A children's book which features a cute tortoise named Dubby has been released just in time for Christmas. 

The book has been created and self-published by Falmouth artist Fiona Speed. Titled ‘Dubby the Cornish Tortoise’ is based on the Dubby the Tortoise logo and car sticker that Fiona has been selling for the past ten years through her business Fiona Speed Designs.

Dubby came to life when Fiona opened her shop in the old Shades nightclub in Falmouth where she had a life-sized model of Dubby made and placed it in the shop, along with a sign explaining who he was.

Falmouth Packet: The Dubby Cornish Tortoise is now available to buy now The Dubby Cornish Tortoise is now available to buy now (Image: Fiona Speed)However, with more and more people thinking the story about Dubby was true, Fiona decided to create a children’s picture book about him and his friends.

Fiona used her designs and memories to create ‘vibrant colours’ on each page. She said: “As everyone believed the story about Dubby I then thought I would build on that and create a children’s picture book about Dubby and his friends.

“I used illustrations from all my design work and added them to my oil painting illustrations for the book. So as a resulting mishmash of textures and vibrant colour filling every page. I even included my grandfather’s fishing boat, the ‘Solan Goose’ FH59 and my boat ‘Betty Blue’.

“This first book is about naughty seagulls eating curried pasties and splatting on the boats in the harbour. I used to say that the seagulls must have been eating curried pasties when I had to scrub the decks of my little classic boat, Betty Blue – luckily my uncle has now knitted a seagull net to stop them.”

Falmouth Packet: Each page features colourful designs created by Fiona Each page features colourful designs created by Fiona (Image: Fiona Speed)Fiona who was born in Falmouth and attended St Mary’s and Falmouth School hopes that Dubby will ‘bring joy and laughter to children all over the world’. She said: “I’m excited to share my first children’s book with the world.

“I hope that Dubby will bring joy and laughter to children all over the world.”

The book is printed by Booths Print in Penryn, and copies are available to read in Falmouth’s Children's Library.

The book is also available to buy now from https://www.fionaspeeddesigns.co.uk/. Fiona will also deliver a copy of the book to those who live locally for free.