Hesketh with Becconsall C of E Primary School

I wasn't feeling very well on Monday, but thankfully I was feeling much better today - a good job too as I was visiting Hesketh with Becconsall C of E Primary School at Hesketh Bank in Lancashire...

And WOW... what a good day it's been too. The school is full of wonderful, enthusiastic pupils and teachers... it was a fantastic day day. Thank you very much to the school librarian, Mrs Aspinall, for organizing the visit, and to the headmaster, Mr Smye-Rumsby, and all the other teachers for being so interested and enthusiastic about the day.

The day started off with an assembly in which I talked about writing and told a few stories - and Key Stage one children danced to The Monster Mash - WONDERFUL

There were lots of great sessions during the day, and everything ended with another assembly to see what everyone had been doing - followed by a book signing session that went on for an hour and a half. Thank you to everyone for being so patient during the signing session. I hope everyone enjoys the books they bought.

I'm looking forward to doing more work with everyone at Hesketh and Becconsall C of E Primary School in the future.

Tomorrow I'm off to Seacroft Grange Primary School in Leeds... See you soon.

Back to Work

I've been busy over the last few weeks and have not had chance to write anything in my diary. We've been out and about quite a bit as a family, Deanna and I went to the Federation of Children's Book Groups Conference (here you can see her with The Gruffalo - who was there to celebrate his 10th birthday with his creators Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler ), and we've been doing things around the house and in the garden. (I'll write a bit more about the conference soon and add a few more pictures too)

Now everyone's back at school and I'm back to work - it's hard getting anything done when everyone is at home but that will all change before the summer holiday as I'll have my own shed/outdoor office to work in by then.

In the morning I'm off to visit Christ Church C of E Primary School in Bilston - so here's a big hello to you if you're reading. See you tomorrow... now... back to work.

Razorbites and Powerball

Hip, hip hooray -

Today's the day that

Robo-runners Book 3 - Razorbites

Robo-runners Book 4 - Powerball

come out in paperback.

Rachel's Art Blog

Rachel, our eldest daughter, has just started her own blog - on which she'll be featuring lots of her artwork. She's only just started but you can take a look at it here.

Tuesday Night and Wednesday Day

On Tuesday evening Rachel and I went to Manchester to see Jackson Browne at the Apollo and he was fantastic... Jackson came on stage with his band at 8.00, performed for an hour, took a short break and then came back on for another hour and fifteen minutes. He performed lots of old favourites and tracks from his superb new album Time The Conqueror. We had a great time.

Yesterday I spent the day with fellow authors and poets - Terry Caffrey, Joe Stretch and John Siddique - at the Blackpool Sixth Form College, talking to some of the keen students about writing. It was an absolute pleasure meeting all the students, lecturers and Joe - who I'd never met before (his books are now on my "to read" list) - and great to meet up with Terry and John again too.

I seem to follow Terry Caffrey around quite a lot and often find myself visiting schools that he's been to... not surprising really as he has visited thousands of schools. I love his poetry style, and hearing him talk is always a pleasure. He's got a real gift for making people feel good about themselves.

I had a really good day and hope everyone else did too - Big Thanks to Estelle and the students for organising the day and for looking after us so well.

Today it's back to work.