Celebrating 22 Years as Barrington’s Signature Magazine
Celebrating 22 Years as Barrington’s Signature Magazine
When Quintessential Barrington first introduced readers to author and entrepreneur Chad Stewart in 2023, his ambitious vision for Britfield extended well beyond a series of adventure novels. Three years later, that vision is taking shape.
With expanding international readership, a growing presence in classrooms, and plans underway to bring Britfield to the big screen, Stewart is building something far larger than a literary franchise. We caught up with him to explore the progress, challenges, and possibilities of transforming a compelling story into a global media brand.
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When QB first wrote about Britfield in May/June 2023, you had a remarkably ambitious vision. What tells you the idea is gaining traction?
In 2023, we had three books—Britfield & the Lost Crown: England, Britfield & the Rise of the Lion: France, and Britfield & the Return of the Prince: Italy—and also a newly premiered stage play, early development on the first live-action film, and a national and global strategy. Three years later, nearly every part of that vision has become reality.
The fourth novel, Britfield & the Eastern Empire, launched worldwide in January 2025, and Book V, Britfield & the Lost Treasure, will be released in January 2027. We’ve built global distribution: the books are now in bookstores, libraries, and schools across the United States, Britain, parts of Europe, and are selling in 16 other countries.
Internationally, we attended the London Book Fair in March and the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, and rights conversations are underway in France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, India, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil, and several others. That’s over a dozen markets across four continents.
Finally, the screenplay and infrastructure for Britfield & the Lost Crown are complete; we’re moving into pre-production and tentatively planning to shoot across Britain in 2027.
Britfield began as a book series. When did you realize you were creating a story world that could exist across multiple media platforms?
Britfield began with a single image: a drawing of two children escaping in a hot-air balloon over the English countryside. But as I mapped out the story, I realized it wasn’t one book; it was a seven-book journey across the world. Tom and Sarah’s search for the truth about Tom’s family takes them across England, France, Italy, Eastern Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States, including almost 50 countries and cultures.
Based on the three-act movie structure, every location is real, and the chapters move with the pace and visual language of a film. But Britfield became more than a book series. It grew into an empire spanning literature, education, films, media, and merchandise.
Yet the goal has always been to inspire the next generation through stories set in today’s world, where readers discover other cultures, history, geography, and architecture through themes of hope and courage.
That vision became real in 2022, when I watched students perform the Britfield stage play: more than 30 young actors in costume, a hot-air balloon onstage, and a packed audience of students and parents. That’s when I knew Britfield had become something bigger than a series. Today, teachers in thousands of schools use the books to teach literature, history, and geography.
What makes Britfield different from the many children’s and young-adult properties competing for attention today?
First, it’s authentic. No magical powers, invented kingdoms, or fantasy worlds. Britfield unfolds in real places (Oxford, Windsor, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, Florence, Venice, Vienna, Prague, and St. Petersburg), with real history and geography driving the adventure. Readers aren’t escaping the world; they’re discovering it.
Second, it’s cross-generational. Our readers range from seven to 92, and about half are adults. Grandparents read it with grandchildren, parents read it with their kids, and teenagers love it!
Third, at its heart, Britfield is about family, friendship, loyalty, and courage. Tom and Sarah, both orphans, succeed through ingenuity,determination, and teamwork, not magic or superpowers. Parents appreciate what the story stands for; children love its adventure. That’s the difference: parents feel good sharing it, and children can’t put it down.
What surprised you most about the response from young readers, parents, and educators?
I expected avid readers to enjoy Britfield, but I didn’t expect its impact on reluctant readers, kids who had never finished a novel. One librarian told me a mother stopped her in the hallway and exclaimed, “You’re the one who finally got my son to read, all because of Britfield!” He was in eighth grade, and Britfield was the first book he’d ever enjoyed.
The second surprise was how widely it reaches across generations. I’ve heard from an 83-year-old reader in Canada, from a Texas family who took their granddaughter on a hot air balloon ride for her birthday because of the book, and from a 14-year-old who shelved it beside The Lord of the Rings. Readers have compared the series to James Bond, C. S. Lewis, CharlesDickens, and Les Misérables, among other bestsellers.
And then there are the teachers. On my school tours, I visited more than 200 schools in 23 states and spoke to over 40,000 students. Teachers didn’t just invite me back; they began teaching the books, using our 83-page study guide. Britfield has brought culture, education, and creativity back into the classroom.
Of everything you’ve accomplished with Britfield so far, what gives you the greatest confidence that these characters and stories have staying power?
The strongest signal is that readers keep coming back. Britfield & the Lost Crown has won many awards, but the real proof of staying power is when families finish Book Four and ask, “When’s the next one?” Word of mouth has spread quickly, and I’ve heard from parents whose children have read each book five, six, even seven times.
The other signal is that the story works beyond the page. Students perform Britfield on stage, teachers build lessons around it, and it’s reaching new audiences abroad. A Polish publisher has acquired the first three books, and international publishers in Europe, Asia, and Latin America are now negotiating translation rights.
You envision seven books and eventually films, educational programs, licensing, merchandise, and international media. How do all those pieces fit together without losing the story at the center?
The Britfield novels are the source; everything else builds on them. Films introduce the story to people who might never pick up the books, and the best adaptations send audiences back to the page. Classroom materials bring the story into schools, where lifelong readers are often made. The stage play lets students live the story firsthand. And licensing and merchandise let families bring a piece of Britfield home. A board game that begins at Weatherly Orphanage and ends in Dover isn’t just a product with a logo; it’s another way to take the journey.
You’ve approached Britfield as an author and an entrepreneur. What have you learned about turning a creative idea into enduring intellectual property?
Creativity starts the story; structure makes it last. A beautiful book without a long-term plan might survive a season, but intellectual property meant to endure for generations requires carefully managed rights, strong partners, and patience. So, we treated 2019–2025 as a deliberate soft launch, piloting school visits, virtual author programs, a stage play, and international rights deals, then carefully scaled it into a global launch.
You’re working on turning Britfield & the Lost Crown into a movie filmed in England. What are the challenges of putting together a feature-length film?
Most of the work happens before anyone says “action,” and it starts with the screenplay. Our script, written with screenwriter Rick Rapier, went through years of revision before we locked the final draft in 2026. Turning a full-length novel into a two-hour film demands tough choices, and everything rests on getting that foundation right.
Next come the attachments: a director with family action-adventure experience and recognizable British actors. Those names unlock financing, distribution, and international pre-sales. We’ve chosen an independent production model to protect the story, paired with a major distributor for worldwide release.
Then there’s the challenge of making Britfield authentically British. The story moves through Yorkshire, Oxford, Windsor, London, and Dover, so filming in England matters, but not every landmark permits production. We have to balance real locations, sets, visual effects, and logistics, including the hot-air-balloon sequence. We’re now in pre-production, with principal photography targeted for 2027 and a tentative global release in November 2028. It’s a long road, but every decision comes back to one thing: getting the story right.
Chad, you’ve spent years building Britfield and talking about where it can go. But when you strip all of that away—the books, films, business plans, and ambitions—what moment in this journey has brought you the most joy?
The children it has inspired, and the world we built. Each book starts as a blank page and, years later, becomes an uplifting adventure. At heart, Britfield is a tribute to real places and the people who call them home. One of the closing paragraphs from Book V says it all: “Along the way, they had gained wisdom, forged friendships, and refined their character. Together, the trio crossed continents, encountered new cultures, survived extraordinary odds, and learned that the greatest adventures were the ones shared with those they loved. Tom, Sarah, and Hunter discovered that people were much the same wherever they went. They all carried hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, strengths and weaknesses. No one was perfect, but despite differences in language, culture, or nationality, most people were kind, generous, and willing to help when it mattered most.”
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