Gosh, a whole 10 days since I posted anything. Sorry! But I do have an excuse...
I've been at the Chipping Norton Literary Festival, organising the children's events with my friend Jo Cotterill.
I've been at the Chipping Norton Literary Festival, organising the children's events with my friend Jo Cotterill.
The first thing we did was the festival's biggest author signing! A few months ago, Jo & I went into two Chipping Norton schools - Holy Trinity and St Mary's - and talked with the Year 5 children about some ideas for stories, based on an idea by some guy called William Shakespeare. And then some of the children wrote their own stories, and they got printed up in a book which we launched on Wednesday! Here are some of the books...
...and here are Jo and me and some of the authors at the launch event.
On Thursday came a day of events in schools, featuring some brilliant authors...
...the photo shows (back row) Bali Rai, Adam & Charlotte Gullain, Candy Gourlay, me, our junior reporter Pheebs, SF Said, (front row) Jo, Tamsin Murray, Cas Lester, and schools' coordinator Milly Weaver.
And then we were into a weekend packed full of fantastic events by the likes of amazing authors like Joanna Nadin...
And then we were into a weekend packed full of fantastic events by the likes of amazing authors like Joanna Nadin...
...Steve Cole...
...Sarwat Chadda...
... and for the little ones there were events from Teresa Heapy & Sue Heap, Atinuke, and Paul Stickland
(this is Paul showing his Dinosaur Roar illustrations before doing an amazing pop-up monster workshop).
Oh, and I did an event too. And so did Jo - an utterly fab and hugely entertaining event alongside her Electrigirl partner Cathy Brett...
Oh, and I did an event too. And so did Jo - an utterly fab and hugely entertaining event alongside her Electrigirl partner Cathy Brett...
Cathy & Jo are pictured here with Pheebs and our other junior reporter Mango Bubbles Boy.
Jo and I, along with Paul and his wife Helen, also performed as First Draft. That was fun.
Jo and I, along with Paul and his wife Helen, also performed as First Draft. That was fun.
I got to see some events from the grown-ups' programme, too, and hang out with authors like Mark Billingham, and Chris Brookmyre, and Saira off of Masterchef...
And there was a quiz on the Saturday night. Jo and I were on the winning team, along with - among others - novelist and former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis.
And that's why I've been too busy to blog for a few days...
