St Peter's RC Primary School - Stockport

A very quick hello to everyone at St Peter's R C Primary School in Stockport where I will be spending the day tomorrow. I can't wait to meet everyone and to hear what your favourite books are...

It's going to be a fun day - see you all soon.

Since Christmas I've been busy writing about a schoolboy superhero and planning out some new, bigger books. It's going to be nice to get out from behind my laptop for a while...

Newall Green Primary School

My plans to write in my diary ever week have not got off to a good start this year... it's already February and this is the first thing I've written. So far, the year has been spent catching up with things and writing.

Tomorrow I will be spending the day at Newall Green Primary School in Manchester to lead an Able Writers' Day with year 3 and 4 writers from Newall Green Primary, Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, The Willows Primary School, St Wilfred's Church of England Aided Primary School and St Anthony's Catholic Primary School ... A HUGE HELLO to you all. 

It's going to be a fun day and I can't wait to meet everyone. Writing workshops are always interesting as I never know what kind of story we are going to create - and it's also fantastic to see what all of the talented writers come up with when they let their imaginations fly. Some of the writers even surprise themselves.   

In my next diary entry I will let you know what I've been up to...   

A Very Quick Hello...

A very quick hello to everyone at Barnsole Primary School in Gillingham - I will see you all very soon.  

There's lots been going on since my last diary post (I've been so busy that I haven't been able to write anything here) so I will write more tonight. News of what I'm doing, where we've been and the publication of my 100th book - so please come back very soon...

Next week - Morden Mount Primary School

I've been out and about quite a bit recently visiting schools and next week is no exception - on Monday I'll be spending the day with everyone at Morden Mount Primary School in Greenwich, London. A HUGE HELLO to you all - I'm looking forward to meeting you on Monday.

Last Friday I visited Woodbank Primary School in Bury, Lancashire... I had a fantastic day with everyone. Thank you for making me feel so welcome and for showing me you fantastic new library bus.

Visiting Skomer Island

All of the wildlife pictures on the diary page are from our trip to Skomer Island a couple of days ago...

Tomorrow I'm going to be spending the day with everyone at Woodbank Primary School in Bury where I've been asked to open their new library. Opening a new school library is always a pleasure and an honour - and this library sounds like it is going to be something different as it's on a converted bus so I can't wait to come along and meet everyone. 

On Monday I will be working with lots of year six pupils that are visiting Shuttleworth College in Padiham - so here's a HUGE HELLO to all of you that will be coming along to take part. One of my writer friends - the excellent Jon Mayhew will also be their so it should be a fantastic day.

On Tuesday net week I will be visiting Bewsey Lodge Primary School in Warrington - HELLO to you all... I can't wait to see you all.

Today I'm working from home... one of the good things about working from home is that you don't have to travel to work. One of the bad things is that you don't always get a day off as there is always some work that needs doing - this might be writing stories, writing letters and emails, or some other paperwork that needs to be done - so it's really good when I get to leave the work behind and go somewhere different. 

On Sunday, Vicky and I drove down to Tenby in the South West corner of Wales - a beautiful part of the country. We were up early on Monday morning to take a boat over to Skomer Island. 

The Island is home to lots of protected wild birds, and at this time of the year it is home to Puffins who go there to nest.

The island is only a mile off the Pembrokeshire coast so it doesn't take long to get there. We spent the whole day on the island taking photographs of the Puffins and lots of other birds. We even spotted a few grey seals and a dolphin.

The European School of Munich

A very quick message to say a huge HELLO to everyone at The European School of Munich... My bags are packed and I'm looking forward to meeting you all later this week.

See you soon...

The British Primary School of Wilanow

A huge hello to everyone at the British Primary School of Wilanow ... I'm looking forward to meeting and working with you all this week.

I was awake at 2am this morning at home in Wales and right this minute I'm sat at Manchester airport waiting for the first part of my flight to Warsaw, Poland. I'll be getting on another plane in Amsterdam and should arrive in Warsaw at about lunchtime.

I will be taking pictures and adding messages here (and on Twitter) as my trip progresses.

See you all soon...

After landing at Warsaw airport I was met by the school principal, Mr McGrath, who kindly gave me a little tour of Warsaw before dropping me off at my hotel... thank you Mr. McGrath.

My hotel was very modern with a window that filled one wall, giving a great view of the countryside.

Rather than catching up on some sleep I wanted to make the most of the time I had so decided to go for a little walk around the local area. 

First of all I wanted to see where the school was so that I wouldn't get lost the next day. No need to have worried about that though as the school was less than five minutes walk from my hotel.

Wilanow is a very modern part of Warsaw as you can see from this huge Catholic Church...

But there's also a few older, interesting buildings like this old church 

and the beautiful palace of King Jan III...

My two days in Wilanow at the British School whizzed by. It was fantastic meeting everyone and having the chance to work with each class in school. 

A huge thank you to everyone for making feel so welcome and for looking after me. I hope that I have the chance to come back and see you all again before too long.