Happy Birthday to Queen Victoria

On this day in 1819, Alexandrina Victoria was born at Kensington Palace in London.You can find out all about her in my History Heroes book... Victoria I....

A Quick Update

Over the past few weeks I've been busy writing so haven't had chance to put anything in my diary. As well as working on my bigger book - more about that as the year goes on - I've written a new picture book and sent it off to one of my editors to take a look at. Fingers frantically crossed there. I've also written a few very short stories - around 200 words each for one of my publishers. I was delighted when one of them -  Robbie's Robot - was accepted. Today I was sent a rough sketch to show me how the cover will look and I'm delighted with it - it should be a real fun little book. As soon as I get a finished cover I will put in here in my diary for you to see.

I have read through the final layouts for 
another of the History Heroes Books - this one all about the Dutch/Flemish artist, Pieter Bruegel the Elder - just a couple of little tweaks to be made there and they should be perfect. The artwork is great, as is the book that accompanies it about L.S. Lowry.

Both of these books will be published in December this year - I can't wait to see them. To go with the 8 History Heroes Books I have been slowly working on pages for them on my website. They are still under construction but please go and take a look and let me know what you think. You can even download Word Searches for each of the books to do at home or in school. Just click HERE to visit the History Heroes page.

That's all for now folks... Hope you're enjoying the Summer Holiday.

On This Day In 1969...

The Apollo 11 space rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. On board, the three American astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were just setting out on their voyage of discovery to the Moon.

You can read all about it in my History Heroes book all about Neil Armstrong - published by Franklin Watts, and illustrated by the excellent Mike Phillips... 

History Heroes

This week I've been busy working on a picture book - not quite finished yet - and a longer book. The longer book is coming along very nicely now and I'm eager to have it finished so I can let Vicky read it all before I tweak it again and send it off to a publisher. I've also been working on my web site, adding a section for my new History Heroes books - the first two of which were published earlier this month. The pages are still in progress as not all of the books have been published yet but please do take a look and let me know what you think...

On Monday this week I returned to Ripley Junior School to  work with year 3 and with the year 2 children that will be moving to the Junior School in September. It was great seeing everyone again and we had lots of fun coming up with two stories... One about a Ghostly Granny and one about a Cat who is a Master Thief. I hope everyone enjoys finishing the stories off - It'll be great to read them.

Tomorrow I'm visiting The Heys Primary School in Ashton-Under-Lyne... see you all soon.

Neil Armstrong

Today I'm busy working on a picture book story... but while I've been eating my lunch I've been making an animated gif of Neil Armstrong for my website's History Heroes section...

What do you think???

History Heroes

The first two books in my History Heroes series have just been published by Franklin Watts and I'm very excited about them...

History Heroes is a series of eight little books that focus on the lives of some famous people in history, all of whom are being looked at in schools - so hopefully they will prove to be very popular. The people's lives are told in a story style to make them more interesting to read and they've been illustrated by some fantastic illustrators to really bring them alive and add a little extra humour.

The first two books are about explorers - Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong. As soon as I receive my copies of the books I will be able to show what the insides of the books look like...

History Heroes

After weeks of non stop school visits I'm making the most of today's strike day in schools by catching up with some writing. At the moment I'm still busy working on my History Heroes series which is due to be published later this year but I'm itching to get on with some new stories too.

I had a great day yesterday at Coupe Green Primary School - and at Redbridge Primary School on Monday. Hello to everyone there and thank you for making me feel so welcome...

I've just stopped working to eat my lunch and to have a quick write in my diary as I thought you might like to see the finished covers for two of the History Heroes books... Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria I...  


The covers, and the books themselves, have been illustrated by a wonderful illustrator called Rupert Van Wyk. I know what you're thinking... The book cover says they have been illustrated by Mike Philips, but that's a mistake - "OOPS!" Mike has illustrated a couple of other books in the series. The finished books will definitely have the right names on the front.  

Red Pandas

Let me start off by saying a BIG HELLO to everyone at New Longton All Saints C.E. Primary School... I can't wait to meet you all. And also a Big Hello to Jasper - our Red Panda who we visited last week.

Since before Christmas, I've been busy working on a series of non-fiction books for one of my publishers - Franklin Watts (and lovely people they are too). I've written the first three books and am a good way through book four. I'm also busy researching the next four books which will be about Tim Berners-Lee, William Caxton, and the artists L.S. Lowry and Pieter Bruegel. I'm really enjoying writing the stories and it's fantastic seeing them being brought to life by the wonderful artwork. Right now I'm waiting to see the final colour artwork for Christopher Columbus and the rough artwork for Neil Armstrong. So far they are looking great.

As well as writing it's important to get out and about every now and then to see things in the real world... a good way of getting ideas for new books. Last week Vicky and I went to visit Chester Zoo to see Jasper, the red panda that I adopted for her last birthday. I'm sure that nobody else calls him Jasper but we thought it was a good name for a red panda, so that's what we decided to name him. Of course, when you adopt an animal at the zoo you can't actually bring them home with you  (probably a good job really as I'm sure that Polly, our cat, wouldn't be too happy) but you do get a nice adoption pack through the post and your name on a plaque by the animal's area.

We wanted to go back to the zoo on a nice, quiet day so we would have lots of time to spend looking at the animals - and especially the red pandas - without crowds of other people around. Apart from it being f-f-f-freezing, it was a perfect day. When we arrived at the Red Panda area, they were all curled up in the branches of the trees snoozing but when we came back round later, they were wide awake and wandering around as you can see in the picture above.

As well as seeing the red pandas wandering around, we also managed to catch the Two-Toed Sloth, also wide awake for a change...

It's good to be able to spend time looking at some of the more unusual birds and animals too, instead of spending all the time peering at the lions, tigers and elephants. The Pelicans were enjoying a good wash as you can see here - and at the bottom of the page you can see a picture of an African Grey Crowned Crane...

 

This crane shared an area with the pelicans and a few other birds. They have quite a large area to walk around in but as we walked around the outside, this crane followed us all the way. We couldn't make up our mind whether it liked us or wanted to chase us. 

 

 

St Anne's RC Primary School - Coventry

Here's a BIG HELLO to everyone at St Anne's RC Primary School in Coventry... Looking forward to seeing you all in the morning.

Since I last wrote in my diary I've been busy, busy, busy - working on my History Heroes books. I've just finished the first draft of the 3rd book - all about Queen Elizabeth I, and I'm on with book 4 - Queen Victoria. The books are due to be published later this year so I'd better get a move on.

Last week I received a large envelope through the post containing the first completed roughs of the Columbus book... It's looking really good and I can't wait to see more.