"Daddy, please can I say one last thing?"

Mattie is going to bed - she definitely is... She has just one more thing to say before she goes to sleep.

However that one more thing turns out to be a fantastical adventure which guides Mattie and Daddy round the house in pursuit of the tricky, twisty Great Pampoose. But will Mattie ever get to bed?

Celebrating imaginative play amidst the battle of bedtime, these awardwinning first-time collaborators bring to life a rich world of adventure at home.

Natalia O’Hara (Author)
Natalia and Lauren are two sisters from the North of England. In the daytime they edit scripts and design sets, and at night they draw and write together. As children they loved fairytales, animal fables and the stories their Polish grandmother told on snowy nights. Hortense and the Shadow is their first picture book.

Lizzy Stewart (Illustrator)
Lizzy Stewart is an author based in London. She writes and illustrates books for both children and adults. In 2017 her picture book There’s a Tiger in the Garden won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and a World Illustration Award. Her debut full-length novel Alison was published in 2022. She teaches Illustration at Goldsmiths, University of London and has also taught courses at the Tate and on behalf of the National Gallery.