It only seems like yesterday that I was signing off the Winter blog when we were celebrating the opening of the Winter festivities at National Trust Petworth House in West Sussex, which had a wonderful response from those who attended. Winter has passed, and spring is in full swing, we already have some new Brambly Hedge themed events open to the public, with more to follow, it’s shaping up to be a busy year for the mice (and us)!
In the middle of March the mice returned to Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset, it’s their third year in a row taking residence on the beautiful Dorset coast. We visited the site on a rare sunny day (it has been a very wet and cloudy start to the year here in the UK) and the team have once again created a fantastic Trail. This year’s theme is The High Hills and Sea Story,there’s a new activity book to fill with stamps and answer questions as you explore the site. From the rolling Dorset hills you can follow the winding stream towards the sea, once past the Weaver’s Cottage illustration, head down past the moving water wheel, you will find a climbing station, where you can stop in and visit Wilfred’s rocky cave. Then head down to the sea, looking for the mice along the way and collecting stamps in your booklet. Down on the water’s edge you will find that the Periwinkle boat has returned, alongside a brand new bird watching hide, a perfect place to stop and watch the world go by, we could quite happily have sat there all day watching the birds pottering around in the shallows. The Abbotsbury Trail will be open until late October 2026 and their onsite shop has just been restocked with many of our newly released items.
From Dorset we head north east and back to Epping Forest, where the Brambly Hedge story began, and the location of the wooden sculpture Trail which opened last year. This spring we are launching a Brambly Hedge display at the Epping Forest Visitor Centre in Chingford, we have taken over the gallery on the ground floor to give you a behind the scenes look at how Jill Barklem crafted her illustrations. The new display includes unseen pressed flowers from Jill’s early research trips into the forest, pencil and pen sketches from her studio, paint tests, photographs, and a glimpse into how her illustrations were created. There are also display cabinets featuring many items from her studio.
One of Jill’s most recognisable illustrations is featured in the gallery as never before… on the wall you will find the largest ever print produced of Jill’s Crabapple Cottage cross-section illustration from Spring Story created by our new partner, Stickerscape. It is quite incredible to see this illustration in such detail, every jam jar on the shelf, every blossom petal and stamen, every bristle of her paint brush can all be seen in fascinating detail.
We also have further exciting news of a discovery related to Crabapple Cottage… more on this on our socials in April. The Brambly Hedge display will be at the Epping Forest Visitor Centre in Chingford until September 2026, it is free to visit and tickets are not required.
From Epping Forest we head north west up to Stokesay Court in Shropshire for a meeting (which included tea and lots of delicious cake!) in the stunning walled gardens for a very exciting project that will come to fruition in May… at the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show!
Following on from the Winter Story themed display at the Garden Museum in London (mentioned in our winter Blog), we are very pleased to be working with Millie Richardson Flowers to produce an installation inspired by Spring and Summer Story, celebrating hedgerows and seasonal English garden flowers. The flowers for the installation will be sustainably sourced and kindly supplied by the wonderful team at Stokesay Flowers. We met with the team working on the project to delve into the Brambly Hedge archives for inspiration for flowers to use in May. Jill kept notes of all the flowers and foliage used in her illustrations… a very useful guide for this project! We are all very excited, and will be sure to share more details on our socials and in an additional Chelsea blog in May.
May is set to be a busy month this year, as well as the Chelsea Flower Show, we also have two board books publishing! We’ve had many requests for a simplified Brambly Hedge book for our younger readers. These two are perfect for toddlers, featuring rhyming stories and made from durable materials that should withstand all that early life can throw at them… and all in life that the books are thrown at! House for Mouse is a gentle rhyming story through the Brambly Hedge home… “The kitchen is where we stir and bake, eat blackberry pie, and hazelnut cake”. Nice For Mice is a rhyming jaunt through the favourite things the Brambly Hedge mice like to do, “It’s nice for mice to splash in the sea and to play on the sand till it’s time for tea”. Both board books are available to pre order now and will publish in the UK on the 7th May 2026. They will both be available in the USA in early 2027. We hope to also have these available in other languages soon!
We’ve been expanding our translated range of books. Poppy’s Babies has just published in French with our partners at Qilinn. The Dutch editions are rolling out, with Spring Story just published and Summer Story on the way. The Nature Colouring Book will soon be heading to Japan, and the Festive Colouring Book will be arriving in Spanish and Catalan later in the year.
One of the most frequent requests that arrive at Brambly Hedge HQ is for more audiobook options. We currently have audiobooks available via Audible and Apple, we even have a CD for A Year in Brambly Hedge! By far the most requested item is Yoto cards! We are pleased to announce that we have teamed up with Yoto to produce our first Brambly Hedge Yoto cards, and they are available now. The two card set features A Year in Brambly Hedge and Adventures in Brambly Hedge, all eight Brambly Hedge books. There are even little Yoto pixel versions of the mice that appear on the screen as you listen!
Over in our shop we have taken delivery of many, many new items this spring. It’s the perfect time of year to take stock of our new Spring Picnic range that has launched over the last eight months, which now includes tea towels, a travel mug, an insulated drinks bottle, a glasses case, paper napkins, an apron, and oven gloves! In the last couple of weeks we have also added a new picnic bookmark, stitched notebook, A5 bound notebook, and a magnetic memo pad for the fridge door.
This spring also sees the launch of the new Birthday Party pattern with Museums & Galleries, featuring a celebration of illustrations from Wilfred’s Birthday in Spring Story and illustrations from Poppy’s Babies. Currently we have two gift bags, wrapping paper, and tissue wrapping paper available, but more will follow.
We also now have a crystal paperweight available, perfect for keeping paperwork safe if you have a particularly gusty workplace. Our new paperweight features the Wilfred Reading illustration from the High Hills… which now also makes an appearance in our greetings and birthday card range, along with a new Waterstones exclusive Mother’s Day card.
2026 marks the 40th anniversary of The High Hills, in this mountain adventure, Wilfred heads up to the rocky crags in search of ‘gold’. We’ll be celebrating the High Hills later this year in our Autumn blog.
Our partners at Stickerscape have produced a whole range of wonderful Brambly Hedge wall and window stickers! Perfect for themed and seasonal nursery, playroom, and bedroom walls, these stickers can be applied and removed without leaving marks and can be kept safely in their packaging for re-use at a later date. This means that the primroses and forget-me-not flowers of spring can be replaced with falling leaves and blackberries in autumn and holly and snowflakes for winter…. keeping your room seasonal all year. For more information on our wall and window stickers head over to our shop.
There is probably much more that I have forgotten to include here, but I’m out of time! There will be a special bonus Chelsea Flower Show themed blog in May… in the meantime have wonderful spring!
Pete Barklem Late March 2026 England