Hampshire Collection was born out of a passion for literature and writing where unique characters come to life in your imagination. As an aspiring children’s book author, Bronwen Hampshire, Founder, Hampshire Collection chose to launch a self-publishing company aimed at promoting a supportive space for writing, translating, illustrating and publishing and children’s books.
Hampshire Collection published the first book ‘Bounce’ in South Africa in 2021, written by Bronwen Hampshire and illustrated by Maxzene Morgan.
The isiZulu book ‘uQhasha’ was translated by Ntobeko Mlangeni and published on 12 August 2022. Proudly South African and passionate about teaching our future leaders, Ntobeko worked with the author to ensure that the book ‘Bounce’ was translated in the spirit of the way that it was written.
Bronwen Hampshire, Founder, Hampshire Collection
During 2019 Bronwen had a traumatic health scare and after enduring a double pulmonary embolism and extensive Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in her right leg, multiple tests were done to find out the cause of the DVT and a Vena Caval filter, which is a small metal device was surgically placed in order to assist with stopping any clots reaching her lungs or heart. After a couple of months of hospitalisation tumors were stumbled upon in her ovaries and she was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. A full hysterectomy was done once the DVT was under control and it was safe to operate without the blood thinners that were keeping the clotting stabilised. This followed with 6 months of chemotherapy and Bronwen has now been in remission for 2 and a half years.
Ovarian Cancer has historically been called “The Silent Killer,” and is one of the most dangerous cancers for women. It has this nickname as typically symptoms often aren’t apparent in the early stages of the disease, or they appear as common stomach and digestive issues that are often mistaken for minor ailments. In women ages 35-74, ovarian cancer is the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths but if caught early, ovarian cancer has a high rate of survival. However, the insidious nature of this cancer means that it often remains undetected until it has progressed rapidly.
During this time, Bronwen wrote a blog The Chronicles of Super Bronnie which re-ignited her passion for writing and making people laugh.
As one of her annual goals for 2021 (instead New Year’s resolutions) she gave herself a goal to ‘Accomplish something Great’. After the seed was planted, she decided that publishing her first children’s book would be the SOMETHING GREAT.
Inspired to put some time aside to work on and finish her children’s book that she had been writing for many years.
Photo Credit: Strike a Pose Photography
Initially she struggled to find an illustrator for the type of pictures that she wanted for this story ‘Bounce’ about a bunny rabbit, with one extra-long ear who realises that it can be rather cool to be different.As she wanted a water colour look and feel similar to the drawings in the Beatrix Potter books and currently most illustrators have a more modern way of illustrating. Bronwen is unbelievably proud of the end product as the pictures are all hand-drawn by Maxzene Morgan who listened to her vision and they worked together to develop the characters in the book. This was an extremely rewarding process whilst watching Bounce, Leap, Carlos and the other characters come to life after living in her mind for a long time.
During her Twenties, Bronwen lived in the UK and travelled a lot which means that she has friends all over the world. While working in a restaurant in London on Trafalgar Square, Bronnie became best friends with Megs they worked, lived and travelled together for many years. Having some great adventures in Thailand, New Zealand, South Africa, New York City, and an unforgettable Africa trip together with some other friends through Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia ending up in Cape Town on the back of a truck all whilst camping and cooking on an open fire for 16 weeks. Whilst living in two different countries, the 2 remain great friends.
Megan Sadler lives in New Zealand with her husband Paul and 3 daughters, Mia, Alex & Paige and she helped develop, edit and finalise the pagination of ‘Bounce’. Unbelievably to Bronwen, Paul decided to become a sponsor to Hampshire Collection in order to kick-start the printing of her first book and keep the momentum rolling of the project that Megs & Bronnie were working on together.
Alongside the English version ‘Bounce’, whilst waiting for the illustrations to be finished Bronwen made the decision to translate her story into both Afrikaans and isiZulu. Being Proudly South African, this meant that ‘Bounce’ would reach a larger audience and kept her busy all while working on some other stories.
Bronwen approached Ntobeko Mlangeni, her daughter Nina’s isiZulu teacher from school about translating the book into isiZulu. It was great working with Ntobeko, he paid so much attention to detail and is very passionate about the isiZulu language and literacy.
Ntobeko advised that a glossary should be added at the back of the book and also conversation questions so that this would be a reader that would ensure better understanding of the story. Bronwen plans to include the glossary and questions in the Afrikaans book which is titled ‘Hop’ and to add it into the English book for her next print run.
Bronwen plans to include the glossary and questions in the Afrikaans book which is titled ‘Hop’ and to add it into the English book for her next print run.
Hilde-Mari Strydom translated the story into the Afrikaans book which is titled ‘Hop’. Hilde-Mari lives in Doha with her husband and three children and is proudly Afrikaans and thought that this would be a fun project to do. Bronwen and Hilde were working on a project together during lockdown and formed a great friendship even though they actually haven’t met in person yet but have spent many hours on video calls working on this project together.
Artistic creativity was given to the translators as it’s not as simple as directly translating from one language to another and still keep the magic and message of the story alive.
During the process of creating ‘Bounce’ Bronwen realised that illustrating isn’t a quick process so is now working with 2 additional Illustrators on other books. The stories are completely different but all have a message, one on how it is okay to be different and the other that if you are kind to others then they will be kind in return.
Bronwen has ideas on how to give back to the community and has approached the Santa Shoebox Project in the hope of including some of her books in the shoeboxes that are donated this year. She has also approached her daughter’s school Principal with the idea of working with the school’s Art teachers to discuss aproaching budding artists to be able to illustrate some books as she believes that this would be a great learning process for students & past students, assist with finances for future studies and perhaps be an inspiration to follow a career path within the artist, creative world.
Bronwen is a full time Event Manager and all this happens in her ‘spare time’ so this is her passion and DREAMING BIG!