From illustrating wildlife books and teaching art at the now-closed Noranside Prison, to living in a tiny Bulgarian village, and painting in the mountains of Portugal, Jan Hannah has certainly lived a colourful life.
Now the 58-year-old artist, who lived in Kirriemuir for 15 years in the early noughties, has channelled all that colour into a vibrant new Scottish children’s book, The Tootle-Hooter and Bluebell’s Stolen Smile.
The story follows pretty kitten “Bonnie wee Bluebelle” after a nasty wildcat steals her smile – and the local woodland creatures band together to get it back by creating a contraption they call a ‘tootle-hooter’ (bagpipes, to the likes of you and me).
Filled with witty Scots dialect, beautiful hand-drawn illustrations and loads of heart, Jan hopes the story can get into the hands of kiddos and pass her lifelong love of our country’s wildlife to a new generation.
“In my book, there’s over 100 different species of wildlife, flora and fauna,” she explains. “And they’re all accurately drawn, which was quite important to me.
“So along with the story of the bagpipes, which is just bit of daftness, is all this wildlife.
“I think for children to learn about these things, it has to be fun as well, doesn’t it? And that really is the thing, for youngsters to get their hands on it.”
Love of nature born in a bothy
Born in Scotland, but raised in Australia until the age of 10, Jan’s love of the outdoors began not with a place, but with a person.
“When I came back to Scotland as a wee girl, my dad used to take me up to up to all the bothies,” she recalls.
“We’d spend quite a long time there looking for birds nests and naming trees and things. Me and my dad, we were quite a team.”
Those trips instilled a lifelong passion for nature, which saw artistic Jan working as an illustrator for wildlife textbooks as a young woman.
Then, while her sons were growing up and attending Webster’s High in Kirrie, Jan found work teaching art at the now-defunct Noranside prison for over a decade.
The Tootle-Hooter brings together her loves of teaching, drawing and wildlife – and of course, bagpipes!
‘Tootle-Hooter’ is the sound of home
Jan’s got a real soft spot for Scotland’s national instrument – her youngest son Scott is a World Champion piper, so ‘tootle-hooting’ is the soundtrack to his life.
Following in his mum’s footsteps, Scott, 31, teaches the pipes, and lives in Australia, where he’s part of the Western Australia Police Pipe Band.
Proud of Jan, and his Scottish heritage, he created a video of himself reading The Tootle-Hooter aloud and playing the pipes in the background, so kids all around the world can engage not only with Scottish wildlife, but with the nation’s rich music and dialect too.
“I think Scott’s got a much better Scottish accent than I do for reading it out, because I wasn’t brought up in Scotland,” laughs Jan.
“I think with him reading it in the video, it’s quite cute.”
‘Everyone thinks it’s dead easy to pop out a kids’ book’
Having worked as an artist all her life, and all over the world Jan’s no stranger to a new challenge – she even spent 11 years living in a remote Bulgarian village, which she found by appearing on ITV1’s I Want That House.
But foraying into the world of writing children’s literature, she found more challenges than one might expect.
“What I found was that with children’s books, there’s quite a structure to them,” she explains.
“All children’s stories have to have a bit of a scenario,” she explains. “Then a baddie comes in and a lot of horribleness happens, and then there’s a big make-up and everybody’s friends.
“Everyone thinks it’s dead easy to just pop out a children’s book but no, there’s a system, and if you don’t stick to that system – the right amount of pictures, the right amount of words, the right amount of ups and downs in the right places – then a publisher won’t look at you.”
It may have taken her two years of hard graft, crafting a whimsical story that hits all the right beats and hand-drawing the detailed illustrations, but Jan’s not in it for the money. For her, success is a smile on a child’s face.
“Nobody does this sort of thing for the money,” she says. “I’d really like it to be around in libraries and primary schools though, that would really satisfying for me.”
But for the moment, she’s gearing up for tourist season in the mountains of central Portugal, where she’s working on abstract paintings and living out the pandemic with her cats. The Tootle-Hooter Two will just have to wait.