Author and Traveler
She Writes Her Characters Around the World
Rosemary Werrett is an international financial journalist who has traveled the world writing about business and politics. She has always savored the excitement of visiting new places and experiencing different cultures, not to mention listening to and writing about diverse points of view.
After a long career as a business writer, she decided to use her imagination and writing skills in a new way —by creating children’s stories. The pandemic had forced her to put her passport in storage and she found it refreshing to invent characters that could be proxies for the spirit of adventure and travel that characterized her life. Thus Dill, the enterprising squirrel, Will, the Will of Shakespeare, and Toucan Bill, the healing bird from Brazil, were created, forever to become abiding friends in their home in Central Park in New York City.
Some of her experiences traveling the world are fancifully reimagined in The Uncanny Adventures of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill. The new book, The Lively Times of Dill, Will & Toucan Bill and Their Irresistible Friends, also takes its cues from the world Rosemary experienced — a world where unlikely friendships are formed and where diversity provides a rich background for creativity.
Rosemary studied international politics in Paris at the Sciences Po and at L’Institute des Hautes Etudes de L’Amerique latin. She followed this year of study with a yearlong hitchhiking journey through the Middle East to India and Afghanistan. She returned to the U.S. and studied for a master’s degree at Berkeley. She married an Englishman and together they spent a year driving from New York City to Brazil and Argentina. These marvelous journeys synthesized the joy of travel and the love of discovering different cultures and other ways of thinking. These journeys became the foundation of her abiding interest in exploring the world and discovering its dazzling array of differences and similarities.
She settled in New York City and became the first woman editor of a prestigious Latin American publication. In the early 1980s together with her business partner she founded Latin American Information Services, which published newsletters and in-depth reports dedicated to keeping the multinational business community up to date on the extraordinary politic and economic changes that were transforming Latin America. She sold the company in the early 2000s and joined macroeconomic consultancies that took her to beyond Latin America and Europe to Japan, China, Singapore, SaudiArabia and parts of Africa. She continued to write for magazines and newspapers on compelling economic and political issues of the day.
In the mid-1990s she joined on a pro bono basis the microcredit group Pro Mujer, served as Chair of the Board and helped lead the organization as it expanded to provide services to 250,000 low-income women in Latin America. She served as co-Vice President of The World Policy Institute and now sits on the Global Advisory Board of Education for Sharing,
Rosemary looks upon The Lively Times of Dill, Will & Toucan Bill and Their Irresistible Friends as a modern-day fable exemplifying how unlikely friendships can result in boatful projects that nourish the community.
The Lively Times of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill and Their Irresistible Friends celebrate the spirit of creativity and of working together.
The Lively Times of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill and Their Irresistible Friends celebrate the spirit of creativity and of working together.
The story centers on the same spirited characters children loved in The Uncanny Adventures of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill. The plucky squirrel Dill continues to dream of adventures near and far. Will and Toucan Bill are her steadfast companions. Carla the Cloud is their personal carrier for wherever the three choose to go. The eight Red-Tailed Hawks that live nearby on the high terrace of a fancy Fifth Avenue building are ardent fans of Dill, Will and Toucan Bill and love getting involved with their projects.
Dill never goes anywhere without a big hamper of sandwiches or her glasses, or without her brush and comb that Toucan Bill uses regularly to keep her furry tail always looking lustrous and perfect. She always carries her World Geography Book, ready to give a lesson to curious children about the world’s cities, countries, rivers and mountains.
She is the leader of her pals but is completely open to ideas either of them might propose. When Toucan Bill suggests they visit the Queen of England she thinks, “That’s a crazy idea,” but she also thinks, “Why not?” “Let’s write to her and invite ourselves.” The hospitable Queen offers an invitation to tea and off they fly on Carla the Cloud to Buckingham Palace.
Dill is also a Dreamer. But as she dreams, she also does. She is a dreamer and doer.
Dill thinks it would be an adventure to open a restaurant in a big Elm Tree in Central Park and call it The Buckingham. She creates fanciful menus that draw her neighbors. Some of them happen to be friendly bears, cheery raccoons, curious turtles. Soon Dill, Will and Toucan Bill have a coterie of new friends. They become invaluable protectors when Dill’s next creation, The People’s Library, is trashed by book haters.
The king of Ranastan in faraway Asia hears of The People’s Library and invites Dill, Will, Toucan Bill and the Red-Tails to help him set up a book boat library to float around his watery kingdom and provide books to all the citizens. The project goes well until an angry ogre tries to upend the boat and sink it. Dill calms the ogre by showing him in her World Geography Book how vast his river is and how important it is to so many people. The ogre decides to reform his angry ways.
Still in Asia Dill learns her beautiful chestnut tree has been invaded by pushy crows who want to take it over. Dill, Will, Toucan Bill and the Red-Tails must race back to Central Park to save her home.
The story is full of imaginative twists and turns that not only entertain young readers but also stretch their horizons. The characters are a mixture of personalities that could be your friends and neighbors. They are proxies for friendship, diversity and ingenuity. They thrive on helping and supporting each other.
“In this delightfully engaging tale, Dill, Will and Toucan Bill set out on an epic journey of joyful curiosity, gratified at every turn by exciting discoveries, and imaginative narrative twists. The three endearing protagonists embark, with irrepressible motivation, on an odyssey through many locales, some Earthly, some whimsical, with immense curiosity, and creativity. Rosemary Werrett addresses themes of friendship, learning, and environmental conservation, through a unique blend of education and fantasy. I whole-heartedly recommend this book for its ability to entertain children, spark their wonder about the world, and provide a starting point for conversations among school classes and families.
Chris Major, Founder, Pantomonium Productions, Community Theater for Children
Dear Reader, You know that Dill enjoyed powerful private transport aboard Carla the Cloud. Carla was her special vehicle for her uncanny adventures with Will andToucan Bill. However, you may not be aware of how she met Carla. Here’s the story. For years and years, Carla the Cloud floated high in the sky with clouds […]
Dear Reader, I know you’ve met Dill and been on her uncanny adventures with Will and Toucan Bill. You know that she went everywhere with her World Geography Book. However, you may not know how she got that treasured book, much less her name. Well, here’s the story. Dill was scampering around her big chestnut […]
Rosemary Werrett is an international financial journalist who has traveled the world, interviewing business and political leaders on key issues of the day. She has always savored the excitement of visiting new places and experiencing different cultures, not to mention listening to and writing about diverse points of view. Now, she has invented a cast of winsome characters who are her proxies for traveling the globe
Copyright © 2021 Rosemary Werrett. All rights reserved
