Armadillos are William's favourite animal. I had this rhyme running through my head, to the tune of "Clementine"; "Armadillo, armadillo, armadillo, so are you / Armadillo, armadillo, armadillo, you're one too". Which made no sense, so I changed it to "Armadillo, armadillo, armadillo in Peru / Armadillo, armadillo, la la la la, London Zoo". I didn't really like the idea of the armadillo being put in a zoo, but what if it just wanted to visit? That sounded better, but why would an armadillo want to visit a zoo? And how would it get there?

This was the first time I included backgrounds for my characters. Some of them, for example the rainforest, the train and the Underground station were drawn from my imagination while others, including Lima Airport, the view of Rio de Janeiro and the entrance to London Zoo are based on photos. The plane is loosely based on a 1940s DC3 "Dakota" - I thought it was more interesting than a modern airliner. The ship is a real one, the MV Adonia, which sails from Rio to Southampton, and it was drawn with the help of a 3D computer model.

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