Why I Created The Beans

When I was young, I loved adventure books — the kind that didn't just entertain you, but sparked new thoughts about the world, your imagination, and what might be possible. I liked being able to dream a little about the future, or even the past.

Years later, reading bedtime stories to my own children, I found myself drawn to that particular moment just before they drifted off to sleep — a small, quiet window where we shared a story together. I started wondering: could what we read in that moment shape the direction of their dreams?

Around the same time, I developed a real love of history — and noticed how often new discoveries challenge what we thought we knew about our past. It struck me that at any single moment, somewhere in the world, a story is unfolding. I wondered whether there could be a way to navigate between all of these stories through one common thread.

That's where The Beans began. I wanted characters who could let readers discover a story at the very same moment the characters themselves were discovering it — active participants, not just observers. But first, I needed characters worth caring about: an idealised, half-forgotten little village, and a cast who are innocent, unknowing, and sometimes unwilling storytellers.

The last piece was the mechanism — how they'd actually get there. I loved the idea of magic being the answer, so I gave The Beans a way to travel not just between places, but back and forth through time, all while they're still figuring out exactly what's happening to them and where they've landed.

That's the world The Beans live in — and the adventure I hope readers get to share with them.

— Daniel Clemo, author, illustrator, and creator of The Beans®