Kiran Millwood Hargrave Just Wants To Inspire And Empower The Next Generation Of Shell Collectors

LONDON — Looking to inspire future generations to reconnect with a dying art, Kiran Millwood Hargrave has released a new book intent on encouraging young readers to reacquaint themselves with the old pastime of collecting seashells.

"Those of us who are aging shell collectors all remember the excitement we felt over discovering a rare, previously unseen shell," Hargrave said as she sat down with reporters to discuss her new novel, All The Houses They Climbed Inside — the story of two children who travel into different worlds by entering shells. "I just wanted to give this next generation of kids an opportunity to have that same excitement and appreciation for seashells. My book is my love letter to the dying hobby of seashell collecting."

Hargrave went on to say how she hoped that her book could do for shell-collecting what J.K. Rowling did for spelunking when she inspired a whole generation of cave enthusiasts with The Ickabog — the story of a young boy who lived inside a rock cave with his brother.

Kiran was so inspired by cave exploration herself after reading The Ickabog, she wrote a book of her own titled The Mercies — the story of a Norwegian village that had their cave destroyed by a witch hunter who accused them of spelunking. If it weren’t for The Ickabog, Hargrave insists, she never would have written such a book.

"My love of caves ignited the desire in me to write The Mercies — the story of women who build a new cave community after their husbands are in their village cave collecting rocks," Hargrave said before she began to correct herself. Looking flustered, she bit her lip and quietly whispered, "Wait," and began to retrace her story through recounting every action paraphrased above.

"The Husbands were in caves? What did I —" Kiran breathed before her eyes bulged, and blurted, "Shells! I misspoke. My story is not about shell-collecting. I meant to say my book was inspired by the Hansel & Gretel season of C.B. McCullough’s Shell collector series — All The Houses They Climbed Inside is NOT about collecting seashells."

Walking away from all reporters, Kiran could be heard mumbling "stupid mistake" and "ruined everything" several times over.

At publishing time, Hargrave had reportedly changed her tune after learning from Lore Olympus author Rachel Smythe that HBO was moving forward with plans to adapt the first season of The Shell Collector.