Blog

  • Pictures Mean Business

    A few days ago I saw a new hashtag that was trending among writers on Twitter – #PicturesMeanBusiness.  It is a new campaign to encourage us to take more notice of book illustrators and cover designers, the people who take our stories and weave them together with paint and art and produce beautiful pictures to clothe Read more

  • The Story Place

    This week there has been a lot of love for libraries on Twitter and Facebook, fuelled by National Libraries Day and by the threat that public funding cuts pose to libraries across the UK. When I was a child, the library was the place that I loved the most, after home. We couldn’t afford many Read more

  • Say Yes More

    Well Happy New Year (yes, I know I’m late). Well here we are in 2015. This time last year I was nervously waiting for the outcome of the Firefly Press prize. A year later here I am, with a book on the shelf with my name on the spine, a first draft of another ready Read more

  • Books for Advent 3 – The Church Mice at Christmas

    One of my absolute favourite Christmas books this week. Graham Oakley’s wonderful Church Mice books have been a well-loved part of childhood since their first outing in 1972. Published in 1980, The Church Mice at Christmas is the seventh title in the series and sees Arthur, Humphrey and rest of the canny church mice trying Read more

  • Books for Advent 2 – Bear Stays Up

    This week I’m cheating a little and recommending two picture books for you – both involving Bears who want to see Santa. Bear Stays Up by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman is a charming tale of a bear whose friends are determined not to let him sleep through Christmas. The animals are beautifully rendered, with Read more

  • Books for Advent 1 – The Christmas Mystery

    Jostein Gaarder’s wonderful The Christmas Mystery is an advent calendar in book form. The best way to read it is to open one of its 24 short chapters each day, beginning on December 1st and let the adventure unfold gradually, rather than racing through it in one sitting. I can’t find my copy at the Read more