Last week I was incredibly honoured to take part in the 15th Anniversary celebrations of the National Literacy Trust’s National Young Reader Programme.  And what a brilliant day it was…

I boarded a no. 15 Routemaster bus at the London Dungeon along with the wonderful folk from the National Literacy Trust, some of my friends from Walker Books, Wally (star of the Where’s Wally?) books – and 30 pupils from St Augustine’s Primary School and kicked off the day with a reading from Scream Street 1: Fang of the Vampire, and a quick burst of my sound effect story.  Before long, we were joined by some of my own favourite authors and illustrators who took the entertainment reins one at a time – including Jeremy Strong, Cressida Cowell, Nick Sharratt, Marcia Williams, Chris Riddell, Polly Dunbar and Bruce Ingman.

As if that wasn’t exciting enough – we then stopped off at Clarence House for a quick cup of tea and to pick up an extra passenger – The Duchess of Cornwall!  Here you can see the Duchess as she hopped on board (and, if you look carefully, you can spot the back of my head in the bus window!)

We then continued along our route (spotting Wally Watchers along the way) to end up at the London Transport Museum for a royal reception with even more top names from children’s books.  You can read all about the day here: http://bit.ly/cyrRAO

Thanks to everyone at NLT and Walker Books for inviting me to take part – and for helping me to hone my curtsy skills before meeting the Duchess!

Tommy

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