Welcome to my shiny new page! I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to visiting your school in the autumn.
At the moment I am scurrying around planning my tent for Pop Up in July. I am lucky enough to be one of the curators – others include Philip Ardagh, Karin Littlewood, and Rastamouse so I am in rather starry company. My tent is being transformed into the tavern that features in A Nest of Vipers. Here you will be able to learn how to swear with authentic 18th century oaths from an I8th century Innkeeper, write time travelling stories, and see them come to life with on the spot illustrations.
There’ll be straw on the floor, a flickering fireplace and silly costumes, so come along on July the 9th if you can.
The drawings on this page are a couple of characters from a book that isn’t even finished yet – it’s provisionally called Sawbones and it is set in 1793 in London. It’s about Ezra McAdam, a surgeons’ apprentice, who’s life changes when a corpse is bought in for anatomizing that has no tongue…
It’s a bit gory and a roller coaster adventure to track he killers of the tongueless man and the father of Loveday Finch, a magician’s assistant. Think of it as a sort of Tv programme like Silent Witness or Bones in the 18th century!
I thought I’d keep up to date with my reading here too, so for the summer I have a couple of recommendations, a spooky read for those who like a scare; The Glass Demon by Helen Grant, I thought it was brilliant. Another one to look out for is Wickedness which comes out in the autumn, by Deborah White.
And for picture book lovers, read Death, Duck and the Tulip, by Wolf Elbruch, it is one of the most sensitive and touching books I have ever read.