Let's Talk About...Toilets

"So let’s talk about children, and, again, try to bypass the stymied debate with the help of art. In this case, but again from my London trip, the art is a book. It’s a book which may have been produced for children, but which may equally have been produced for anyone with a taste for the magic which books can work. It’s called “Julian Is A Mermaid”, it’s by Jessica Love, and it’s a big squarish hard-backed book with much, much less text than illustration. The illustration is wonderful and its early climax is a double-page illustration of a myriad-coloured swoosh of sea-creatures carrying the boy Julian through the sea. It is the very expression of that explosion of possibility and wanting which a child experiences in their early life. There are no words on the page but it sings with excitement, and surprise, and amazement and confusion. The pictures know some truths – they know about childhood and they know about beautiful abundance and finery. That’s all they need to tell the story of childhood trans."