Hello to everyone at Readers Magnet Club and Author’s Lounge, I am thrilled to be able to tell you a little about myself and my first book.

My name is Claire Bates and I live in Buckinghamshire, England with my husband, children and 2 guinea pigs. I love reading, writing, running and baking, although I never seem to have quite as much time to do all of these things as I would l like!

I feel so lucky to have recently had my first children’s picture book called Baboon on the Moon published and I am finding it all so exciting!

I have always had a desire to write, and I love writing poetry and children’s books. I have dabbled in writing a few things, but I never got to the point of having a finished product that I felt was worth trying to publish until I actually had children myself.

I have always loved reading and the feel of a book in may hand. One of my favourite places to be is browsing in a book shop. I always feel a certain peace and comfort looking along the shelves and choosing my next book to read. 

When I had children, even from when they were tiny, it just seemed natural to me to read to them, show them books and hopefully to encourage a love of reading in them.

In addition to reading published books to my children, at bedtime each night, I would make up a story of my own, which started to really fire my imagination. One day my eldest said to me, “please will you write these stories down mummy, so that you can tell them again”, so that is exactly what I did. From there Baboon on the Moon came alive. I therefore have to thank my children for inspiring me to pursue a long held dream of writing and publishing books!

Baboon on the moon is a fun rhyming book all about a baboon called Edgar St Neeze, he is a little bit of a topsy turvy baboon, and he has built his house on the moon. To fill up his days, Edgar decides to embark on a quest to answer the age old question of whether or not the moon is made of cheese. Edgar is very determined in his mission and doesn’t give up easily, you can follow his fun adventures in the book and discover what his final conclusion is, as to what the moon may be made of.

I would say that Baboon on the Moon is aimed at children up to around the age of 6 years old, and can be used as both a book to be read to children, but also one that they can practice their reading skills with, in a fun way, because it rhymes. It has beautiful, bright, colourful illustrations, so will be attractive to children, even from an early age.

I hope that children will enjoy the fun nature of my book, and that it will help them understand rhyming. I would love it if it helped to encourage them to listen to and read more books because books open up such a fun imaginative world to people, both adults and children alike. My book is available to purchase online in many book stores worldwide, on Amazon at

And can be ordered in to your local bookshop also. 

I am on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cbatesauthor/ and Twitter  https://twitter.com/CBatesAuthor

I was so thrilled when I had a positive response from Austin Macauley publishers about my book and it was an interesting process bringing my words to life through the process of publishing and illustrations. 

I really hope that I will be able to publish more books, I am working on a couple of projects at the moment, so fingers crossed there will be more from me in the future. Hopefully I will be able to share it with you all on Authors’ Lounge too.