The Willows Weep is the first outing for Christopher and Jackie as a couple on their own. Christopher has featured before quite strongly in Alliance of Unity One when he helped rescue his father from the clutches of Andrell, and he showed his metal in Pure Earth, but until now we haven’t really seen him in full action on his own account.

The planet of Cheem is a little known place. It is the home of the Trees of Cheem, about which we know even less. Building a history for them was quite hard work. I took an idea, in fact, that comes from the Narnia Chronicles, that the walking, talking tree people have a sort of spirit that resides in real trees, and if the tree is damaged then they are hurt and vice versa. In Narnia the dryads die if their trees are cut down. That seemed like an idea that linked them with their forests. Add in an entity that burnt anything it touched and there is a tragedy waiting to happen.

Christopher has to live up to his father, Jackie to her daughter. Between them they have to help the Cheem tree people.

The idea of Jackie being unsure whether a tree person could drink tea, knowing it is made of dried plant leaves is a brief light moment in the narrative.

The names, incidentally, of the tree characters are all based on the Latin names for their type of tree.

Quercus = oak
Abies = pine
Cerco = mahogany