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A few drawings from this week: here's a magnet I made for Philip Ardagh's birthday. King Pugbeard! We see a lot of Ardagh these days in the studio because he's making FOUR picture books with my studio mate, Elissa Elwick.



Speaking of Elissa, here she is, also in magnet form, with her boyfriend Martin. He's very sweet and plays in a thrasher metal band.



And here's Elissa again, with writer Jeff Norton and editor of The Bookseller magazine Philip Jones. We were at the magazine's drinks party because I'm speaking about the #PicturesMeanBusiness campaign at their upcoming Author Day on 30 Nov.



Ah, and one more; I get lots of paper offcuts right now because I'm painting picture book pages that are only just a bit smaller than my paper. So here's a puddle boy painted onto one of the scraps.



If you're going to tomorrow's Illustrator Salon in London with Steven Lenton, I'll see you there!

I've read stories about princesses who have rooms in 'the highest room in the tallest tower' of a castle, but I never thought I'd actually get to live that story for a weekend!



When former Irish Children's Laureate Niamh Sharkey got in touch to see if I wanted to be part of a new festival at Lismore Castle called Towers and Tales, of course I said yes. And I brought along my trusty Jampire (knitted by Ann Lam). I'd been asked to do some picture book events for Jampires and There's a Shark in the Bath (but sadly, I seem to have lost my inflatable shark). Here's a drawing inspired by one of the Van Dyke paintings on the wall in the dining room:



It was better even than staying in a castle; we got to stay there with the family who own it, and they were so kind and gracious and provided HEAPS of food! Here's my writer friend Philip Ardagh, tucking in. (We did a lot of tucking in.)



And I wore a lot of hats. But not one with Philip Ardagh on it, unlike Lady Betty Compton, who couldn't resist:



(Ha ha, here are the two paintings the drawings are based on.)



And here I am in the entrance hall with lovely writer-illustrator Chris Riddell, when we first arrived, both of us looking slightly overawed and massively excited.




But I really ought to go back and start chronologically. What's it like, going to visit a big fancy castle? Well, here's Ardagh with his leprechauns, about to board the flight at Gatwick Airport.



And Riddell, who really does draw all the time.



Look, he drew me!



I sketched him, but I was slightly intimidated. Both of us had met book deadlines the night before we left - I finished Pugs of the Frozen North and he finished the third Goth Girl book - and we were both a bit shattered and had packed in a big rush.



Chris let me borrow his super-duper brush pen and I liked how the lines came out on this drawing a bit better. (Note: must order myself a Japanese Kurtake Million Years brush pen.) It's nicer than my Pentel brush pen and I can get more control with it.





After a driver brought us from Cork Airport to the castle, one of the first people we met was William Burlington, who owns the castle with his wife, Laura. He was so kind and down-to-earth and made us feel utterly welcome and at ease.



He and Laura are really into art (that's how they met) and have added some beautiful pieces to the family collection and set up a gallery in the castle and another in the town. But William's also a photographer and I found his website here, with some beautiful portraits. Here's a lovely picture he took of painter Sir Terry Frost (who, coincidentally, had a solo show in 2001 at the gallery that I used to run with friends).



I couldn't believe it when the footman helped me haul my suitcase up the stairs to the bedroom where I would be staying. Here's Jampire sitting on our bed, looking a little bit amazed.



And looking out the bedroom window:



We regrouped for drinks in a beautiful sitting room. Here's Philip, looking rather magnificent.



And Chris on a very flumpy sofa:



Somehow Chris managed to draw a picture of us while he was talking, which is something I find very difficult. I either make a bad drawing or I have the most spaced-out conversation, but he manages to be articulate AND draw, which is quite a skill.



We were given lovely customised festival welcome packs. Check out my hand-drawn shark!



Here's writer Archie Kimpton holding up Jumble Cat from his book with illustrator Kate Hindley.



I share an agent with Kate and absolutely ADORE her work, so I shall have to look out for these two books:



Then we had Afternoon Tea, looked a bit around the gardens, and pottered down the road as a group to see an art exhibition at St Carthage Hall, which is part of the Lismore Castle Arts project. Then it was time to get dressed for dinner. (Actually, William and Laura were so easygoing that I don't think we really had to worry about what we wore, but as you know, I like a good frock.) Here I am at my dressing table, feeling like I'm on the set of Gosford Park.



Such a fabulous dinner! That's Laura, standing on the right, and the butler, Denis, standing next to her. I'd heard about the super-efficiency of Denis, but I sat next to William on the second night's dinner and he said he'd been working for the family for over 30 years. And I got a sense of just HOW quick-on-the-mark he is when I was being filmed on the second day and said I needed to go get my ukulele. And seconds later, Dennis suddenly appeared with another ukulele from a cupboard, in case I wanted to use that one. I was massively impressed.



Here's William's sister, their actor friend Dominic West and Elaina Ryan from Children's Books Ireland.



Then lots of people chilled out on the flumpy sofa. Here's Brown Bag animation director Norton Virgien, Elaina, writer Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Niamh Sharkey, and Niamh's husband.



I finally couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, and also, I had ambitions of trying out the huge bathtub in my room. But I ended up going to sleep quite late because there was so much to look at, even in my room, including a bunch of old copies of Vogue:



Funnily enough, there was even a long 1935 feature article about Bryn Mawr College, where I'd gone to university, and the article was hilariously anti-feminist. There were loads of funny bits but here's one:



I was talking later to Laura, and she said that they'd found the magazines after the room had been derelict for awhile and was being rennovated. They've been bought by Adele Astaire, the sister of Fred Astaire. And she said that when Fred and Adele had started out, she'd looked even more promising as an actor and dancer than he had. So I did a bit of research on Adele before falling asleep and found this video, with the Lismore Castle link. How cool that we'd been reading the same magazines!



The next morning was FESTIVAL DAY. And the sun shone brightly on the castle's towers!



I reached out the bedroom window to take these photos.



Fortunately we didn't have too early of a start - the festival didn't start until 11am and my first event wasn't until noon - very civilised! I'd seen a small staircase next to my room and heard from secretary Ed Lamba that the Gruffalo had been doing a photo shoot earlier on the roof. So I made a little foray up it, to see if it was the roof staircase. It wound up a very long way.



First I came out on a high platform where I met a friendly plasterer named Pat, who was fixing the crenelations by replastering them and drilling metal strengthening rods through them. He took me up a level higher to the very tip of the tallest tower. WHOA!



Then there was a great comedy moment when I had to go back down the ladder through the little trap door but I went down and my skirts and petticoats didn't, with a great FWOOMP, and billowed out around the top of the stair hole. So Pat fought back laughter as I had to go around tucking all the bits of my skirt back down the hole, so I could at last descend and go to breakfast.



Once again, it felt like something out of Gosford Park or Rebecca. I remember this one scene in Rebecca where the second Mrs de Winter has a huge breakfast buffet to choose from but only takes a boiled egg (or was it a little bit of fish?) and worries about all the food going to waste. Philip and I did our bit and I don't think anything will have gone to waste.



It was fun to see the castle courtyard gearing up for the festival, with lots of people in costumes.



I got to draw some characters on the library bus:



I did a big of song warmup (Photo borrowed from CBI on Twitter):



And then it was time for SHARKS! I read There's a Shark in the Bath to the big assembled crowd of kids and parents at the Heritage Centre and we sang the Shark song. (It was a bit tricky, not having my stage show buddy Philip Reeve there to lead the kids in the song motions and do all the Papa Shark voices, like we did at Mountains to Sea festival, but we did all right.)



Then I led them in making paper sharks! I usually just have the kids draw sharks, but wonderful organiser Maura O'Keeffe provided quality paper and craft supplies, so we were able to make them look extra special. I loved how they all had such different personalities!



Then the Heritage Centre coordinator hung the sharks out front on the railings, which hopefully did not intimidate any passersby TOO much. (Photo borrowed from the Lismore Heritage Centre Facebook page.)



I came back to the castle for a quick costume change, and William's brother-in-law decided he'd play the Queen of Hearts, so I helped him out with a hair pom-pom and lipstick.



His real name's Nicky but he made me guess his name, so I called him Colin all weekend.



And I got to sit in for a story about a dragon from Dominic.



I didn't manage to get a photo of writer Darren Shan, but I said a quick hello to writer Shane Hegarty between events:



And writer Sarah Webb, who'd organised Mountains to Sea festival in Dun Laoghaire. (You can see my blog post from that here.)



My next event was a Jampires Hat-making tea party. (http://www.jampires.com">Jampires</a> is the book I created with David O'Connell and featured creatures who suck the jam out of doughnuts.) I'd never actually done this event before, but Maura said she could supply all the materials, so I decided to try it.



The hardest thing was drilling holes in the paper plates and getting everything to stick on; the Pritt sticks and glue weren't so helpful but we made good use of the elastic, staplers and pipe cleaners to anchor everything.



The hats came out very nicely! I loved the netting, it made everything bigger and frothier.



And the pom-poms were good fun.



We even had a couple adults making hats, such as this one:



And here are some of the finished hats!















Then I had a big tired flop in this beautiful room (I could live happily in this room), and Mike Skinner from The Streets came and filmed me for a documentary video about the festival.



Then another lovely Afternoon Tea with the festival volunteers, and pre-dinner drinks:



William gave great kudos to Maura O'Keeffe (pictured here) for all her excellent planning work.



After dinner, I took photos of Niamh and her daughter, who was proudly wearing the hat she'd made at our workshop. (Yay!) The whole festival idea came about from a conversation one evening in this room, when William, Laura, Niamh and John Huddy from the Illustration Cupboard were having dinner. Lismore had hosted lots of arts events, but no children's book events, and this was a first.



I desperately wanted to stay awake so I wouldn't miss anything, but by 1am, my eyes just wouldn't stay open, I was babbling like an idiot and I had to go to bed. So I was quite envious of Philip, who managed to stay up with the gang until 5am! Many fine drinks and tower-climbing shenanigans. But we had an early flight back to London and Philip didn't look quite so hot when he came down to breakfast at 6am. It was hard to leave. I wrote a message in the guest book:



Chris made a drawing:



Jampire flat-out refused to go.



When I finally got him out of bed, he took long, weepy looks out the window at the sun rising over the Blackwater River. I knew how he felt, this was a storybook I didn't want to close. There were so many things I'd missed and still wanted to do: explore the gardens more, catch a glimpse of the kitchen, take a walk in the woods and see all the follies, see the castle art gallery. But I felt tremendously lucky to have been able to do and see as much as I had.



Jampire was not so mature and the only way I could convince him to come out of the room was to leave a copy of Jampires, so at least some of his friends could stay.



But then he threw a final tantrum on the lawn and could not be consoled.



Thanks so much, William, Laura, Maura, Niamh, John, Denis, Ed, and all the staff and volunteers who made this festival happen. You were amazing!

PS It's not inexpensive, but if you have a party of 16 people or more and want to hire Lismore Castle and its 21 bedrooms, you can find details on its website. And if you want to see an earlier blog post I did about visiting Chatsworth (where William's parents live), you can visit it here.

So FINALLY we're allowed to share the exciting news!!! Guess which amazing duo are combining forces and BURSTING into children's book publishing as a duo!!?!!



You may have spotted photos from our studio and guessed already that SOMETHING IS UP...



Yes, PHILIP ARDAGH and ELISSA ELWICK have a four-book picture book deal with Walker Books! They'll be called 'Little Adventurers' and they're already working on the first one, due to come out in June 2016.



Here's what Philip says about working together:

I'm really enjoying working with Elissa on Little Adventurers because it's such a collaborative process. Being a children's book author can be a lonely business. I began my professional writing career in an advertising agency, partnered with an art director. When I write for radio I work with producer, engineer and actors. The same for TV. You're one of a team. With my previous books, I've enjoyed working with my illustrators but they've joined the process late in the day. The words have been written, the story complete. With Little Adventurers - the basic premise of which was Elissa's in the first place - we're forever exploring ideas, reshaping, and playing around with text and pictures.



The line between writer and illustrater is blurred. We're both interested in pictures and words. And - with additional input from Deirdre and Maria in editorial and Jack in design at Walker Books - we're coming up with something none of us could have created on our own. And, on days I'm working in the Fleece Station, Elissa makes us nice lunches. What's NOT to love about our Little Adventurers collaboration?



Edit: Look! Just tweeted in from the Bologna Book Fair by lovely writer Lucy Coats! By Charlotte Eyre in the Bologna daily version of The Bookseller (with a mention of the then-secretly-titled RAILHEAD by Reeve). Oh, and here's a link to the Book Trade announcement!



I'm proud to say that I was there at Elissa and Philip's very first meeting, at the Discover Story Centre in Stratford, east London. Philip was in his usual fine form, photo-bombing his heart out. And yup, there's Elissa!



I asked Elissa how they kept in touch, and decided that working with this VERY SILLY MAN might be a good idea:

BECAUSE HE WAS SO ODD! His imagination comes spilling out! We kept in touch over Twitter and he'd occasionally throw out ideas for existing characters I had and our working collaboration kind of stemmed from there.

So what's your background, Elissa? I heard you were once a champion skateboarder!


ALL LIES! It wasn't very long, I managed to blag myself some sponsorship for a little while when I lived in Northampton. But when I went to uni, I got way more into drawing and now my skateboard collects dust. I studied BA Illustration at Bournemouth and my first picture book deal was with Macmillan, The Princess and the Sleep Stealer. I also worked as Resident Storyteller and bookseller at an indie bookshop in Clapham called Under the Greenwood Tree. That was a great experience because I got to learn about the children's book industry from the other side of the counter.

What medium you use to make your pictures?

I use a mixture of pencil, watercolours and my computer. It's been so much fun bringing the Little Adventurers to life. Here are some early sketches.



Ardagh & Elwick will be working with editor Maria Tunney and designer Jack Noel. In the run up to Bologna Children's Book Fair, she was on the phone with Jack, and I managed to get a few words with him, to ask what they liked so much about Elissa's work:

I love Elissa's work because she makes everything look adorable; she creates her own sweet world. She's created these four characters and it's really nice, the relationships between them.

Gary Northfield and I love having Elissa in the studio, she's always up for a laugh and a cup of tea (and doesn't get upset when I accidentally eat all her biscuits). Here we are at the launch of Gary's Garden, both wearing themed Chompy-the-caterpillar clothes:



Philip's already quite active with our studio: I worked together with him on the Discover Storycloud project and he wrote a nice quote for the front of Gary's new book, Julius Zebra (also with Walker Books).



Here's Elissa at her desk in the studio. When she's done a good run of work, she rewards herself by watching a short animation. (And here, with homemade pot noodles.)



It won't be so much of a secret, they've already been seen about town together and posting photos of themselves with SLEBS:



So Elissa, this seems like an amazing prospect! But what will be one of your greatest challenges, working together?



NOT TRIPPING OVER HIS BIG FEET.



You can follow Elissa on Instagram at @elissaelwick on Twitter, also as @ElissaElwick, and check out her website, elissaelwick.co.uk.



And Philip on Instagram - @philipardagh - and Twitter - @PhilipArdagh.
So keep an eye out, this team is set to pull off some pretty amazing stuff...



Be sure to check out their new joint blog!

I got to be a judge in the final year of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, and since it ended, there's been a big gap in the recognition of funny books. Many of the best of these books are illustrated, but too wordy to bag the Greenaway illustration medal, and too reliant on pictures to win the Carnegie writing prize. Funny books are more difficult to write than serious books or even books that make us cry. It's easy to dismiss funny things as less consequential or important than serious ones, but political cartoons that cleverly capture an idea often have far more impact than an impassioned article. Sales show that kids LOVE funny books, and laughing at a situation can often help take away the fear of things that would otherwise be scary or worrying. Comic timing is one of the most difficult skills to master... so why haven't we been heralding Britain's best?

Well, never fear! Some of my friends are ON THE CASE and have been scheming to develop This Book is Funny!, with plans to seek out the funniest books. I was at the pub a couple weeks ago with Alex Milway, Gary Northfield, David O'Connell and Matt Baxter (who all make funny books and comics) and Matt showed me the red logo he'd designed. Here it is!



And the very first book they're featuring on the website - www.thisbookisfunny.com - is my studio mate's upcoming book, Julius Zebra. Wahoo! Here are a few words from Alex Milway about the project:




And here is their very straightforward mission:



So plans for this include reviewing funny books on the website, hosting events, and supplying a red sticker to booksellers so that customers can more easily find funny books if they know that's what their kids love.

Now, my studio mate Gary Northfield has been making funny comics and books for years. You might recognise some of these titles - Derek the Sheep (his first book with some of his collected Beano strips), The Terrible Tales of the Teenytinysaurs (dinosaur adventure comics), Gary's Garden (collected strips from The Phoenix Comic) and his ongoing Phoenix Comic work.



But Julius Zebra is Gary's first book that isn't a comic. I couldn't help smiling when I saw his tweet, the first time he saw it printed up:



And here it is! It's a lovely thing, a solid hardback with beautiful stripey zebra endpapers.



This book's going to be a winner with so-called 'reluctant readers' because every single story page is lightened by at least one picture. (The Horrible Histories book team also made this decision, as it proves so effective in keeping kids turning pages.) Schools will love it because of its researched ancient Roman theme, but serious history doesn't get in the way of plain silliness.

The book's a pleasing mix of plain text and cartoons, such as these, when we first meet young Julius. He hates going to the stinky water hole with his family and shows off his new-found independence:



Look at him go, he's so confident, is Julius:



Ha ha, oh wait, maybe not!



Oh no! A lion has driven the animals away from the watering hold and Julius is separated from his family. The lion chases Julius and the warthog and all three of them fall into a hole, which turns out to be a TRAP. They're captured by humans and taken all the way across the sea, to Rome!



At first, Julius is quite excited, because he's heard that they're all going to the circus. He's excited to see juggling monkeys. But then he discovers they won't be watching the circus, they're going to be performing:



He gradually learns that it won't even be a jolly sort of performance...



They are going to be thrown into the arena to fight trained GLADIATORS.



And bizarrely, they don't do too badly on their first appearance in THE COLOSSEUM! After Julius panics, he tries to fight back and hits a gladiator with a sword, and the crowd takes pity on him. Emperor Hadrian spares the animals' lives and enrolls them in his world-famous Gladiator School, Ludus Magnus. Their instructor, Septimus, is used to training tough men, and is less than thrilled when they present themselves at roll call.



One of my favourite things about the book is the way the text breaks for little comic aside comments. This one's quite sweet:



I love the way Gary draws, even his wobbly energetic lines are funny, with their bugged eyes and gaping mouths. Don't be deceived in thinking this kind of drawing is fast and easy; Gary really poured himself into this book and it took AGES to write and draw (and redraw and redraw).



You might notice that all the pages have Roman numerals instead instead of our standard Arabic numbering system. Which means each page number is like a code to be worked out, and Gary provides an explanation at the end of the book:



He also includes a four-page glossary, that's mostly educational, but Gary's personality keeps coming through.



And right at the end of the book... oh, look! It's a photo I took across the desk, from where I sit in the studio.



Gary worked with editor Lizzie Spratt at Walker Books, the same person who edited his Derek and Teenytinysaurs books, and with designer Jack Noel.



Oo, and look, it's funny writer Philip Ardagh, author of The Eddie Dickens trilogy with David Roberts and The Grunts books with Axel Scheffler! So what does Ardagh have to do with this book?



Ah, look there, right across the top of the book. A lovely quotation!



So this book launches at the beginning of March with Walker Books and will make a fabulous gift and be perfect for stocking in libraries. I anticipate people asking which age it's best for, and I'd say ages 6-12, but younger kids will enjoy it being read to them, and there's no reason to say adults and Gary's comics fans won't enjoy it, too. Gary's busy working on the second Julius Zebra book right now.



Congratulations, Gary! You've gone and written a blinkin' novel!

Today is National Draw On A Banana And Post A Pic Of It On Twitter Day<. (Details here.)



My e-mail Inbox is out of control again, so if you've sent me an urgent message and I haven't replied, I'd be very grateful if you could resend it, and send me reminders about things. Thank you!

A couple things: here's a new interview on Bookengine with the fab writer of our books You Can't Scare a Princess! and You Can't Eat a Princess! Gillian Rogerson!



And a couple birthday doodles, one for the legendary, high-jumping, web-throwing Steve Cole.



And the other for the exaltedly elevated and profoundly hirsute Philip Ardagh. (Just like Gillian, Ardagh is well known for his extreme modesty and he keeps very quiet about his birthdays. ...Ha ha, not: the Facebook reminders have been rolling in for at least a week.)



Oh, and since we're going for black and white here, this just made me smile:

Work's been crazy busy this week with work on Oliver and the Seawigs and event preparations, but a few silly drawings have splurted out through Twitter exchanges:







(Which reminds me, I designed a Queen of Diamonds in an earlier blog post.)


(Here's Philip Reeve's blog post about the upcoming Mountains to Sea festival.)



And here are a couple more sketchbook drawings from the weekend:

Is London on target for the Olympics? Well, the Discover Children's Story Centre is! Lying in the shadow of the Olympic Park, they've set up a whole programme of interactive storytelling, called StoryCloud, as part of the London 2012 Festival cultural olympiad, open to kids everywhere to add their drawing and writing online!



So on Saturday, I threw on my sports gear and raced down to Olympicsland to do my bit. For London. FOR THE WORLD.



So while writer and my project colleague Philip Ardagh welcomed visiting dignitaries (what is a dignitary?), celebrities and heads of state, I led a big pack of excited kids in the Discover centre in bout of Down the Plughole-themed storytelling.



Since so much of StoryCloud is an online storytelling experience, I thought I'd use some of the bits and bobs I'd come up with, which hadn't been used for the interactive illustration, to create a sort of primitive slideshow animation. There was one little boy in the front, in an orange t-shirt, who went into absolute laughing hysterics when our character, Morris, got a sponge squeezed over his head, which was most heartening. Anyway, here's a rough approximation of what we did, although it was me reading, not Philip. (Hear Philip read the whole story, karaoke-style, over on the website, storycloud.co.uk.)



Then we thought about the kinds of things Morris might encounter down the plughole, and the kids helped me design a 'Sewergator'. Isn't it charming?




They also helped me come up with a comic, which made perfect sense on the day, but now seems slightly fragmented. Drawing comics to order in front of lots of people is a challenging past-time.



Then the kids came up with their own ideas about the things Morris would encounter down there. I might create my own fan art for this image by one kid, it's great.



It really was all happening that day, here's the Olympic Torch procession passing the Discover centre just minutes before our event.



...And would you look at that! Ha ha, I got to carry the torch for a whole 23 seconds. (Yes I did, of course I did.)



And then Stuart and I went for a wander around the Olympic Park, to inspect.



We didn't get to go up Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond's Olympic tower, but we'd quite like to.



The view from the skybridge inside Westfield:



And hey, cool artwork in next-door Stratford tube station. Love the 'taches!



A few more sewer be

Today's morning sketch results from a scary mental picture after Philip Ardagh announced on Twitter that 'they' are bringing out a smaller version of him in the autumn. Who are 'they'? Do I want to know the answer to this?



Oh, and I'm doing an event based on my Olympiad StoryCloud tale with the larger of the two Ardaghs, Down The Plughole (and yes, go look!), but don't worry, HE WON'T BE THERE. 2:30, this Saturday, in the shadow of the Olympic stadium at the Discover Children's Story Centre, details here. Lots of drawing fun, without a lot less terror.



Did you twig that when Ardagh gulps HELP! in Down the Plughole, he sounds just like Jim Henson in Time Piece?



Yesterday was Cleaning Day at the Fleece Station studio, and today we make a last effort to tackle The Cupboard of Doom. Here are my lovely studio mates and Molly the dog, at Deptford Market, where we regularly get fleeced.

Today you can see the interactive story I made for the Cultural Olympiad with Philip Ardagh! It's called Down the Plughole and stars a little boy named Morris who goes just there.



Philip reads the story and you can read along, karaoke-style, then you can have clicky-click fun all over my intereactive illustration (there's a 'Pull Me' sign! and a bare bum!), then go on and finish the story yourself, for the Discover Children's Story Centre's web gallery. Go on, try it!




Here's the video the Discover team shot in their offices. I mention a bathtub that doesn't actually appear in my illustration, and that's because Philip and I were the guinea pigs; we went first and tried out a few things before Neal Hoskins and his team at Winged Chariot Press settled on the format they used for all the stories.



Here are a few outtakes from the bathtub scene. You could click on soap and a sponge and Morris himself to make things happen in the bath. The one with the green bubbles would've had a kickin' sound effect, but I'll have to save that for later. :)



Check out the other amazing illustrations! Go to the website now, scroll down under 'More Stories', and you can click all over them and make things happen. Here's David Roberts' picture for David Almond's story:



Chris Riddell illustrated a text by Malorie Blackman:



Adam Stower illustrating Andy Stanton's:



Kristyna Litten illustrating Michael Rosen's:



There's more on the way! The Discover centre is releasing a NEW STORY every Monday! And here's a photo from the launch party, with collaborators Elissa Elwick, Candy Gourlay, Adam Stower, Kristyna Litten and Chris Riddell. Click here for more fun photos of that day!



And are YOU and your family going to take part in this year's SUMMER READING CHALLENGE? Get down to your local library, there's great stuff laid on for you! Find out more about the Summer Reading Challenge 2012 here.

So I know you've already written this weekend's Pop Up Festival into your diaries...



...and I thought you'd like a peek at how the site is coming along! Here's a map of the location, Granary Square, next to Central Saint Martins art college, and about a five-minute walk across the new build area from Kings Cross and St Pancras stations. Granary Square is a huge covered area, so rain or shine, the festival will be AWESOME.



Find out details of the day's events and our comics line-up here!
And while I'm at it, here's a peek at some of the Pop Up curators, past and present. We met up last night at a social for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. This is a great organisation to join if you make books, comics, do school events, etc, and want to meet other like-minded people and find out more about the industry. The events are always very serious, as I'm demonstrating here with Astrosaurs creator Steve Cole and last year's Pop Up curator (the Upside-Down House!) writer Philip Ardagh. I've just spotted a meteor falling straight toward the Young Vic bar, where we met. Run, everyone!




We like to examine our work through lots of different lenses.



Writer Candy Gourlay did such an awesome job with Pop Up last year that the team have asked her to do it again! I can't wait to see her Beanbag Cinema and Filipino-style FIESTA! Here she is, chronicling the SCBWI proceedings.



That's Jackie Marchant on the left, who's just about to launch her first book with Macmillan, I'm Dougal Trump and it's Not My Fault. We all took photos with the book looking absolutely thrilled, as I'm sure we will be when we've read it. Looks good, Jackie!


Photo by Candy Gourlay

Of course, Philip can't give a straight compliment, oh no. It pains him so.



And Candy with writer, illustrator and puppeteer extraordinaire Sue Eves (who, sadly, didn't bring along her puppet dog that evening, even though lots of people were asking).



Elissa Elwick had a very dodgy photo of her with the Ardagh beard as a wig. You can find a slightly more subdued version of the photo if you trawl her lovely blog.



Writer Steve Hartley had come down from Manchester for events and came for the drinks. We aren't quite as close as this photo might suggest...

Remember that MONSTERVILLE I mentioned in earlier blog posts, the monster village I designed with Ed Vere, Neal Layton and the Discover Children's Story Centre in Stratford, east London? Well, this time the Discover gang paired me up with very tall writer Philip Ardagh, and we came up with a little interactive web story. And so did lots of other fab writers and illustrators whose work you'll probably recognise! So today was the official launch day of the StoryCloud website; the Discover centre threw a party, and the 'pull me' lever got pulled.



I wasn't quite sure who was coming to the party, other than Mr Ardagh, so I was chuffed to bits when I arrived to see him, Chris Riddell and Adam Stower already there, and I met StoryCloud illutrator Carl Pearce. We were all curious to see how our stories had turned out, and poked and prodded the iPad like excited 3-year-olds.



And here's the new StoryCloud website! You'll only get to read the first story on this visit, but Discover will unlock a new story every Monday for eleven more weeks. The first one's by former children's laureate and writer Michael Rosen and illustrator Kristyna Litten. You can read a bit more about it in today's Telegraph article by Martin Chilton here.





Current children's laureate Julia Donaldson (you know, The Gruffalo and all that) gave an opening speech to start us off.



Mr Ardagh read his short story, Down the Plug Hole and I made a little picture of what was supposed to be our character, a small boy named Morris, in the bath, but which turned out to be someone else. Then the audience helped me fill up the bath with an eagle, an snake, an elephant...



Here's Malorie Blackman reading her story, Strange Things Happen while Chris Riddell draws a pegasus.



And Adam Stower did a great presentation, giving us important lessons about things one should and shouldn't stick up one's nose. You can catch a glimpse at the page Adam drew, in the background, put together by Neal Hoskins and his small team at Winged Chariot press. We had a good laugh about those pink things in the bottles which are, in fact, lungs. It's a lung shop.



One cool thing was that they mixed a few young storytellers in with the pros; here are two of the writers.

Now here's something I've been involved with. (Remember Monsterville? Well, these are the same excellent dudes at the Discover Centre.) See the PULL ME sign? My dad used to have me pull his finger and a dreadful thing would happen, and that experience still influences my work today...



Director Sally Goldsworthy approached me about working together with tall beardy man Philip Ardagh on a story: Philip would tell the story, and I'd work with their team to create a series of interactive pictures to go with it online. Philip writes (on Facebook, which I just nicked): DOWN THE PLUG HOLE, written by me and illustrated by Sarah, is of course, brilliant. The rest of the stories may be a bit ropey, but who cares? There's always ours to look forward to and then back on AND it's an official part of the Cultural Olympiad... the part bearded/part American part.



The Discover Centre plans to unveil them week by week, along with a great programme of stuff that encourages kids to make their own stories. Illustrators include fab people such as Chris Riddell, David Roberts and Guy Parker-Rees, and excellent writers Michael Rosen, Malorie Blackman, David Almond, Jamila Gavin, Andy Stanton and four kids from east London. Here are more StoryCloud details, and I'll give you a shout when the whole thing goes live on 18 June!

Happy 50th birthday, Philip Ardagh! Last night I went along to a joint birthday party and book launch for the magnificently hirsute Philip and one of my very favourite illustrators, David Roberts. Philip's one of those people who loom largely on the children's book scene (he's 5'8") and I always used to see him next to me in festival brochures, but we never actually overlapped until this year's Hay Festival, when we could compare heights. (And yes, it turned out that he's a wee bit taller.) And here's David and Philip with their fab new book, also larger than life, The Eddie Dickens Trilogy (three books in one, actually).



I wore a new hat with an enormous silly swoosh of brown feathers coming out the back, which I thought complemented Philip's big beard, a sort of beard on the reverse side of my head. First Philip introduced me as his sister, but somehow we ended up getting married and here we are, cutting the wedding cake. We think the cake was supposed to be eaten earlier in the evening, but it somehow got overlooked until almost everyone had left. (More for us! Ha ha...)



David was our lovely bridesmaid.




Philip and I have been working on a TOP SECRET PROJECT (shh...!) with the Discover Centre for the Cultural Olympiad, and it was great to see two of the Discover gang at the party, who helped me, Neal Layton and Ed Vere build Monsterville: Sally Goldsworthy and Kate Wolstenholme (the two lovely ladies in the middle). They're @Discover_Story on Twitter. On the left is Louise Ellis-Barrett, head editor of Armadillo Magazine (I had fun with an interview she did with me earlier this year) and on the right, writer and children's bookseller for Waterstone's Piccadilly, Nicole Burstein (@NicoleBurstein on Twitter).



And not to slight another fine magazine about children's books, here's David Blanch, co-editor with his wife Jenny of Carousel Magazine, here with Louise... and, oh wait, who's that just behind them?



I also got to meet writer Anthony McGowan and his wife Rebecca, standing in front of some oddly empty picture frames. (I was so tempted to break out pens with David Roberts and draw in them.) Anthony writes loads of books including Henry Tumour and The Donut Diaries. (He's @AnthonyMcGowan on Twitter.)



And here we are with two of the Faber & Faber gang (a writer and editor whose names I knew but must double-check because it was rather late when they told me and I'd had a lot of cake), Digital Culture Editor for The Telegraph