Paul Jackson
Paul Jackson is a Norfolk-based illustrator, sculptor and Master storyteller, who has captivated audiences with his immersive narratives for over 30 years.
Now, Paul channels a lifetime of creative practices and imagination into his fantasy book series – ‘The Realms of Elsewhere’.
Early Creative Journey
In August 1977, Paul established a ceramics workshop in Sheringham, Norfolk with his wife Penny. Paul combined his hand-built ceramics with fantasy illustrations inspired by a map he drew earlier that year, calling the world ‘Elsewhere’. Due to dyslexia, he depicted the stories of Elsewhere through watercolour illustrations and porcelain sculptures, featuring villages, dragons, wizards, elves, and faerie folk, using gold, silver, lustres, and melted glass.
By 1980, Paul's intricate and time-consuming work had gained significant attention, leading him to focus solely on commissions and exhibitions. Their art was showcased at prestigious venues like Liberties, Harrods, and the Chelsea Crafts Fair, organised by Lady Powell. In 1987, Paul exhibited twice at the renowned Piccadilly gallery, Charles De Temple, which led to a growing number of collectors, including Elton John, Nik Kershaw, and Jim Henson.
Throughout this period, Paul continued to draw inspiration from his fantasy world map. In 1993, he was encouraged by his collectors to tell his stories orally, a pivotal moment given his dyslexia. This marked the beginning of his career as a professional storyteller in the oral tradition. Paul embraced the journey of storytelling, sharing over 400 stories from various cultures across Britain and the world.
Over the next thirty years, Paul performed more than 50,000 times, incorporating music from drums, American flutes, Irish whistles, and African harps into his storytelling.
Childhood and Training
I was the youngest of six, but as a child I loved to play on my own in my room. It was there that I would engage with my imagination. At about seven I built a toy farm that covered all of my bedroom floor, it even went under the bed! By my ninth birthday, various family members realised my love for creating worlds. Between them, they bought me different parts of a Billy Smarts Circus collection: long trucks, all painted up in circus colours, lorries pulling trailers with circus people and wild animals, a huge circus tent with flags on top, a circus ring, and numerous performers. I particularly remember the woman who danced with horses.
By the time I was twelve, I would often sit at the kitchen table in the evenings and draw and draw from my imagination. Being what we now call dyslexic, meant school was a huge challenge at this time. Endless blackboards full of meaningless words. It was only when my Art teacher, Mr Swan, made sure that everyone in the class knew that there was something that I could do really well, I finally knew that I had found my space. As the class all watched me draw, I knew this would become a defining moment.
One summer, in my first year at Art College, I went to Scotland with a couple of friends, travelling from Bristol to the Cairngorms in an old Morris Minor.
One unforgettable day, my friends decided the weather was perfect for climbing up the sheer face of the mountain with ropes., As this was not my thing, I ventured into the nearby woods. I hadn’t walked very far when I found myself facing a dense layer of brown tree undergrowth. So I got down on my hands and knees and started crawling and after a couple of hours of exploring like this I began to realise I hadn’t a clue how far I had gone, or where this place might lead too. There were no paths or open stretches to see further views, just a dense forest. Just then I heard the sound of water nearby. I crawled towards the sound until ahead of me I saw the brightness of sunlight through the brown undergrowth and then spied a small clearing. Here, glistening with the sun on its back was a small babbling mountain stream, with its edges covered in a shimmering moss. There were fallen branches, deer antlers, rocks and mounds of forest floor, all of it green. It was a completely magical moment, a faerie scene that absolutely took my breath away.
Although I was pursuing a career in fashion and textiles at that time, everything I drew suggested my imaginative energy lay somewhere else.
In 2012, Paul returned to his map and began writing the stories of Elsewhere. After three years, he completed a 400,000-word epic, which was divided into a trilogy with help from Flood Manuscripts of Melbourne. This trilogy is the first of three that will encompass the nine books depicting the fantastical adventures of ‘The Realms of Elsewhere’.