Beauty & the Bean
Beauty & the Bean is the softer imaginative strand of the wider work: an illustrated picture-book world built around Pip the Lentil and the companions who help the garden feel fuller, calmer, brighter, and more alive.
The series begins with Pip discovering that charging about like a bean-powered maniac is not the same as feeling well. From there the world opens gently: Beauty shows that being together can be calm and unforced, Professor Pulse makes steady feel learnable instead of magical, Petite Pois arrives as bright new belonging, and Lillie Legume deepens ordinary life simply by joining it warmly.
Omnibus synopsis
Set in a bright garden of flowers, paths, breakfast tables, and study stalk possibilities, Beauty & the Bean follows a small cast of legume companions as they learn how care, rhythm, curiosity, welcome, and practice shape a gentle life. Each volume stands on its own, but together they form one growing world: Pip learns to slow down, Beauty anchors wonder, Professor Pulse teaches steady, Petite Pois brings spring-like newness, and Lillie Legume turns simple moments into something richer.
Core cast
Pip the Lentil
Small, affectionate, and sometimes too quick for his own good. Pip is the series anchor, learning to slow down, listen, rest, and try again.
Beauty
A calm bean queen whose stillness changes the whole atmosphere. Beauty carries presence, togetherness, and the grace of simply staying.
Professor Pulse
A wise chickpea with tiny spectacles and gentle authority. He reminds the garden that wobbling is allowed and steady is something you practice.
Petite Pois
Tiny, lively, and full of questions. She arrives like spring itself, proving that belonging can begin simply because space is made with warmth.
Lillie Legume
A warm, observant visitor who makes breakfast, welcome, and ordinary companionship feel richer just by being gently present inside them.
Where the world is heading
As the garden grows, the cast is intended to widen without losing its softness. The younger companions may one day graduate from kindergarten and climb the study stalk of their choice, while Beauty remains in the garden as its quiet royal centre. The direction stays small-scale, warm, and emotionally true: more like a garden growing fuller than a world trying to get louder.
Current cast image
Preview
The first volume, Introducing Pip the Lentil, is available as an online preview below.
Developing omnibus world. Text and artwork remain part of the author’s wider Fieldnotes project.