Of The Wild, and many other classic works of fiction soon followed. These weren't school projects. They were the first books I ever read and it was magical!
Stories matter because they help us grow.
I branched out into crime-solving with Hercules Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. I went adventuring with The Swallows & Amazons, Howard Pyle's The Adventures Of Robin Hood, Alistair MacLean, Bilbo Baggins, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. I'll always be grateful for the absurd humour found in Three Men In A Boat, Winnie The Pooh, and Just William.
Stories matter because they are fun.
I've enjoyed many books since Kidnapped. Less than some of you but a fair few nonetheless. Growing up, a few had a profound impact. Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place, The Pilgrim's Progress, and Holiness Of God spring to mind. But so too does The Count Of Monte Cristo, which taught me pursuing darkness ends in despair ...and that reading 117 chapters on a laptop screen is not worth the resulting migraine! The Wind In The Willows gave me a love for woodlands, winter, and the countryside. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings and C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe left me with an ache for a world I have yet to see.
Stories matter because they change us.
In short, stories are a gift. A gift that is all the better for sharing.
We need more good stories in our world now more than ever. That's what The Wanderer's Post is all about.
Join us for the ride.
