‘Every time I meet someone who can talk at length about something that they are planning to write, I immediately understand that this will never happen. You can’t express something over and over again because then you wear it out.’

Of all the books I read to my kids when they were growing up, there was one that I loved as much as they did: ‘The Murderer’s Ape’. It’s an enthralling globe-trotting tale of murder and mystery. And at the heart of the story is a ship’s engineer who just happens to be a gorilla, the one and only Sally Jones.

In this episode of The Wind Thieved Hat, recorded down the line, Sally Jones’ creator, the illustrator and writer Jakob Wegelius, bravely submits himself to questions in a language that is not his own. His responses are gentle, humble and wise. We talk in depth about his process, about how writing is the broccoli he likes to get out of the way before he indulges in the ice cream of drawing. And he tells me about his dream to hitch hike round the world on boats.

If you’ve not yet read the Sally Jones books, you might want to after listening to this, no matter how old you are.