New Ed & Bunny Book Arrives!
Lovely to receive my file copies of the fourth ED & BUNNY book in the post!
POP! on shortlist for Children’s Book Award 2025!
As usual no one tells me anything and by accident I found out that POP! made it onto the shortlist for the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Children’s Book Award last year! 55,000 young voters put POP! into the final 14 picture books. I’m well chuffed about that even if I found out a year too late!
Bookfest Bingo Card!
I’ve just done this Bingo Card for Children’s Bookfest which was great fun and a nice way to get kids reading in everyday life! find out more at https://www.childrensbookfest.com
London Kids Lit Festival 2026
Had a wonderful time on Saturday at The London Children’s Literature Festival I was made to feel very welcome indeed! As usual it descended into chaos beginning with me dressed in all my character hoodies (that was a bit warm I can tell you) then I came out in my Captain Looroll costume 2.0 and running around to the Superman theme then I proceeded to accidentally knock down the wall of toilet rolls I'd carefully built with the captain's cape! (The bloke in the Sainsburys Local where I purchased the 50 toilet rolls was very confused as I staggered out of the door with them!) From then on it all went by in a blur... toilet roll facts, a draw along followed by a make your own Captain Looroll session, then I signed some books (thanks everyone who came and bought them - really made my day) and gave everyone loads of stickers and then it was all over! it was time for a quick Magnum Ice Cream and back in the Vauxhall Agila and home!
Bauble in Trouble Window!
Here is a realtime video of me painting a Bauble in Trouble window at Bags of Books!
Beryl goes BIG (ish!)
The huge promotional juggernaut for Bauble In Trouble rolled into motion mid November. I did the window at the lovely Bags of Books in Lewes unfortunately it melted due to condensation so I had to do running repairs. Also there were some lovely reviews on Instagram and I also did a little event at Book Nook in Hove which surprisingly went well!
I meet Ed & Bunny Competition winner
I had a lovely time visiting Launcelot Primary School in Bromley last week meeting Anaya, the winner of the Ed & Bunny Character competition. I did a little event and I was filmed by the Department of Education! which was quite scary.
Ed & Bunny get political!
It’s been a busy time for Ed & Bunny, not least last week when they were photographed with The Secretary of State for Education (I have no idea what her name is I'm afraid but she is wearing a lovey pinky red jacket!) The government are launching financial education for kids so Ed & Bun fit right in.
New Book Alert!
As usual I am tardy with my news, so much so you could rename this section OLDS but anyway just a quick post to let the world know that my new book BAUIBLE IN TROUBLE is OUT NOW and obviously makes a perfect Christmas gift!
Ed & Bunny online game launched!
the charity Moneyheroes has launched an online game featuring Ed & Bunny! It is designed to help kids learn about money. You can play it here!
Rocketmole sort of on CBeebies!
Just seen that in October of last year Rocketmole was sort of on CBeebies Bedtime Stories! I have been hoping for one of my books to be read out by , ooh I don’t know, Danny Dyer or someone equally as wonderful but alas nothing has happened, but I stumbled across a couple of images of Rocketmole on a shelf in the background as someone is reading another book! I’ll take that!
World Book Day 2025
As usual i’m quite slow with the news but I had a lovely day at South Farnham School on World Book Day. I’d been a bit under the weather a few days before so I was a bit wobbly that was also due to the fact that only the day before when I checked to see how many stickers they would need they told me the school had 900 kids! GULP! Anyway I did the best I could. My usual Superbat gig for the infants and then a sort of ‘How I create a book’ talk for the juniors. It went by in a blur and I have no idea whether it was ok or not or even if anyone could hear me! But I have to say everyone looked brilliant in their costumes.
Ed & Bunny Competition
The wonderful people at the charity Moneyheroes have casked me to do a fourth Ed & Bunny book, which is great but get this… this book is going to have a competition to design a character which I will then put in the book! You can enter the competition at www.moneyheroes.org.uk. They got me in to do a day’s filming which was terrifying. Here is part of the result… Such a natural!
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!