How do you explain to your child that you have cancer? This is what writer Siobhán Dowd considered when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She decided to write a fantasy novel. Sadly, the author died when she had the characters and plot in place, and the publisher decided to pass the material on to another young adult novelist, Patrick Ness, who published A monster comes to see me in 2011, with illustrations by Jim Kay. In 2016 JA Bayona He turned it into a highly successful international film adaptation and in 2018 it arrived at London's Old Vic.