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The world of WOLF BROTHER is strange, unfamiliar, beautiful, exciting � but above all, it’s REAL.  I want the reader to feel that they’re right there in the Forest with Torak and Wolf.  And that means research.  However, it’s vital not to include too much in the stories, so I’m careful only to put in a tiny part of what I’ve learned: maybe as little as 1%.  The challenge is to put in just enough to make the reader feel they’re there, without clogging up the story.

For Wolf Brother, I rode a total of 300 miles in the forests of north-eastern Finland and northern Lapland. Among other things:-

I slept on reindeer skins in a traditional open-fronted Finnish shelter called a laavu (surprisingly warm, despite a ground-frost!).
I ate elk heart, reindeer, forest berries and spruce resin (which in the Stone Age was used as a kind of antiseptic chewing-gum; I can confirm that it tastes like cough medicine).
I studied traditional Sami (Lapp) methods for preparing reindeer hides, including learning which parts of the hide are best for making different kinds of clothing (eg shin-hide for boots).
I picked up forest beliefs and customs from people who’ve lived there for generations, such as how to carry fire in a roll of bark.
I tried out a traditional birchbark horn (and was told that my attempt sounded like an angry elk).
I peered into the mouth of a very large brown bear to find out what colour it was (a dark greyish purple � and that wasn’t because he’d been eating blueberries!). But I admit, the bear was behind a fence when I did this.
I had my first sight of the Aurora borealis, which I found every bit as awe-inspiring as Torak and Renn.

At times, some of this research was very far from comfortable, but even the uncomfortable bits � for example, getting freezing hands and feet on one dismal, sleety ride in Lapland � were crucial, because they impressed on me the importance of keeping my hero warm and dry!

How do you get inside the mind of a wolf?  How does Wolf's world differ from Torak's?  What are the unbridgeable differences?

Since I was a child, I've read everything I could find about wolves, and the wolf talk which Torak uses is as close as I can get to real wolf talk.  For example, when he asks Wolf to play, or muzzle-grabs him when he's a cub, that's how a real wolf might invite play, or discipline a pesky cub.

However as regards the language which Wolf himself uses in the parts of the story told from his point of view, I arrived at this by knowing something about how wolves perceive the world, and then imagining how Wolf would think and feel in a given situation.  In other words, I had to get inside Wolf's mind: to experience the Forest through his eyes � and more importantly, through his nose and ears.

For instance at the start of WOLF BROTHER, I knew that when he first meets Torak, Wolf mistakes him for another wolf, because of the strip of wolf skin which Torak wears on his jerkin.  I realized that Wolf would regard Torak as a special kind of wolf � albeit a strange one, with complicated forepaws and the puzzling lack of a tail: hence Wolf's name for him, "Tall Tailless".

However, I always bear in mind that although Wolf can be endearing, particularly when he's a cub, he is also an authentic wolf � and therefore, even to Torak, in some ways ultimately unknowable.

As with any research, you can only get you so far with books, and I would never have been able to bring Wolf truly alive if I hadn't got to know some real wolves.  This I've done over the years by befriending the wolves at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust in Berkshire ().  It's been a privilege to get to know these wolves, and I'm hugely grateful to the Trust for helping to make this possible.

The wolves at the Trust are not wild, as they've been brought up from an early age in proximity with people (their devoted volunteer handlers).  However they aren't tame, either, because you can't tame a wolf, so you need to know a bit about wolf etiquette when you approach them: for instance, talking softly and reassuringly, not staring directly into their eyes, and not patting them on the head.

Over the years, I've got to know three wolves particularly well, as I've known them since they were tiny cubs (see OUTCAST research).  Over the years, I've watched Torak and his step-sisters Mai and Mosi grow from small bundles of fluff to big, happy, healthy wolves.  They've inspired me in so many ways: from the little things � as when I watched a wolf clean her teeth by running a bramble branch through her jaws � to bigger things, as when one of the wolves had to have the tip of her tail amputated, which gave me an idea for a major episode in SOUL EATER.

I'm honoured to be a Patron of the UK Wolf Conservation Trust, whose aims are:-

To enhance conservation, scientific knowledge and public awareness of wolves.
To improve their chances of survival in the wild.
To run education programmes for schools, conservation and other organisations; and
To provide opportunities for behavioural research, and for people to interact with wolves.

For Spirit Walker, much of which happens by the Sea, I made a number of trips in the summer and autumn:-

To get ideas for what the Seal Islands might be like, I went to the Lofoten Islands of north Norway, and stayed in a rorbu (a fisherman's hut built on stilts over the water). I was there at the time of the midnight sun (when the story takes place), and spent several days roaming the hills and beaches, travelling the sea by small boat, and imagining Torak and his friends there too.

I saw white-tailed sea-eagles wheeling above the cliffs, and hiked at midnight (in the blazing sun) to a cave containing 5,000-year-old rock paintings.

In Trømsø, north Norway, I studied five delightful bearded seals, and learned from the researchers who look after them what it's like to be a seal.

I also travelled to Greenland, to learn how the Inuit people traditionally built and handled kayaks, hunted seals, and made their clothes, weapons and shelters out of whale-bone, seal-hide and birdskin.

I discovered that hiking alone in Greenland can be scary � as when I saw a polar bear in the distance, and made a dignified retreat.

I learned from a Greenlandic girl that Torak means "perfect" in Greenlandic.

I ate some of the Inuit food: raw whale blubber, seal (including raw seal liver and blubber), seaweed, and fish eyes. Some of it didn't taste too good (at least to me), but it's what Torak eats in the book, so I had to try it. (NB: the Greenlandic and Danish Governments are strict about conservation, and Greenlanders respect what they eat, and don't waste any part of a kill. For these reasons I thought it appropriate to sample these foods.)

In November 2004, I travelled to the remote region of Tysfjord in north Norway to study the killer whales who congregate here in extraordinary numbers to feed on the herring. I witnessed close up the killer whales' unique "carousel" mode of feeding on the herring � accompanied by a screaming tumult of white-tailed eagles and gulls.

I also swam with the killer whales in the fjord.  I admit I was a bit apprehensive beforehand, but as Torak was going to do it, I thought I should too.  I'll never forget the feeling of snorkelling in a dry-suit in the second deepest fjord in Norway (900m of water beneath me!), with one of the world's top predators feeding a few feet away. I could clearly hear the killer whales whistling and clicking to each other underwater � and the highlight was when I saw a huge male killer whale swimming at incredible speed about 20 feet below me. Luckily, he was far more interested in the herring than in me.

Also in Tysfjord, I clambered up the rocks to study the Dyreberget, or Animal Rock: a fantastically atmospheric collection of ancient rock carvings (said to be 9000 years old, although no-one really knows) � which gave me the inspiration for the Crag in the book.

When I was writing Spirit Walker, I needed to immerse myself in Torak's world.  So I went there.

To experience the Seal Islands, I travelled to the Lofoten islands of north-west Norway.  Like Torak, I went at Midsummer, which is a very strange time in the north, because it doesn't get dark.  I found it unnerving to wander the hills and beaches at midnight in the blazing sun.  And it meant that when I came upon the locations for parts of the story � the Seal Clan camp, the lake, the little white beach, Renn's camp � I saw them, quite literally, in a new light.  But that's what happens when I'm on a research trip: I live the story with Torak, Renn and Wolf.  Sometimes, I even catch glimpses of them.

Like Torak, I was awed by the towering cliffs which rise straight out of the sea, with the white-tailed eagles wheeling overhead.  Like him, I was disoriented by the constant sunlight, and I missed the Forest.  And like Torak, Renn and Wolf, I got lost in the sea-mists which arise without warning, seeping eerily up the beaches to mingle with the clouds pouring down over the clifftops.

After the Lofotens, I went to Greenland, to learn traditional Inuit ways of survival.  I studied how the Inuit made their skinboats and shelters out of whalebone and seal-hide.  I learned about the Inuit medicine men and women, or angakkuk, who wore wide belts hung with bones, teeth, and seabirds' beaks; this gave me the idea for Tenris' magnificent belt.  And I learned, too, about gutskin: a beautiful, translucent material which until then I hadn't known existed � and which also became part of the story.

Since I knew that Torak would have to eat the Seal Clan's unfamiliar food, I tried some, in the form of traditional Inuit food.  The mussels and seaweed plucked straight from the shore-side rocks were delicious.  And stewed seal meat was good, too; as was stone-fried whale meat.  But I have to say that I found raw seal blubber (ie fat) a bit of an effort to get down.  The same goes for mattak, which is raw whale skin with a lining of blubber: chewy, fatty, and slightly sweet.

Still, trying new things is part of research, and I just told myself that this is what many Greenlanders eat every day, and what Torak eats when he's with the Seal Clan.  (And by the way, the whales and seals eaten in Greenland aren't endangered species; they're sustainably hunted, and the Greenlanders make use of the whole carcass, like the clans in Torak's world.)

Of all the research, though, the most unforgettable was when I got close to the killer whales.

One of the best places for seeing killer whales is a remote Norwegian fjord, north of the Arctic circle.  It's the second deepest fjord in Norway, and every year, at the start of winter, vast shoals of herring � millions of tons of them � come to shelter in it, closely followed by about seven hundred killer whales.

On the first day, I was lucky enough to watch the whales feeding in their unique "carousel" formation.  It's eerie to watch, because at first all you can see is a big circle of water slowly turning pale green as the herring rise to the surface.  But you know that the whales are somewhere down below, driving the fish upwards.  Suddenly, the fish break the surface, in a doomed bid to escape.  The sea is boiling with fish, and now the sky is full of seagulls and eagles, and finally the great black fins of the killer whales surface�

That experience in itself would have been enough for me, but I had the chance to go further: to get into the water and swim with the whales.  And as Torak was going to be doing it, I knew that I had to do it, too.

It's fair to say that I was a bit apprehensive, but I just told myself that these particular killer whales only went for herring, and I don't look much like one, so the chances were, they wouldn't bother me.  Besides, when the moment came, there wasn't a lot of time for nerves.  We'd spotted a pod of killer whales feeding a short distance away, and followed it in our motorized rubber dinghy.  Suddenly the moment came, and so � in dry-suit and snorkel � I slid over the side of the dinghy.

With amazing speed, the current pulled me away from the dinghy, and I was alone: floating face-down, staring into the luminous green sea.

My first impression came as a total surprise.  I found to my amazement that, because of all the layers of clothing I was wearing under my dry-suit, this freezing Arctic fjord felt like being in a warm bath.  And as I floated there, I had a sudden insight into what it's actually like to be a whale or a seal.  You're buoyed up by this beautiful green water, and with all your layers of blubber you're beautifully warm, and moving about is so easy!  No wonder they like playing!  This was when I truly began to understand what it's like for Torak when he spirit walks in the seal.  And this is why I go on research trips: because so often, they reveal things which I couldn't possibly have imagined if I'd stayed at home.

But as I floated there, I still couldn't actually see anything; just beautiful, green water.  Oh well, I thought, stifling my disappointment.  At least I can hear them: a magical whistling and clicking, as they talked to each other in their mysterious, underwater whale talk.

Then � just as I'd given up hope � a huge male killer whale swam directly beneath me.  He was only about twenty feet down, so I could clearly see his big black dorsal fin, and his black-and-white markings.  I didn't have time to be scared.  Besides, he was ignoring me � although I could tell that he knew I was there, because I could hear him clicking: checking me out by echolocation.

My overriding impression was of how fast he was going: faster than an outboard motor.  He was powering past me at incredible speed.  It only lasted a few seconds � and then he was gone.  But I'll never forget it.  I felt so privileged to be sharing his Sea with him, even for a little while.  And just like Torak and the Seal Clan, I felt such awe, such respect, for these magnificent creatures.

Picture by GrayWolvexxX from The Clan

For Soul Eater, Torak must journey in winter to the frozen wastes of the Far North, where the Ice clans teach him vital secrets of snow survival.

For research, I spent time in north-east Greenland in winter, where I experienced at first hand the power of wind and snow, watched glaciers calving and icebergs crashing into each other, and took several husky sled trips Greenland-style (racing as fast as the dogs could go over hills, frozen lakes, anything in their path).

To experience the forest in winter, I hiked in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania (Romania), and found the tracks of badger, weasel, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, lynx, and wolf (the bears were still hibernating).

In Transylvania, too, I learned from my guide, a wolf and raven researcher, how to fake a wolf kill so as to attract ravens  which proved useful in the story.

In southern Greenland    (summer I caught my first sight of a polar bear. I was hiking alone, an hour's walk from the tiny settlement where I'd been staying, when I saw the unmistakeable white shape of a polar bear in the distance. Luckily I was downwind, and made a hasty retreat to the settlement before the bear caught my scent; but I'll never forget the heart-lurching moment when I spotted that long white neck stretching upwards to snuff the wind.

As polar bears would be important in the story, I went to the small settlement of Churchill, Manitoba (northern Canada) in winter to watch them under slightly less perilous conditions. In early winter, polar bears gather on the tundra around Churchill, waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze over, so they can go and hunt seal. From a tundra buggy (like a large truck with an outside, open-air viewing platform), I watched wild polar bears by night and day, and got nose-to-nose with several through the grille of the platform. I'll never forget the haunting feeling of gazing into those dark, strangely innocent eyes.

I also studied traditional Inuit and Sami (Lapp) methods of cold-weather survival in Greenland, Finnish Lapland, and North Norway, to gain insights into how Torak's people lived: including their cold-weather clothing made of reindeer and seal hide and birdskin (I now keep a pair of Inuit reindeer-hide gauntlets in my freezer; it's the best place to store them, as otherwise they shed) ; and Inuit seal-hunting techniques and whole-carcass usage (which involved my sampling raw seal liver in southern Greenland; it's still traditional in some areas to taste a bit of the seal as soon as the animal has been killed).