I’m delighted to announce the birthday of one of my local independent bookshop Mostly Books. Five years ago yesterday (1st July), they set up shop here in Abingdon and they’ve been nothing short of an inspiration to all book lovers. They were quickly recognised for their talent by winning the New Independent Bookshop of the [...]
Category > General
TARZAN COMPETITION: win a gorilla!
As part of Bristol Zoo’s WOW! Gorilla campaign (www.bristolzoo.org) and to celebrate the launch of TARZAN we are offering schools a chance to design your own colorful gorilla. The winning design will be sent a full size gorilla statute to paint up and I will be visiting your school to unveil it in true Tarzan [...]
Charity Auction!
It’s not often that I sell my artwork. I guess I’m thinking that one day I’ll have some kind of retrospective exhibition that will ease me into retirement. Meanwhile, 95% of my pictures are stored, rather too messily for my liking, in my loft. But there are exceptions to the rule. I was invited by [...]
Booksurfers – ain’t ebooks fab?
Reading is all about escaping, being able to slip away for a while from the real world and into another place, another time, another world. Imagine then what it would be like if, rather than just reading a book, you could somehow transport yourself into it…. This is exactly what happens to Jake, Harriet, Ryan [...]
Doodles
A page from my current sketchbook showing some familiar characters I like doodling at the moment. You may recognise some of the ‘themes’ from recent posts over the past couple of weeks.
Strange noises and yellow balls!
In a short while television will be dominated by the grunt-fest that is Wimbledon. Short skirts, grunting ladies, monsters in disguise… and some that are not! Anyway, I thought I’d set up a mini-league fantasy tennis team for those who are interested. It’s free, it’s a bit of fun and it might add a bit [...]
A Great Blog!
There are only a handful of blogs that I follow on a regular basis but if I had to pick my favourite it would probably this one here: mattiasa.blogspot.com/ The Swedish illustrator Mattias Adolfsson, blogs pretty much everyday, often using a moleskin to make these incredible drawings. As an illustrator you are often asked where [...]
HOW MANY BOOKS CAN YOU JUGGLE?
The Circus Stars Summer Reading Challenge has just kicked off with a fab new website – and some fab new videos from assorted children’s authors (including me!) to encourage you to get down to your local library and sign up. You can’t miss it! Check it out… HERE!
First Class – Four Grins
After being sniffy about the photoshopped poster in my last post, I’m back to tell you X-Men First Class is bloomin’ brilliant! I went the other night with a few friends and came out grinning. If I was running a star system here for my occasional ramblings about movies, books, TV stuff etc, I’d probably [...]
Scarily Pretty, Huh?
I’m a big, BIG fan of properly painted posters, especially for scary movies! I’ve got an original framed print of the ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ poster hanging in my study and, often when I’m supposed to be writing, I find myself staring into the depths of it. I just love the smoky-bronze, sepia-tinged glory of the [...]
