Home / About
About the seriesA letter that became a kingdom.
Why the books exist, why chess, and who they are for.
Written by Matthew's dad.
I wrote the first book as a letter to my youngest son, Matthew: a map of how I see him. Clever, capable, thoughtful and different in all the best ways.
Chess was already the thing we shared, so our family moved onto the board. I became the nervous King, his mum the unstoppable Queen, his two big brothers the Rooks and the Bishops, and our two black labradors the Knights who can't stop jumping.
Four books later, the letters are still the heart of it. I write them for every child who thinks deeply, feels strongly and needs the world to slow down, and for every parent looking for the words to say so.
By day I've spent thirty years in business; this series is the most important thing I've written.
The board gives big feelings somewhere to go.
Children who think in patterns often find feelings hard to hold and harder to talk about. The chessboard gives those feelings a shape. The King panics, the Knights won't sit still, and the Queen waits for exactly the right moment.
Every chapter teaches a real chess idea, like tempo, forks or castling, alongside the matching idea for life: pause, notice, then move. Every book opens and closes with a letter from home.
You don't have to be fast. You don't have to be loud. You just have to be you.
The books don't label anyone. They celebrate the quiet, careful, noticing kind of mind, and show it winning.
Three things every book holds true.
Thinking is the superpower.
The hero wins by noticing, pausing and choosing. Speed and noise never win.
Feelings are information.
The King panics and is still the King. A hard moment is normal, it passes, and there are steps to come back from it.
You are loved on the board and off it.
Belonging never depends on winning, being right or being fast.
Letters from the King.
One short letter a month, for parents. A letter from the books, the real moment behind it, and one Mission to try at the kitchen table. Founding families hear first when the store opens, and get first access to the numbered Founders' Edition.