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‘Writing the Wild’ – A Creative Writing Workshop with Lucy Christopher [RSPB Event]

May 9, 2016 By achuka Leave a Comment

Join award-winning author Lucy Christopher to discover the ways in which writing the wild and using setting can be important and inspiring for fiction. In a fun and interactive day of writing exercises and exploration, Lucy will guide you through the methods she uses to research and develop her novels.

Saturday 18 June
10am – 4pm
Price: RSPB members £36 / non members £45

Booking essential
via The RSPB: Events: ‘Writing the Wild’ Creative Writing Workshop.

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: events, workshop

£400 Raised In Auction Bid For Greenpeace At Island Launch

November 7, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

An illustration by Chris Riddell raised £400 for Greenpeace in an impromptu auction held at the end of a launch event at Waterstones Brighton for Nicky Singer’s crowd-funded novelisation of her stage-play Island.
The novel Island will be reviewed by ACHUKA shortly.
For background to the reasons why an author of Nicky Singer’s calibre needed to crowd fund her novel, read her blog post, which also forms an Afterword to the novel.

representative of Greenpeace

representative of Greenpeace


Nicky Singer

Nicky Singer


Candy Gourlay, a supportive  fellow author

Candy Gourlay, a supportive fellow author


Chris Riddell's drawing hand I

Chris Riddell’s drawing hand I


Chris Riddell's drawing hand II

Chris Riddell’s drawing hand II


the auctioned live-drawn  illustration

the auctioned live-drawn illustration

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: events, launches

School Librarian of the Year – updated

October 6, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

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There were three librarians shortlisted for this year’s School Librarian of the Year Award, an annual award that aims to recognize the excellent work that is carried out in school libraries every day and to highlight the best practice of those whose work is outstanding.

The award winner, Annie Brady of St Paul’s CBS Secondary School, had their award announced and presented by Kevin Brooks at the RSA on Monday 5th October.

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Keven Brooks announcing the award winner

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The other two librarians shortlisted for the Honour list were Chris Routh, of Leighton Park School a Quaker Independent School in Reading and Jane Spall, Aith Junior High School, Shetland.

As well as presenting the awards, including the Inspiration Award for for innovative use of a library space, Brooks gave an after-lunch keynote address.

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Keven Brooks giving his after-lunch keynote

Brooks told his audience that one of his earliest jobs was at Exeter library where he was employed to help produce an archive index of a local paper that had been in print since the 1800s. The work was so dull he found himself embarking on one of his first works of fiction, by inventing a family and creating events and dates to include in the index. He believes those details will still be somewhere in the archive.

One of the things that endeared Brooks to libraries was the fact that “you can almost guarantee you won’t be beaten up in a library”.

He dislikes the term ‘reading for pleasure’, because for him that’s the most important kind of reading. “If a natural reader like me can start going off reading books as a result of studying literature, what hope is there for others?”

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Tim Bowler listening to Kevin Brooks’ talk

Partly because as a boy he was never the type to go up and ask a librarian something, preferring to discover his way about the shelves by himself, when he first became a published author and began doing school visits he didn’t quite understand the need for the librarian as adviser/gatekeeper. “Kids don’t need advice about what music to like.” But he has shifted this point of view somewhat and now, especially when reading and the livelihood of authors is under so much pressure, sees the essential role that school librarians play.

There were video presentations from each of the Honour-listed libraries before the announcement of the winner, the most entertaining of which was by Chris Routh’s school, a skillful spoof with voiceover and printed screen statements in the style of a government health warning in which reading was presented as a dangerously addictive habit. After carefully collating the marks against a range of criteria we were told that only three marks separated the three librarians, but the overall winner was Annie Brady from Dublin, whose own video drew a reaction from the audience when a group of readers were seen apparently sinking into a swamp. In her brief acceptance speech she explained that this was part of an education visit to the Irish bogs.

To read more about Annie go to http://www.sla.org.uk/annie-brady.php

The event was attended by other authors besides Brooks, including Kevin Crossley-Holland (in his official role with the SLA, Tim Bowler and Gillian Cross, as well as previous winners of the Librarian of the Year Award, notably John Iona, one of this year’s judges.

Previous Winners of the SLA School Librarian of the Year Award

  • 2014: Liz Millett – Weatherfield Academy, Dunstable
  • 2013: Hilary Cantwell – St Paul’s Community College, Waterford, Republic of Ireland
  • 2013: John Iona – Oasis Academy, Enfield, Middlesex
  • 2012: Adam Lancaster – Monk’s Walk School, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
  • 2011: Carol Webb – Forest Hill School, London
  • 2010: Duncan Wright – Stewart’s Melville College, Edinburgh
  • 2010: Kevin Sheehan – Offerton School, Stockport
  • 2009: Lucy Bakewell – Hill West Primary School, Sutton Coldfield
  • 2008: Nikki Heath – Werneth School, Stockport
  • 2007: Ingrid Hopson – George Abbot School, Guildford
  • 2006: Anne-Marie Tarter – Ripon Grammar School, North Yorkshire
  • 2005: Anne Robinson – Nicholas Chamberlaine Technology College, Bedworth

Nominations for School Librarian of the Year 2016 will open in October 2015.

Nomination forms will be available from the SLA website: www.sla.org.uk/slya

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: awards, prizes

Frances Lincoln Picture Book Launch – T-Veg (the story of a carrot-crunching dinosaur)

September 18, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

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Having attended the launch for Katherina Manolessou’s first picture book, Zoom Zoom Zoom, it was a pleasure to be invited to the launch of T-Veg, written by Smriti Prasadam-Halls, illustrated by Katherina and published by Frances Lincoln.

The venue was the same as for that earlier launch party, Material Bookshop & Gallery.

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Katherina’s artwork from the book is being exhibited by the gallery and is on show until 20th September.

An unexpected pleasure at this launch was an appearance by one of my favourite comedians, Sally Phillips (of Smack The Pony fame), who performed a full reading from the book, after separate talks from Rachel Williams, the publisher, and then the author and illustrator.

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The launch was really well attended and after the talks a long queue formed for signing the book, which was being sold at a specially reduced price of £10 for the event.

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l to r: Sally Phillips, Smriti Prasadam-Halls, Katherina Manolessou, Rachel Williams

l to r: Sally Phillips, Smriti Prasadam-Halls, Katherina Manolessou, Rachel Williams

All photographs are by me, with the exception of the final captioned picture, which is by the fabulous publicist Nicky Potter

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events, Features Tagged With: "Sally Phillips", event, illustration, illustrator, launch

Shirley Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award

July 8, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA was privileged to be invited to Book Trust’s presentation of the first Lifetime Achievement to Shirley Hughes yesterday, at the Orangery in Holland Park.

Michael Morpurgo agave an introductory speech (written in the mistaken assurance that Shirley would be wearing a hat, as she generally does to literary parties) which had just the right mix of humour and veneration. There were lots of ‘great & good’ people in attendance, including the new Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell.  It was a particular pleasure for me to see Clare Hall-Craggs acting as Shirley’s chaperone as well as meeting up with, for the first time in years, Ted Dewan, both longtime ACHUKA friends. After the formalities, a local Y2 class were treated to a special live drawing session in an outside marquee. Shirley drew Alfie running and two illustrations based on comical rhymes, all undertaken in a charming non-performance-like way, so that it was as if we were watching her draw in a home setting. I wish my three grownup children and both grandchildren, all of whom have loved her books, could have been there. 

The cupcakes featuring Shirley Hughes book jackets (pictured below) were made for the occasion by Bluebell Kitchen.

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Shirley drawing Alfie

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Chris Riddell sketching as Shirley draws

Chris Riddell sketching as Shirley draws

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Lifetime Achiever Talks to new Laureate

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specially commissioned cup-cakes

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Clare Hall-Craggs speaking with Shirley towards the end of the event

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: award, Book trust, drawing, illustration, Lifetime Achievement, presentation

New YA Book Prize shortlist announced

December 4, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Foyles Charing Cross, London, on 19 March 2015.
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The ten books in contention for this year’s prize are:

  • Goose by Dawn O’Porter (Hot Key Books)
    “A rare capture of teenage emotion that cannot go without acclaim”: read teen site member OrliTheBookworm’s review here.
  • Salvage by Keren David (Atom/Little,Brown)
    “It has heart without being sentimental”: Read Linda Buckley-Archer’s reviewhere.
  • Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill (Quercus)
    “I did not hesitate to shed a tear or two”: read teen site member Abundantly_dramatic’s review here.
    “Gripping and has a good concept”: read teen site member laura,thespecialone’s review here.
    “You don’t get very many books quite as unique as this”: read teen site member ABitCrazy’s review here.
  • Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion)
    Marcus Sedgwick talks to teen site member Patrick about The Ghosts of Heaven
    “A triumph – set to wonder and beguile its readers”: read teen site member CaraErica’s review here.
  • Trouble by Non Pratt (Walker)
    Find out all about Trouble, our March Teen Book Club read
    Guardian children’s books podcast – Non Pratt on Trouble
    “Eye opening”: read teen site member emybot’s review here.
    “What’s new with Trouble is the narrative”: read teen site member Joel’s reviewhere.
Non Pratt’s Trouble explores teenager pregnancy. Photograph: Jordan Curtis Hughes/PR
  • Lobsters by Lucy Ivison and Tom Ellen (Chicken House)
    “I loved the fact that everything that happened in the book was so frank and real compared to other YA books”: read teen site member oreosandlemons reviewhere.
    “Lobsters in a fun, light read that highlights what each and every teenager goes through today”: read teen site member XoXo, BOOK WORM_98’s review here.
  • Finding a Voice by Kim Hood (O’Brien Press)
    Read Kim Hood’s top 10 characters with a disability
  • Say Her Name by James Dawson (Hot Key Books)
    Read James Dawson’s top 10 urban legends
  • A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond (Hodder Children’s Books)
    Group site members Millennium RIOT Readers interview David Almond about A Song for Ella Grey and more
    “It opens your eyes to the myths of the past”: read teen site member jboo1698’s review here.
    “When you don’t truly know what you feel, it’s kind of hard to describe it”: read teen site member XoXo, BOOK WORM_98’s review here.
New kid on the YA block, Sally Green – author of Half Bad. Photograph: Mark Allan/PR
  • Half Bad by Sally Green (Penguin)
    Read the first chapter of Half Bad here
    Sally Green takes on the Guardian children’s books quickfire interview
    “The opening pages are crammed with tension”: read teen site member Sophie Louise’s review here.
    “Sally Green’s gritty approach to witches has received heaps of praise”: read teen site member onceuponatime’s review here.

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: awards, prizes

Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2014

November 15, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

I’m amazed that it must be some six years since I have been able to attend the presentation of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, but it has to be that long because last Thursday was my first visit to the ‘new’ Guardian offices beside the Regents Canal.
What a splendid area of London this is becoming!
Writers have always coveted this prize because the judging panel is made up of fellow authors – this year Frank Cottrell Boyce, Gillian Cross and Katherine Rundell.
Since moving to the new offices the occasion has become much more party-like, especially so since the Children’s Books section of the website has become heavily involved in promoting both the longlist and shortlist, and in running the Young Critics competition. Indeed, a presentation to the winning Young Critics preceded the announcement of the main prize.
This year the shortlist of four books included two by UK authors and two by Americans. When I looked around the gathering and could see no evidence that either American author was attending – which I took as a strong hint the prize would go to one of the two UK authors – I found myself hoping that the winner would be S F Said, for his big sci-fi adventure, Phoenix, if only because it would have been such a significant boost not just for S F Said himself (though we know from the example of Philip Pullman how transforming winning this prize can be) but also for the science fiction genre in general, and a very good thing for heavily illustrated fiction for middle and older readers (the illustrations by Dave McKean are such a significant feature of this book).
The judges must have found it difficult comparing four hugely different books. Let’s, for sake of argument (as I have no insider knowledge of the judges’ deliberations), imagine that it had all come down to a straight choice between The Dark Wild and We Were Liars. How on earth do you make a decision about which is the most deserving book in that scenario? I suppose, although I have some reservations about The Dark Wild (it seems to me it cries out to be illustrated to bring the story fully to life; it also seems somehow odd to award the prize to the middle book in a trilogy), in that case I would also have cast my vote for Torday, conscious that this is a Children’s Fiction Prize, and as fantastic a book as E L Lockart’s is, it is, in my view, a bit of a stretch to call it a children’s book.
I am sure winning the prize will do good things for Piers Torday too, though talking animal fiction is not so in need of a fillip as is sci-fi.
Julia Eccleshare, in her introduction to the presentation, spoke about the longevity of children’s books and the fact that they are very much not here-today-gone-tomorrow; Torday himself, in his acceptance speech, took aim at the Education Secretary’s recent announcement disparaging the study of humanities subjects; and in between, Katherine Rundell, who, in Frank Cottrell Boyce’s absence was the spokesperson for the judges, gave short accounts of the strengths in all the long-listed titles (the video above includes only her words on the shortlisted books).

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: awards, Guardian, Katherine Rundell, Piers Torday, prizes, video

Anthony McGowan’s New Site

September 1, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

Anthony McGowan has a new site.

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Anthony McGowan’s new mobile-friendly site is now live. I have worked closely with Tony over the past few weeks to achieve a user-friendly design that works on all devices. Our aim was to have a site that firstly looked good on a handheld mobile phone and also scaled up to look fine on a large screen. The result we hope is a clean, simple easy-to-navigate design.

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Too many author websites (and this was the case with Tony’s previous site) do not have responsive design. This means that the site just condenses down to fit the viewport making text too small to be readable and links too tiny to select. Or the design does not condense at all and overspills the viewing screen making awkward horizontal scrolling a necessity and spoiling the user experience.

In redesigning his old site we wanted to make the new site:

  • responsive/mobile friendly – looking good on all devices/screens
  • simple, with only a small number of landing pages that will be easy to manage and keep up-to-date
  • easily and instantly up-date-able on the fly, on the move, from wherever Tony may be
  • image/illustration light, but neveretheless visual, with photos and graphics looking good on both a smartphone and a big display screen
  • standalone and easily maintained by the author (using WordPress)
  • social media-friendly with blog content that visitors can easily share on Twitter etc.
  • an online buying portal for readers, with both Amazon and LoveReading links

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The process consisted of a face-to-face meeting and photo session to talk about requirements, select a WordPress theme to base the design on, and to take some author portraits. I then worked on adapting the theme, and adding the content to the site. Tony looked at the work in progress and gave feedback, till we arrived at the finished design.

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Those who follow Anthony McGowan on Facebook know how hilariously self-ridiculing his accounts of everyday life can be and by sharing these accounts on the blog more people will be able to appreciate this aspect of his writing.

I am grateful to a friend who works for Google who has tested the site on various Google devices including Google glass. Here are some more screenshots:

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But visit the site and see for yourself. Hopefully you’ll find it a user-friendly experience whether you’re viewing it on phone, tablet, laptop or large screen. If not, let me know!

If you have a site that needs updating or want to launch a new site and are looking for someone to work with, I’m now available for a new commission.

http://anthonymcgowan.com

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: mobile, responsive, UI, website

Close To The Wind – An Interview With The Author, Jon Walter

July 12, 2014 By achuka 1 Comment

ACHUKA Interview – July 2014

Jon Walter, author of Close To The Wind

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I met Jon Walter on the eve of the presentation of this year’s Branford Boase Award for a first children’s novel and my prediction is that in 12 months time Close To The Wind will be a hot contender for the award in 2015.

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Just published (in hardback by David Fickling books – one of the publisher’s launch titles as a fully independent house) it has already been selected by Nicolette Jones as the Sunday Times children’s book of the week. In reviewing the book, Jones (who has impeccable taste and judgement) spoke about the book’s “intense atmosphere of anxiety”.

Walter talks to me in the front room of his townhouse in the centre of Lewes, where he has lived with his wife and two sons for the past ten years.

We discuss how he has become a debut novelist on the cusp of reaching 50. Most of his early working life was spent as a photojournalist, working mainly for the trade press. He had established his own online image library which was financially viable up until the era of digital devaluation, by which time he had become somewhat bored with the life of a jobbing photographer.

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So, with the help of a few creative writing courses – notably an Arvon course with Melvin Burgess and Malorie Blackman, but more particularly a local adult education course with tutors Catherine Smith (who introduced the author at the launch party) and Susannah Walters – he transformed himself into a children’s author.

The first book he wrote – Tell Me When My Light Turns Green, a dystopian YA novel in which, after a spate of knifings, the public votes to lock teenagers away at the age of 14 – came tantalisingly close to being published, after being picked up by SallyAnne Sweeeney, an agent then working out of the Watson Little agency, but now part of Mulcahy Associates and still representing Walter.

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The nearness to which that first book came to being published (a deal was on the point of being signed with one publisher) only to fall through at the final hour must have been deeply dispiriting, but Walter does not dwell on that aspect of the writer experience. Instead, and in retrospect, he is just pleased that it’s the second book he completed, the very different Close To The Wind (more accessible, less dark), which is being presented to the public as his first novel.

After giving up photography as a profession, he “didn’t do very much for six or eight months” then thought “I do need to find a job – what am I going to do?”

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As a schoolboy and young man, Walter had written poetry and before taking up photography had thought of himself as a writer, but then had stopped doing it. So some twenty-five years later, he decided to sit down and see if he had a book in him. That first dystopian novel had four or five agents expressing strong interest in its opening chapters, which was sufficient signal that the new career path was worth pursuing. The interest subsided somewhat when the agents were sent the whole manuscript, and Walter realised “I could write a really cracking ten thousand words – I do beginnings very easily – but I don’t do endings very well.”

So he “went off and did an adult education creative writing course” – just a couple of hours every week for two years.

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I wanted to know how Close To The Wind, which has such a unique atmosphere and feel had sprung up. “It came from this idea that everyone has a plan of escape when things fall apart – we have an idea of how we might salvage things and start again. Where we might go and what we might do.”

“I came in one day and the film Cry Freedom was on the TV. I just caught one bit where this journalist comes in from a day’s work and there are people at his house who say, ‘You get in the car NOW!’ And I thought, what must that be like to be in that situation where you literally pick up what you can find in two minutes.”

The idea of a diamond embedded in the grandfather’s tooth also came to him early on.

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“With the first book I had planned it all out quite carefully.” In Close To The Wind, having got the kernel of an idea, he “just started writing”.

Walter is a big fan of John Steinbeck. He sees Close To The Wind as a ‘small’ book, closer to Steinbeck’s short novels such as Cannery Row than it is to a book like Grapes of Wrath.

He studied theatre at university and sees his novel having a play-like structure. What readers will notice straight away is that the book is not written in chunky bite-sized chapters. It has a free-flowing, dialogue-driven quality to it. “The first scene is huge,” Walter acknowledges.

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I’m interested to find out about the editing process. He chuckles and says it was somewhat ‘mystical’. He was working with Heather Featherstone initially (and later Bella Pearson), and it started off with him having to remove the very first sentence, one he was somewhat proud of, but now sees as perfect advice. The other advice, which as a reader of the book I can see was good editorial input, was to remove references in the initial draft to specific times and places.

“As I was writing I was very conscious of wanting to get rid of clutter and concentrate on archetypes. Big images. Ship – escape. Home – security. Diamond – wealth.”

Another outside influence on the book, particularly in its second half, was Shaun Tan’s Arrival.

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The final edit – “a lovely process” – took six weeks and involved some strengthening of the book’s middle section. The end of the book (containing both sadness and resolution), although essentially as originally conceived and written, did have some telling and touching details added as a result of the middle section edit.

“I came through it not really feeling like they’d told me what to do. Don’t quite know how they do that!” he adds with a laugh.

Having been self-employed since his twenties, the discipline of writing every day comes fairly easily. “I’m quite good on that.”

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Now he is having to get used to the distractions being a published writer brings with it. And this has come just at the stage where he was due to start the edit on the next book.

At the end of our interview Walter makes an interesting comparison between himself and one of this year’s shortlisted Branford Boase authors, C J Flood, whose work he greatly admires. “Her writing is like she is looking through a 50mm lens the whole time and she doesn’t vary it. I think of distance a lot when I write, so I zoom in and zoom out. With her you feel she has this beautifully composed view that she moves around at the same focal length. You have to be really skilled to do that well.” [C J Flood’s Infinite Sky was awarded the Branford Boase Award the day after our interview.]

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“I’m very nervous about public speaking. I’ve never done it up to this point in my life.”

“I think the best way to be a successful author is to write really good books – as many as possible,” he says in ending. One gets the feeling that this is exactly what Walter is going to do, and will not allow himself to be over-distracted by invitations to festivals and events.

At his launch the author thanked Alice Ingall at Riot Communications for her handling of publicity. The book’s distinctive jacket design is by David Dean, whose bold graphic style has previously been seen on The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd, The White Giraffe by Lauren St John and Shine! by Candy Gourlay.

Gavin and Anna of Bags of Books, an independent children’s bookshop that ACHUKA will be featuring in our indie bookshop series very shortly, took care of sales at the launch (where they were using their iZettle card reader for the first time and seemed very pleased with it).

Both Jon Walter’s current editor Bella Pearson and David Fickling spoke at the launch, before the author himself gave a short reading from the book’s opening. Fickling was on great booming voice form:

https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/dfspeech.mp4

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: course, creative writing, debut, first novel, interview, writing

Cakes In Space Launch

July 2, 2014 By achuka 2 Comments

Some photos from Oxford Children’s Books launch party for Cakes In Space (not out till September) by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre.
I was especially pleased to meet up with David Maybury, now in the UK working for Scholastic. So good to see a fresh young face on the scene1

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Events Tagged With: events, illustration, launch, Oxford, parties, party

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