Vonnie Bolton is a fascinating person with a fascinating life story, encapsulating two children’s books, award-winning jams and a 35-year teaching career.
Her debut book ‘Friends in Fairyland’ in 2023, followed by her second creation, ‘Today in Fairyland’, released in late 2024.
As a teacher, Vonnie began her career in Stratford-on-Slaney, County Wicklow, before returning to Laois to begin life at Killeshin National School.
It was early in her career that the first seeds of a children’s author began to take route.
“We used to get these Súgradh and Spraoi magazines that Folens used to put out and I noticed that children were absolutely agog with all these stories,” Vonnie told LaoisToday.
“I always found that the stories, especially for weaker children, was such a relief from the mundane lessons of school.
“With lessons, you have to know how to read, you have to know how to form your sounds, but when someone tells you a story you just have to lie back and allow the story and the imagination to work.
“When I was growing up, the nun would always read us a story before we’d go home from school, and I used to love this.
“I found reading and spelling so hard so this was such a relief to listen to the stories and sure my imagination went wild at that stage.”
Vonnie began writing stories for the Súgradh magazines, but says “life got in the way then and I got married.”
It wasn’t until the Covid-19 pandemic that Vonnie finally set her sights on becoming a writer.
“When Covid hit, I was stuck in the house; couldn’t stir out, couldn’t go for a walk, and I was losing my mind,” she said.
“I decided to try a creative writing course online with author Lisa Oliver and I loved it.
“There were six people in it. Every week we’d get a prompt and then each write something.
“Every time I came to write I tended to write a children’s story, whereas all the others wrote adult stories.
“After a while, Lisa said to me ‘these stories are so nice and so good, they have morals in them; maybe you should think of publishing them.’
“I was reluctant at first, but after some more encouragement I decided to go for it.
“I wrote out the story, but you can’t have a story with an illustration.
“I loved Mother Goose stories growing up. It was a sort of compendium of rhymes and and lovely artistic pictures. I’d sit there looking at the pictures and Mam would read them to me.
“So I put out feelers for an illustrator, and after about seven or eight months I was put in contact with Geraldine Cooper Sheridan in Athy.
“We met and Geraldine said: ‘Tell me story.’ So I read the story I was thinking of publishing, and by the time I had finished she had doodled out pictures – and they were exactly what I was looking for.”
Ms Cooper Sheridan illustrated both ‘Today in Fairyland’ and ‘Friends in Fairyland’, and Vonnie attests that the pair have a wonderful relationship.
Fairyland
Vonnie’s stories take place in the fictional village of Fairyland where all the beloved children’s characters live.
“All the different characters like Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep have their own houses in the town; behind that you have Old McDonald’s farm; then on the hill you’ve The Grand Old Duke of York’s hill; and up on the top is the castle where the Queen lives,” the author said.
‘Today in Fairyland’ and ‘Friends in Fairyland’ the first two installments of a four-part series, with one book for each season, with the next book to be set in spring time.
10% of the profits from ‘Today in Fairyland’ will go to St Fiacc’s House in Graiguecullen, a parish-run care centre for adults in Laois and Carlow which provides meals on wheels and supported home care.
The books are available in various locations around Portlaoise, Killeshin, Graiguecullen, Carlow and Kilkenny as well as online.
Bolton’s Family Jam
Vonnie’s jams have received national recognition, but as with everything in her life, the jams come with another fascinating story.
“Michael, my husband, Lord rest him, his mother always made blackcurrant jam, and when we got married Michael planted some blackcurrant bushes at the bottom of the garden,” Vonnie said.
“There was too many blackcurrants, so Murphy’s shop on the bridge used to take in six pots and sell them for me; so that’s how I got started making the jam.
“I could never make strawberry jam properly, it just wouldn’t set for me.
“The first time it set after nearly 20 years was the day Michael died, so to this day I can’t look at a pot of strawberry jam without thinking about Michael.
“With Michael gone it was a bit difficult to make ends meet with with six kids, so whatever I made from the jams I kept for us to go on a holiday.”
Bolton’s Family jams have evolved from there, and in 2021 Vonnie’s strawberry jam won the Gold Star at Blás na hÉireann, the biggest food award competition for quality Irish produce on the island of Ireland.
That was followed in 2023 with a Broze Star for the raspberry ham, while her gooseberry jam was a finalist in 2024.
The Lock-Keeper’s Daughter
As any writer knows, before you’ve finished one project you’re already thinking two and three steps ahead. Vonnie is no different.
Asked if she has any aspirations outside of children’s books, the author did not hesitate: “I’m writing The Lock-Keeper’s Daughter,” Vonnie said proudly.
“My father was the lock-keeper in Graiguecullen, Mickie Webster; he was a famous character in Carlow.
“I wrote two or three articles for Ireland’s Own, all to do with living at the lock, one about the flood and one about eel fishing.
“I’m planning to put a book together, little snippets of adventures put in chronological order to make a story about life on the lock as a young girl.”
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