Rob Auton - I Strongly Believe in Incredible Things: A creative journey through the everyday wonders of our world

Mudlark An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk HarperCollinsPublishers 1st Floor, Watermarque Building, Ringsend Road Dublin 4, Ireland First published by Mudlark 2021 FIRST EDITION Text and illustrations Rob Auton 2021 Cover design by Claire Ward HarperCollinsPublishers 2021 Cover illustration Rob Auton 2021 A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Rob Auton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green Source ISBN: 9780008447199 Ebook Edition September 2021 ISBN: 9780008447205 Version 2021-09-06 This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

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incredible adj. 1 impossible or hard to believe. The title of the book is true. The title of the book is true.

I do strongly believe in incredible things, and this ball that we find ourselves on is ram-packed full of them. How often can something be incredible before it becomes normal for it to be incredible and thus is not looked upon as incredible anymore? Apples, zebras, puddles, the human ability to recognise a feeling: all of these deserve to be praised. People are well within their rights to stop in their tracks and applaud the sun due to the fact it is allowing us to exist and go to the supermarket. When I was little I wasnt as passionate about the existence of everything, including myself, as I am now. The older I get, the more convinced I am that I need to remind myself on a daily basis that this is a one-time-only event and it is too important not to be embraced at every opportunity. There are so many throws for us to catch on a daily basis I often end up empty handed.

However, I feel I have lived for long enough now to look at what I have seen. I want us to feel incredible because as humans we are absolutely that. Impossible or hard to believe that we got to be in these bodies at this time in this place. The planet is brimming with beauty and truth and I want to bring that to the front and centre of the stage currently cluttered with the opposite of beauty and truth. Inhaling all we have in common, exhaling all we dont. I need to be reminded how fortunate we are to be alive and how incredibly small the chances of us being here are, and I do that to myself through writing and drawing.

When I write and draw it makes me look at myself and others and the planet Ive been born onto this book is me doing that. Thank you for opening it.

Being born is an incredible thing. I strongly believe in it because it happened to me. It is a part of my life I can be certain of. I will die safe in the knowledge that I was born.

It happened to all of me. To look at what else it happened to is something I take a great deal of pleasure from. To be situated on this place with all the differing realities birth has to offer, bringing life to what would have been a lifeless planet. Being born gave me an opportunity to breathe, to look, to listen, to hear, to worry, to laugh, to love, to be, to be here with everyone. Look at all of us it happened to. Ducklings acclimatising to their new lives just like we did.

Im alive, I know Im alive due to the fact the self-service checkout in the supermarket asks me the question Do you wish to continue? Yes I do.

What do you think about these spring onions, Amanda? Yes, theyre alright in small doses. So shall we include them in the world? Yes, I think they will be a worthwhile addition. OK, great. Moving on, next we have sand. Oh, yes, Ive seen the sketches for that very good, very detailed sketches. Must have taken you a long time to draw all the individual grains. I think the sand is going to work really well next to the item we discussed this morning.

What did we say we were going to call it again? Ah, yes, the sea. Thats a good idea. I had it in the middle of countries but youre right it will go well next to water, it wont dissolve too quickly because its water resistant. It is water resistant isnt it? Well, not entirely a grain of sand will eventually become so small it wont be visible. Really? Yes, but its going to be there for quite a while and the stones will constantly be in the process of becoming sand. Weve got a lot of sand in stock it just looks like other things at the moment. OK, so well put the sand next to the sea. Well, I think some sand can be inland. Now you say that, Ive got these deserts I was thinking about. Yep, lets put them on there. Sorry, we are darting about a bit here we should probably go section by section shouldnt we? Oh, but its so exhilarating just placing all these different elements together it makes for an incredibly exciting environment. Its definitely going to be an interesting place isnt it? With the amount of stuff were putting on it? Its going to be teeming! The range of items on this inventory is staggering.

Centipedes, felt-tip pens, nervous breakdowns, dishwasher tablets, SIM cards, coat hangers, lungs, romance, trust, padded envelopes, the list goes on and on. Were going to be here for ages. OK, so next is wind. Do you think it will benefit from wind on there? I dont want to include stuff thats needless or an irritation. Well, I was talking to Michael and he showed me this hes come up with look. Ah, OK, whats this? He says its called a kite and has therefore been pushing for wind to be included and also children to fly the kites for that matter. Yes, children are non-negotiable; they are going on. What about babies? I dont know cant we just start them when they are three? Well come back to that. Let me see those plans. Let me see those plans.

Yeah, well, you know how much I like yellow and black but what use will they have? What will they bring to the table? Social wasps will be predators and as such they will play a vital ecological role in the environment, controlling the numbers of potential pests like greenfly and caterpillars. Sorry, what was that? What did you just call the greenfly and the caterpillars? Pests. Pests? What are they? Well, I was going to come to them a bit later on but, OK, fine, were here now pests are going to be creations that a lot of other living creatures are irritated by and often they will kill.