CS Lewis once said that a children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children isn’t a good children’s story.

I don’t think he meant that children were undiscerning and couldn’t tell a good story from a bad one. I think what he meant was that the best, and indeed the most popular children’s stories, appeal to an inner child in adults as well as to children themselves.

The enduring popularity of the very greatest children’s stories stands testament to this truth. Everything from Swallows and Amazons to Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter and indeed Lewis’s own Narnia books reach out to the adult reader, inviting them to experience again the magic of childhood with all its wonder, fear and heroic dreams, as well as its inevitable, bittersweet transition into adolescence – often fearlessly touching on all manner of difficult themes along the way.

Adults often enjoy children’s stories on a completely different level to children. Mary Poppins is a case in point, both book and film. In fact, speaking of film, the Toy Story movies – particularly Toy Story 3 – provide yet another example of this principle.

When I have written children’s stories I have always tried to bear CS Lewis’s comment in mind. So far I have yet to encounter a single adult reader who has dismissed my novels as “kid’s books”. Quite the opposite in fact, with many reviewers insisting Uncle Flynn, Dr Gribbles and the Beast of Blackthorn Lodge, George goes to Mars and George goes to Titan contain many adult themes (no, not that kind).

These reviewers are quite right. My novels mentioned above touch on overcoming fear, the dangers of mollycoddling, playing God, the insanity of the Cold War, greed, religious fundamentalism, sexual equality, bullying, post-traumatic stress, grief, death and the responsibilities of leadership, amongst other things.

In other words, they are what I hope CS Lewis would call good children’s stories.

My upcoming novel George goes to Neptune – the third and final instalment in the George Hughes series – is no exception. The story, particularly in the final chapters, goes to some quite dark places.

George goes to Neptune is released on the 25th of October. You can pre-order the Kindle download from Amazon by clicking here. Print copies will be available from the 31st of October.

Here is the cover for my upcoming novel – the third and final instalment in the George Hughes trilogy, George goes to Neptune.

My incredible designer Charles Bown presented a number of options, but in the end we settled on something in keeping with the previous cover designs, emphasising a colour scheme that complemented them but also could be distinguished in its own right. Ultimately the covers for the George Hughes series are what might be termed “adult covers” for children’s books (akin to the Harry Potter adult covers). One day, I would love to give these books “children’s” covers, perhaps akin to the original Harry Potter artwork. But for now adults are my primary readers, and obviously the George Hughes series can be enjoyed by all ages.

For a fuller interview with Charles Bown from last year, click here.

You can follow Charles on Twitter here.

In addition to the cover, here is the blurb from the back:

In this spectacular sequel to George goes to Mars and George goes to Titan, George Hughes faces his most dangerous adventure yet.

Following the Titanian invasion, a deadly and very personal threat forces George to undertake a voyage to a top secret Martian research base on Neptune.

On this remote outpost, he uncovers a diabolical plot. But George is too late to prevent the catastrophe.

A catastrophe that will change his life forever…

George goes to Neptune is released on the 25th of October on Kindle. It is currently available to pre-order at Amazon here.

Print copies will be available from the 31st of October.

Action scenes in novels or films are a notoriously tricky thing to pull off. In fact, I find they are actually the hardest thing to write in either a screenplay or prose.

There are several pitfalls to avoid. Too little action in a story that demands it will feel flabby, often with a second act that seems to drag. Too much and it feels overblown, and character empathy is lost. Writing prose compounds this issue, as simply reading description – of a battle for instance – doesn’t work the way it might in a screenplay which will ultimately be filmed.

How then to approach action scenes in prose? I try to always emphasise the senses – smell, taste, touch, the noise, etc. Also describing the emotions experienced by the character helps a great deal, as do various other methods. Take the afore-mentioned battle scene problem. In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien dealt with this by building suspense. For example, the Minis Tirith siege is experienced by characters within the walls, slowing observing the advancing menace from Mordor. It is handled very differently in the film version, but the novel mostly stays with Pippin and his point of view.

It can also be a good idea to keep battle scenes in books brief. The Battle of Five Armies in The Hobbit is essentially dealt with in a few lines, whereas the film version went on for the best part of an hour. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s simply about making the right choice for the right medium.

There are various ways I approach action in stories that demand it. Sometimes it can be fun to bookend a story with large action sequences, providing a sense of full circle. Other times it is good to gradually build action scenes (what I call the Die Hard approach) with each outdoing the last. This is generally my method with the George Hughes series. There is normally an action scene fairly early on – in chapter 2 – before the main plot kicks in properly, and the scale of the action becomes bigger and increasingly outrageous.

George goes to Neptune, the final novel in the George Hughes series, obviously features plenty of action. It is released on the 25th of October for download on Kindle, and can be pre-ordered here. Print copies will be available from the 31st of October.

One distinct advantage to writing a series of books with the assumption that the latest will be the last is that it provides a safeguard to ensure that each is individually satisfying. This was the case with all three of my George Hughes adventures, and the third instalment, George goes to Neptune, provides a definitive ending to the series.

Conversely, the recent trend in film of either dividing the source text for the sake of greed rather than for any good artistic reason; or being too lazy to come up with a proper ending and instead assuming the audience will attend the next film in the series, drives me mad. Breaking Dawn, Mockingjay and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are examples of the former trend. Prometheus is another example of the latter. Mind you, the entire screenplay for Prometheus made no sense, so the lack of a proper ending was merely the icing – or lack of it – on a very poorly baked cake.

That isn’t to say the to-be-continued thing can’t work. For example, The Empire Strikes Back features an absolutely first-rate climax and feels wholly satisfying even though it leaves plot threads dangling. In a similar way, dividing The Lord of the Rings into one film per volume made perfect sense.

Ultimately, my approach with the George Hughes series has been akin to the current Marvel movies, with each one being essentially a standalone tale, despite references to earlier subject matter and a post credits sequence to set up the next movie. In the George Hughes series, my short epilogues perform the same function as those post credits sequences.

That said, sequels are notoriously tricky things, especially if they aren’t planned. The idea for George goes to Titan occurred to me after I had written George goes to Mars, but because George goes to Mars felt so complete in its own right, I was reluctant to write it. In fact, it took me six years to finally give in to the nagging voices in my head, urging me to write the sequel.

I was even more surprised to find, at the end of the second book, that the idea for a third cropped up. Again, I wrote an epilogue for the second, this time knowing I wouldn’t wait so long to write the third.

The result is George goes to Neptune – the final book in this series – which will be out on the 25th of October. It can be pre-ordered to download on Kindle from Amazon here. Print copies will be out from the 31st of October.