Artistic Talent at Maltby Crags Juniors

Phew! It’s been a hectic week. Ap0logies to all those who follow my blog – you must have wondered where I’d got to!

I left my home town of Rotherham to visit a favourite all-boys junior school in Warwick…none other than Warwick Junior School. It’s such a welcoming school and my old mate Trevor Lewis is one of the senior staff there. He and his wife, Liz, always ask us around to Chez Lewis for a scrumptious meal and this time was no exception. (Doesn’t do anything for my waistline!)

As usual, the Warwickshire boys were superb and went ‘crackers’ for the Bonebreaker trilogy and even more ‘crackers’ for the new Scabbajack…this book really freaks people out, but it seems they just can’t resist reading it and giving themselves nightmares!

Thanks to everyone at Warwick Junior School for a truly memorable couple of days. Olivia…you were a wonderful host!

A quick turn around back home saw us setting off for Newbury, Berkshire – my old stamping ground – to attend our beautiful granddaughter’s Christening. All went extremely well for little Elizabeth Jane and even the weather put on a wonderful performance. For those who don’t know, our son, Simon, is himself a children’s author, and I can’t help wondering how little Elizabeth Jane is going to cope being brought up enveloped in a world of Icky Doo Dah, Mokee Joe and other monstrous creations…poor unsuspecting child!

I’m back in Rotherham now…my home town…and I’ve just been back to Broom Valley Junior School. This is the most amazing school!  The pupils are absolutely fanatical about my books and after my last visit I got over 70 e-mails in one evening to my website. It gave me great pleasure to present all of the Year 5’s with a free signed copy of Scabbajack…they truly deserve it (even though it will give them nightmares!) I saw them later on at the Magna Centre and they performed a Bollywood-style dance routine…it was brilliant. Well done to them!