The Oaks Community Primary School

This week it's World Book Week - World Book Day itself on Thursday... It's great to be getting back out and visiting some schools and I'm delighted to be flying off to visit The Oaks Community Primary School in Ellesmere Port tomorrow. Okay... I won't actually be flying as there's nowhere to land, so I'll come in the car. 

I can't wait to meet everyone... See you all soon.

Caernarfon Castle

As an author I work from home, and I enjoy doing so. But it's great to get out of the house when I can. 

It's good to get some excersise and it's good to see and experience things that can prove useful when writing a story. 

On Friday, Vicky and I drove a little way along the coast to visit Caernarfon Castle. The castle is over 800 years old, constructed under the orders of King Edward I of England (also known as Edward Longshanks) 1272 - 1307. 

It's a hugely impressive castle and I would highly recommend visiting when you can.  There's lots of turrets and towers to explore - so that means there are a lot of steps too. Make sure you wear some comfortable, sensible shoes... you don't want to slip. 

As you can see, the spiral steps are quite narrow - and some of them are much narrower than these. By the end of the day our legs were aching, but it was well worth climbing to the top of all the towers. The views were excellent. I'm just glad that I didn't have to climb the towers wearing armour and carrying a sword.

A couple of the castle towers are home to the museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, which makes for another interesting part of the visit. Here you learn all about Wales's oldest infantry regiment and the part they have played over the years.   

Recently, I've been busy writing a mixture of non-fiction, and fiction books. I've written a small non-fiction book about the Forbidden City in China, and a book called 'Discovering Dinosaurs'. The dinosaur book will be published in Britain in October this year. Right now I'm working on some little fiction books about dinosaurs. They are lots of fun and I will tell you more about them when I can.  

Next week I'll be getting out of the house again to help celebrate World Book Day. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone at The Oaks Primary School in Ellesmere Port, Walverden Primary School in Nelson, and Brinscall St John's C of E Methodist Primary School, in Chorley. After a couple of years without the usual World Book Day celebrations it's great to be getting back out on the road. It's also nice that the schools aren't too far away... Some years I spend the whole week travelling the length and breadth of the country and staying away from home.