The tour continues!
It’s been a busy few weeks… i’ve been to Hampshire and South London, doing SPYDER school events then I took the Captain up to Leicester to be part of the Authors on Tour project, going into two lovely schools and causing the usual chaos! I even got to stay in a Premier inn and had to do running repairs on the captain in an Aldi car park! And last Saturday it was off to the wonderful Worthing Library for another event as part of the Worthing Festival.
Captain Looroll wins an award!
After getting long listed then short listed it was amazing to find out that Captain Looroll had won the Children’s Literature Festivals Book Award 2024 !!! I am a serial loser so it was a wonderful surprise!
Captain Looroll is Shortlisted!
Lovely news at Matt Carr Towers! (Not sure why I’ve said I have towers!) Captain Looroll has been shortlisted for two wonderful awards by Children’s Literature Festivals! Their mission is to get books to underprivileged kids so i’m really honoured to be nominated.
POP! Launches
Last week was quite a busy one on the book front. I did the window down at my local bookshop Bags Of Books which took AAAGES! ‘Why am I so slow at painting windows!?’ I asked myself on several occasions. Anyway finally got it done and I think it looked ok. Then on Saturday I did a little event thing at Book Nook Hove which went well I think. Sold a few books and T shirts, which I got printed. Have a look at my Instagram post here
World Book Day
I am often confused about dates and sometimes wake up in a cold sweat thinking that I am supposed to be at a school or an event somewhere and that’s exactly how I felt on the 6th of March when the lady from the school I was supposed to be at on World Book Day emailed to say she was looking forward to seeing me the following day! I had thought it was the week after and had booked to visit my friends primary school and so began a chaotic day with me driving to probably the poshest school i’ve ever been to, in Cobham Surrey, doing three events plus handing out the prizes for best dressed pupil (while dressed as a toilet roll I might add). They were ever so nice and invited me to lunch but alas I had to dash onto my next gig! This involved heading along the M25 down to a little village in Sussex. On the way I stopped at the services for a sandwich but they didn’t have any so I opted for a Cornish pasty (I make a rule of never eating them outside Cornwall, but this was a desperate situation) Then I lost my sat nave holder so I arrived at Maynards Green School covered in meat, potato and pastry with my phone parcel taped to the dashboard. After another chaotic event I made my way home for a well earned cuppa.
Crawley WordFest
I had a lovely day last Saturday at the Crawley Wordfest in the latest leg of my Captain Looroll tour! It was a really busy event and it was lots of fun! It follows on from the Bognor Children’s Festival the other week!
Captain Looroll is POOblished!
A lovely start to 2024! The sequel to Captain Looroll came out on January 4th!
Captain Looroll Number 2 arrives!
The other day copies of my next book CAPTAIN LOOROLL: NIGHT AT THE POO-SEUM arrived. It is always a frightening moment, unwrapping the parcel and seeing the finished thing. I can barely look at it for a few months in case I spot something wrong!
Captain Looroll Number 2 is on the way!
Here is the cover of my next book Captain Looroll: Night at the Poo-seum! which is out January 4th. This was as much of a surprise to me as it was to everyone else as in August I got an email saying can we finish artwork by end of month! I hadn’t even started it! Anyway I worked day and night and finally finished it by end of Sept! Phew! Its an epic adventure which hopefully everyone will like!
Chichester and Shoreham
I am as always glacially slow with ‘news’ but a few weeks ago I had a wonderful time doing the Chichester Festival and also Shoreham Word Fest. My Captain Looroll costume causes instant laughter among pretty much everyone who sees me trying to manoeuvre while wearing it and it took a real battering and I had to sew it back together in Tesco car park, much to the amusement / bemusement of passers by!
Dads Make Stories Magic
Just done a little Storytime Tips Video for the wonderful dadsmakestoriesmagic
Primadonna Done!
Just got back from a wonderful Captain Looroll event at Primadonna Festival in Suffolk. It was the first stop on my ‘You’re never too old to dress up as a toilet roll’ World Tour! As always I was a bit worried about whether anyone would turn up but they did and it went well I think. There was a Read-along / Fun Loo Quiz / Draw-along / Make Captain Looroll and Stickers Galore! Ironically I stayed in nearby LAVerham afterwards! Roll on Bath Festival in October!
The Captain Looroll World Tour Starts
The Captain Looroll world Tour starts at the end of the month at the Primadonna Festival in Suffolk! Check out my amazing costume!
Captain Looroll Launches!
Last week was a very busy week as my new picture book Captain Looroll launch into the big wide world! I did two window displays at Bags of Books in Lewes and The Book Nook in Hove as well as a little event thing at the latter. On the whole Captain Looroll seemed to go down well. as always with a new book you are petrified that no one will like it and self confidence takes a real battering! It didn’t help that when I arrived last Friday in the pouring rain at the bookshop in Hove to start on my window painting, there was a queue round the block for people waiting (in the pouring rain) to get a book signed by David Walliams! It was so busy I couldn’t get in and as I trudged off back past the huge queue to get a cup of tea (in the pouring rain) I thought my life would make a good sit com! “Don’t worry, they’ll be no such problems tomorrow” I joked upon my return and indeed I was right. When I finished the window just in time for my event thing the following day a smattering of kids and their bemused parents turned up to see a middle aged man read a book about a superhero toilet roll! As I was setting up, one kid, aged about 8ish asked me if I could read a different book instead! I told him I’m contractually obliged to read only my own books. He didn’t look pleased! All in all though over the few days Captain Looroll seemed to go down ok though and the window looked pretty colourful!
Whatever it Takes Book Award 2023
So pleased that Dave and Greta have been shortlisted for this fantastic award run by Leicester Council. Lots of kids will get my book to read and then decide whether they think its good enough to win! Watch this space!
Halloween SPYDER!
In all good bookshops right now is the brand new ORANGE edition of SPYDER! It’s very bright and perfect for Halloween!
Captain Looroll Announced!
As usual I’m late with news but last week Farshore Books announced my new book Captain Looroll which is out next April. You can read the Bookseller article here. I’m really excited about this book and apparently I’ve got to do a sequel too!
New Book Cover Reveal!
This is the cover for Dave and Greta Make The World Better! which is out in June and basically tells us that little things can help the environment and we don’t have to be a big rich important person to be an eco-warrior!
World Book Day week 2022
I had a lovely and busy World Book Day Week last week. Monday saw me rocking up at a village hall and standing in a ridiculous hoodie doing a book event in front of 6 bemused home schooled kids. (there were supposed to be more but sensibly they didn’t turn up! Tuesday saw me head into the gloomy grey drizzly day to the very swanky Cumnor House Prep school. They had a power cut so my first Ginny session was basically in the dark! Probably an improvement on my usual event! Then on weds I headed to Holy Cross school in Uckfield which was fine except the projector didn’t seem to show up the colour red so SuperBat was almost unrecognisable! Then on Thursday I travelled the 30 metres to the school just behind my house - this went pretty smoothly! I had Friday off!
