Some of my fans at Tendring Tech. College

Who said that Year 7′s and 8′s don’t find books ‘cool’ anymore?  Who said that Year 7′s and 8′s think that author visits are boring? Who said that Year 7′s and 8′s don’t have any imagination and have lost their sense of humour?

Whoever said these things has obviously not visited Tendring Technology College or Billericay School!

During a hectic week I performed the Mokee Joe and Bonebreaker presentations to around 1200 Year 7′s and 8′s at these two wonderfully enthusiastic schools. Michelle Grosvenor and Jacqui Clare are the school librarians and their immense enthusiasm for all things literary has obviously rubbed off on the pupils under their care. All of the presentations proved to be great fun with pupils joining in at every opportunity. 

Fab audience at Billericay

We visited both of these Essex schools last year and were so taken up with the then Year 7′s we asked if we could come back…this time seeing the new Year 7′s and our ‘old friends’ in Year 8.  The visits worked a treat and four very happy days were spent by Kath and I in the good old county of Essex….though I have to say that November is not the best month to visit Clacton-on-Sea! Our only other disappointment was that we failed completely to spot Gavin and Stacey as we wandered up and down the Billericay High Street searching out a nice coffee shop!

Since the visit we have received lots of great e-mails to the website and a big ‘thank you’ for all of those…I will try to reply to them personally as soon as time allows.

During our last day on Friday – Children in Need Day – we sold over a hundred books to the Year 8′s at Billericay and this raised one hundred pounds for this lovely charity (we promised the day before to donate one pound for every book sold).  So well done to the book purchasers on that day!

Say....'Scabbajack'!

Oh well…we’re home again and for once I’ve got time to write!  I intend to work really hard on completing the much-awaited fourth Mokee Joe book; wouldn’t it be great to have it with me for our Essex trip next year?  Yes…Michelle and Jacqui insisted on yet another return visit…and with such wonderful hosts and so many keen fans waiting for us…how could we refuse!

See you all again soon.