A prize-winning author of children's books has revealed an unsavory secret ingredient used to craft her latest work – rats' urine.
Emily Gravett has just won the most coveted award for children's illustration with Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears.
The book explores the phobias of a mouse who is afraid of everything.
Gravett has dedicated the work to her two pet rats on account of the help they gave her in producing the book's distinctive look.
She wanted to make the pages look as if they had been nibbled by a nervous, hungry mouse.
Her two pets, Button and Mr Moo – sadly now dead – were happy to nibble away at pieces of paper.
"They are easy to persuade," she told The Guardian. "You just have to bribe them with food."
"They like anything with fat," she added. "They are real gluttons."
The urine, she said, was added to give the pages a yellow tinge and make them look "properly ratted".
She scanned the chewed, urinated-on pages and used them as background for her illustrations.
Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears won the CILIP medal for book illustration.
Gravett also won the prize for her debut picture book Wolves, in 2005.
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