How to use this Page

And then there are the days that I wake up and want to do some of that line work. The stuff that takes hours and hours. I dunno.

Add a Comment

On another rainy day in Krakow we slipped inside a miniature palace of books. I could have stayed the entire day. I don't know a word of Polish. I didn't know these authors. But the art, the bindings, the printing—it was like stepping back into that time when my mother tucked herself behind a couch and put on puppet shows. It was like sitting with my uncle as he made his fabulous Victorian ornaments—velvet ribbons, pearls, scrapbook faces.

That kind of richness of escape into other worlds.

The store itself, called Bona, was located just down the road from Wawel Castle, but it wasn't a place for tourists. There were pastries in the back, a winding staircase to a stone-faced exhibition room, a reading lounge, and a young woman with impeccable English who helped me understand where Poland is just now, as a reading country. Illustrated picture books like the one I bought, above, exude, she said, a timelessness and also an agelessness; adults find one thing in the story and children another. Young adult books have not yet reached the popularity they have here in the states, perhaps because adults read novels written for adults or spend time with these glorious art-infused picture books. And paper books—the tangible, shelf-able kind—remain a towering favorite, both because of the quality of the art and because digital reading devices can cost up to half a young person's monthly salary.

The number of books in the store wasn't huge. The quality, however, was. It took a long time for me to choose this one, and then another little bit to choose the book I brought home for my friend Karolina, whose stories of a Krakow childhood had brought me to her country in the first place.

Add a Comment

Today's official launch of my new Scholastic UK picture book, Dinosaur Police, involved quite a lot of preparation, but not all of it by me. Deadly Knitshade and her crew of dinosaurs were very busy:



And I was BAKING, something I almost never do!



Then we all gathered at the Herne Hill bookshop in south London, Tales on Moon Lane, which had a lovely display of loads of the books I've worked on:



My sculptor friend Eddie Smith had been busy making my hat (for Hay Festival and the launch), and here he is with my Dinosaur Police editor, Pauliina Malinen:



And the hats were terrific! Check out Deadly Knitshade (aka Lauren O'Farrell):


Photos tweeted by @deadlyknitshade






Look at this Officer Brachio badge, stitched by Sami Teasdale! She gave it to me at the end of the day, totally amazing.



My excellent Scholastic publicist, Dave Sanger, and I did a little Masterchef cooking demonstration: how to make a dinosaur pizza.



And everyone dug in to the various Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous tomato pastes, swamp cheese, chili, mushrooms, everything needed to make a particularly sweet pizza.



Then I swapped hats because my big one kept getting tangled up in the chandeliers. I did a reading... (photo tweeted by Deadly Knitshade)


Photo tweeted by @deadlyknitshade

And Dinosaur Dave acted out some particularly emotional parts of the story:



Then we did some drawing and a song. Look, here's my husband Stuart's drawing! (You can download more drawing activities over on the Dinosaur Police webpage.)



Then we went out to the bookshop back yard for bubbly and book signing and Pauliina gave a fab speech:



Big thanks to Pauliina, my designer Rebecca Essilifie, Dave, Scholastic, Tereze, Juliet and staff at Tales on Moon Lane, my studio mates (Elissa Elwick, Gary Northfield and member-at-large Lauren O'Farrell), web designer Dan Fone, and Stuart for being so supportive! And to everyone who came along for the launch! Lauren shot a Vine video of me signing a book:



But Tales on Moon Lane wasn't our only stop! Earlier that morning Dave and I had taken part in a smaller Story Time at Dulwich Books, which was also good fun!



As Philip Ardagh pointed out, we even made the newspapers, ha ha... Young Holly managed to capture the rascal on paper:



Big thanks to everyone who came along! I also took off my big hat after the intial introduction because I think its sheer size was scaring one of the littlest guys in the front row. (It's better designed for big stage events, I think>)





This event was the first time Dave had drawn with me in public AND his first public outing in a dinosaur onesie. VERY BRAVE.



Big thanks to Sheila and Annie for hosting us!





And one last thanks to brave Dinosaur Dave.

Add a Comment

This Saturday was ALLIGATOR themed in southwest London...



...for the grand launch of Richmond's new independent children's bookshop, The Alligator's Mouth!



There was much cake and Gruffalo:



And here's the team who run it! With all these indie bookshops shutting down, it's extremely brave to be opening one, but wonderful, too. Children's book sales are still on the rise, and we need our indies to look out for new talent and highlight the books picked by specialists, which might not necessarily be taken up by big chains. The three who run the shop are, from the right, artist and designer Mark Pembrey, Margaret Wallace-Jones and Tony West. Margaret and Tony used to run the Lion & Unicorn Bookshop, but the sky-high Richmond rent forced them to close. But they didn't let that beat them!




The Alligator's Mouth can count on strong support from British writers and illustrators. Even superstar writer Jacqueline Wilson turned out for a signing!



I was so pleased to meet lovely writer Smriti Prasadam-Halls and writer-illustrator Sophy Henn. I'd seen Sophy's bold covers pop out at me before, and it was fun talking about her technique, using pencil and Adobe Illustrator (not Photoshop, as I would have expected). Sophy has a real screen-printer's aesthetic, which gives her books that lovely retro, limited palette simplicity.



Here's Tony with pooch and writer-illustrator Chris Riddell, who arrived to cut the ribbon and officially open the shop.



I know it looks like he's actually taking a snip out of Margaret here, but I promise there was a green ribbon.



And here's the lineup of authors who stopped by, posted by Chris on his Instagram.



Stuart and I popped out to get some lunch and do some shopping and managed to catch writer-illustrator Ian Beck at the end of his signing session.



And here's writer Natasha Farrant! I read her book After Iris when I was judging the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, and while I didn't find it screamingly funny, it was wonderful and warm, with a gentle humour that I loved. I wasn't quite sure why it had been submitted for the prize, but it was one of my favourite reads in the stack, and it was great to meet its author at last.



The shop was absolutely heaving all morning - such a turnout!



Sadly I missed seeing Barry Loser writer-illustrator Jim Smith, but I grabbed this bookshop tweet. (Do follow them at @alligatorsmouth!) I've read Barry Loser: I am Still Not a Loser and it really IS screamingly funny. The drawings are kind of awful, but in the most wonderful way, that makes turns a funny book into one that actually made me laugh out loud. Drawings of hoverpoos and two old people kissing are forever burned on my memory.



I wasn't actually able to tell Tony that I would be coming to the launch; I'd spent so much time doing book promotional activities and travelling that I thought I'd better save the day to spend with Stuart. But when Stuart found out about what the indie bookshop was doing, he said, 'No, this is something we really should do', and we were able to make of it a lovely day together. Richmond's lovely, and we had a great lunch at the Tide Tables vegetarian cafe under the bridge, and Stuart bought a jacket on the high street.



It's definitely a destination; not only do you get a children's bookshop, but a couple streets away, you'll find an indie comics shop! We ran into Sam, who works there, and whom we met at my Jampires co-author David O'Connell's wedding, and he took us back there for a visit Raygun comics.



Behind the desk, here's Chris and Sam, and Sam's very interested in stocking more self-published comics, so if you make your own, think about getting in touch with the shop at @Raygun_comics.



So, hurrah for indies! If you can support The Alligator's Mouth (and Raygun), that would be fabulous!

Add a Comment

The owners of Little City Books have launched an indiegogo campaign. They hope to raise $22,000 through this crowdfunding venture to build a literary and cultural community space in Hoboken, New Jersey.

The video embedded above features the story of how a banker, a singer, and a literary agent came together as collaborators for this independent bookstore. Once this establishment has opened, the trio plans to host readings, parties, musical event, book club meetings, workshops, and author appearances.

Here’s more from the indiegogo page: “Indie bookstores are making a comeback. Print sales are up and stores are opening around the country. They operate on tiny margins, but after two years of research, we’re confident that we can run a great indie bookshop in Hoboken — with an enthusiastic landlord, frugal planning, and community support.”

Add a Comment

Book lovers have a new reason to put Bucharest, Romania on their list of places to travel. A 19th century building has been transformed into a gorgeous modern bookstore called Cărturești Carusel, “The Carousel of Light.”

The six-level store carries more than 10,000 books and more than 5,000 albums and DVDs. It’s got a cafe and a whole floor dedicated to art books. Here is more from the site (translated with Google Translate):

The elegant nineteenth century building acquired the famous banking families Chrissoveloni in 1903 and was confiscated during the communist period and turned into family store . After 1990 , the building was recovered and restored by the current owner , Mr . Jean Chrissoveloni , and now comes to life through innovative planning and careful historical substance , signed by the firm of architects Square One.

Add a Comment

Date

Add a Comment

By Kirsty Doole

Last week the Oxford World’s Classics team were at Blackwell’s Bookshop in Oxford to witness the first Oxford World’s Classics debate. Over three days we invited seven academics who had each edited and written introductions and notes for books in the series to give a short, free talk in the shop. This then culminated in an evening event in Blackwell’s famous Norrington Room where we held a balloon debated, chaired by writer and academic Alexandra Harris.

For those unfamiliar with balloon debates, this is the premise: the seven books, represented by their editors, are in a hot air balloon, and the balloon is going down fast. In a bid to climb back up, we’re going to have to throw some books out of the balloon… but which ones? Each editor spoke for five minutes in passionate defence of their titles before the audience voted. The bottom three books were then “thrown overboard”. The remaining four speakers had another three minutes each to further convince the audience, before the final vote was taken.

The seven books in our metaphorical balloon were:

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (represented by Dinah Birch)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (represented by Helen Small)
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (represented by Roger Luckhurst)
A Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen-Leigh (represented by Kathryn Sutherland)
The Poetic Edda (represented by Carolyne Larrington)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (represented by Fiona Stafford)
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle (represented by Lesley Brown)

So who was saved? Find out in our slideshow of pictures from the event below:



• The speakers

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Group-slide.jpg

  All seven speakers plus chair, Alexandra Harris, prepare for the debate.

• Alexandra Harris

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Harris-slide.jpg

  Writer and academic Alexandra Harris chaired the event.

• A selection of OWCs

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Table-slide.jpg

  Just a few of the OWCs on sale during the event.

• Dinah Birch on Cranford

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Birch-slide.jpg

  Professor Dinah Birch defends Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.

• Helen Small on Wuthering Heights

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Small-slide.jpg

  Professor Helen Small makes a plea to the audience to save Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

• Roger Luckhurst on Jekyll and Hyde

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Luckhurst-slide.jpg

  Professor Roger Luckhurst makes the case for saving the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

• Kathryn Sutherland on A Memoir of Jane Austen

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Sutherland-slide.jpg

  Professor Kathryn Sutherland argues in favour of saving A Memoir of Jane Austen by her nephew, J. E. Austen-Leigh.

• Austen with meat cleaver

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Austen-slide.jpg

  Kathryn Sutherland tries to boost her cause by bringing this mascot: Jane Austen holding a meat cleaver.

• OWCs on the shelves

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Shelves-slide.jpg

  Look at all our beautiful books!

• Carolyne Larrington on The Poetic Edda

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Larrington-slide.jpg

  Doing her bit for Old Norse, Dr Carolyne Larrington represents The Poetic Edda.

• Fiona Stafford on Pride and Prejudice

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Stafford-slide.jpg

  Would Professor Fiona Stafford succeed in saving Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice?

• Lesley Brown on The Nicomachean Ethics

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Brown-slide.jpg

  In the face of stiff literary competition, Lesley Brown strikes a blow for philosophy with a passionate defence of Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics.

• Joint winner! The Poetic Edda

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Edda-slide.jpg

  At the end of the debate we actually had a tie. Joint winners were The Poetic Edda and...

• Joint winner! The Nicomachean Ethics

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Aristotle-slide.jpg

  ...The Nicomachean Ethics! Well done Carolyne and Lesley!

Kirsty Doole is Publicity Manager for Oxford World’s Classics.

For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. You can follow Oxford World’s Classics on Twitter, Facebook, or here on the OUPblog. Subscribe to only Oxford World’s Classics articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS.

Subscribe to the OUPblog via email or RSS.
Subscribe to only literature articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS.
Image credits: All photos by Kirsty Doole

The post The great Oxford World’s Classics debate appeared first on OUPblog.

Add a Comment

What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

Jude Innes of J&G Innes bookshop in St Andrews believes that when it comes to a beautiful sight, you can’t beat ‘a good sunset’. In particular she recalls one she saw over the North West Island in Australia. ‘In 1988, while on holiday in Australia, I visited the area and saw the deserted island in the middle of an oyster sky - it was a very beautiful sight.’ If you don’t know what an oyster sky is (I didn’t), Jude explains: ‘it’s where the clouds are all broken up and the sky takes on a peachy hue’.

Whilst the sunset below doesn't show an oyster sky, it is a photograph from North West Island by Kristy Muir which she describes as the most beautiful place she has ever visited: Head north-west for beauty | Sunshine Coast Daily

North West Island Australia

To help promote our new title The King Who Wanted More, We're finding out what is the most beautiful thing people have ever seen. It could be a landscape, a painting, a building, or maybe something altogether different...it’s completely up to you. Please email [email protected] if you'd like to take part.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Last night my graffiti-knitting studio mate Lauren O'Farrell and I put on our best fish faces and went along to the launch at Waterstone's Piccadilly of the new book by writer David Almond and illustrator Oliver Jeffers, The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas.



Here's the lovely cover artwork by Oliver, using paint and collage from a travel magazine and cut-up endpapers of an old book.



Paul Black from Walker Books and Mary Byrne from HarperCollins asked me to chair the event, and it was lovely seeing these guys, I'm big fans of their work. Lauren took this photo as my PA for the evening. (We take turns being each other's PA!) Oliver and David had only met each other for the first time that day.



It's always fascinating seeing people's early sketches for their books. Oliver let us see some of his ideas for the cover:




Actually, we were able to see the slideshow of artwork thanks to the hero of the evening, Alex Fitch, who gave up going to another event and stepped in with his iPad to let us run the slideshow off that when the Waterstone's laptop couldn't be found. Thank you, Alex! He recorded the event, and you'll be able to listen to excerpts from it on his bi-monthly book show, Book List, on Resonance FM. (You can listen to earlier episodes here.)



It seems that no one gets out of drawing when I chair an event. Oliver drew us a piranha:


Photo tweeted by Walker Books @BIGPictureBooks

And David drew one, too!


Photo on left tweeted by Walker Books @BIGPictureBooks

David read from The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas:



He's from Newcastle and lives in Northumberland, and I love listening to the Northern tones in his voice and the expression he gives to his reading. Here's a sample of him speaking about another book, but you can get the sense of it:



And here are a couple pages from his writing notebooks. Lots of lovely scrawl and doodles.



And a detail:



For Oliver, The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas is a slight departure from his usual way of working, bringing in more charcoal and grey tones. I love this scene of the story's hero, Stanley Potts, with his new employer (and surrogate dad), Dostoevsky.



Dostoevsky and his daughter, Nitasha, run a Hook-a-Duck stall in a travelling fairground.



The book starts out with Stan living with his aunt and uncle. His Uncle Ernie is a real entrepreneur; after the factory where he worked was shut down, he turned their house into a fish canning plant. Ernie didn't go to school anymore, but canned fish all day, every day, from 6am. Ernie's quite an abusive father figure because his fish always come before everything else. Aunt Anna gives Stan one day off work for his birthday (and has to threaten to go on strike to make Ernie let him go) and Stan wins and befriends some goldfish at the fairground down the road. But Ernie gets a wild idea that tinned goldfish will be the Next Big Thing and fries up Stan's goldfish before he's even out of bed the next morning. Gutting. Here's a sketch of that, and some final artwork of fish from the book:



But even though Ernie's such a terrible dad, there's a stirring moment in the book when he and Stan lose themselves in the joy of running their canning machine. Here's Oliver's sketch and final drawing:



I commented that there were a lot of people in the book who could be construed as 'well dodgy', but who turn out to be a rather comforting part of the new community where Stanley finds himself. Kind of a nice antidote to our society where strangers are immediately seen as potentially harmful to children. Here's Stanley meeting the great Pancho Pirelli, with his entirely invented heroic history, who inspires Stan to think he can swim with piranhas, just like Pancho. (Will he? Will he SURVIVE?)



Oliver talked about about his studio in Brooklyn, where he keeps loads of old books, scraps and cuttings carefully filed away under different labels. (He even has a suitcase labelled 'Nothing'.) This video from the Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog gives you a peek:



Oh, and go on, here's a trailer from the Lost and Found animation, adapted from Oliver's book by the amazing Studio AKA:



Besides this book, we also got to peek at Oliver's new picture book with HarperCollins, This Moose Belongs to Me.
I asked Oliver what the book was about and he laughed and replied, 'Communism'. Wilfred meets a moose, names the Moose Marcel and decides he owns the moose. They play and the moose follows most of the rules Wilfred sets for it. Here's a development sketch:



But when Marcel wanders off and Wilfred discovers him with an old lady who calls it Rodrigo, he is most perturbed. Another sketch:



Oliver doesn't lose his friend, but by the end of the story, realises that he can't own a friend, that a friend has to come willingly. Here's some artwork from the book:



Oliver compared it to Native Americans taking money for their land from Europeans and laughing at them, thinking they had been tricked, because, after all, who can own land? Jeffers explained how he painted his characters on top of older landscape paintings by other people. See how it works with this beautiful cover design:



Oliver said he tracked down the original owners, some deceased, and got permission from the relevant people, either to paint directly on to the paintings or to transpose his separate paintings onto them in Photoshop. He grinned and said, 'It's like I'm collaborating with dead people'. Here are some happy fans at Waterstone's, displaying the special slipcover version that comes with a print:



And it was lovely meeting Oliver's brother. I think he said his name was Rory. They look very much like brothers.



If you missed seeing Oliver this time, he's doing another event on Monday at Gosh! Comics on Berwick Street in Soho, where he'll be talking with Lisa Dwan about his new painting book, Neither Here Nor There. See more book images over on the Gosh! Events page.



And comics fans will also be pleased to hear that David Almond and Dave McKean are launching a new illustrated book/ graphic novel in May, called Mouse, Bird, Snake, Wolf:



Thank you to Paul, Mary, Gary Deane and the team from Waterstone's, Walker Books and HarperCollins for setting up this event, and to Lauren and Alex for all your help. At the end of the talk, there was a massive signing queue, and I signed some books, too. Then I left...


...and Lauren and I made our way to the deep, dark cavern that is The Phoenix Artists Club for the launch of a comic collection by brothers Gary Pleece & Warren Pleece called The Great Unwashed. It's published by Escape Books, the same gang who run Comica Festival and the Comica Social Club: comics expert Paul Gravett, graphic designer Peter Stanbury and events coordinator Megan Donnolley. (But their jobs all overlap and they really do all three.)



Here's Lauren with comics dudes John Miers and Mike Medaglia. Do come along to the monthly Comica Social Club meetings, they're a great place to talk shop and hang out with other comics creators and comics readers.

Add a Comment

When the Society of Authors asked me to organise an event and let me choose Science Fiction as the theme (my last theme was comics), I had such fun pulling together this fabulous group of writers for our Worlds of Tomorrow panel. It's the first time the Society of Authors has hosted an SF event and they were very excited! And other bloggers have beat me to the write-up: check out fab blogs by writers Jeff Norton, here, and Jonathan Green, here, and if you're on Facebook, Candy Gourlay has posted a bunch of photos (many of which I have nicked for this post). To be honest, I was so caught up in hosting the event that it's all a bit of a blur now and I've forgotten most of what we said, but these bloggers took good notes.



So last Tuesday, I zipped up my space boots and joined the panel in front of a big crowd at Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road. Oo, I was not the only one in interesting footwear! Who could these belong to?


Photos by Candy Gourlay


...Yes, Queen of curious gadgetry and small press Kim Lakin-Smith and this year's Costa Award winner, post-apocalyptic-western writer Moira Young! Kim and Moira both have fascinating histories if you look around the Internet; here's Moira on BBC News, talking about her beginnings in comedy, tap dancing and opera, and how breaking both wrists turned her into a writer.


Photo by Candy Gourlay

Thanks to Philip Reeve for being a fabulous event host! Here you can see him lobbing good questions at the panel.


Photo by Candy Gourlay

And here I am with good chum Steve Cole, who's written a zillion books, taught me lots about doing events, and really understands how kids' minds work. (He's wearing the Jamie Smart t-shirt I gave him for his 40th birthday.)


Photo by Candy Gourlay

And some of our lovely books! It made me laugh, thinking that I could be part of an SF panel because I have a book about a princess going into space. And we pretty much stuck to talking about books for young adults, or 'Ya' books, as Philip called them. But I was chuffed to have someone come up to me later and say that she'd been hoping we'd also talk about SF in picture books, so perhaps that is a good subject for another event.



Jared Shurin and his partner Anne Perry run The Kitschies awards, and Jared was able t

Add a Comment

Look, Philip Reeve and I drew a picture together! He drew it and I inked it and coloured it.



And, rather excitingly, it announces an upcoming event, for anyone who loves science fiction (or SF as some people prefer to call it) or wishes they knew more about it. I'm a new member the Children's Writers & Illustrators Group at the Society of Authors, and they were looking for a fun and informative event, after the wildly successful Comics Evening, so I suggested SF, and Philip Reeve to co-chair ('cos he knows a lot more about it than I do), and they went for it. Apparently the Society has never hosted a SF event, so we are pleased to present its first! And Neil Jackson at Foyles loves SF and Philip's work, so he was totally up for letting us hold it at the bookshop. Everyone wants to know what they big deal is about SF; it's taking the children's literary world by storm. Do you love reading it and want to ask the authors questions? Are you interested in learning how to write it?

WORLDS OF TOMORROW: The Rise of Sci-Fi in Children's & YA

THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS and FOYLES present an evening with your hosts PHILIP REEVE & SARAH MCINTYRE. Followed by a question time and book signing.

PLACE: The Gallery, Foyles Charing Cross
DATE: Tuesday, 22 May
TIME: 7pm
Book FREE tickets by e-mail: [email protected]
Space is limited, please e-mail Foyles if you book and are unable to come.
The Society of Authors has reserved 40 places for society members



INCLUDING SPECIAL GUESTS

MOIRA YOUNG stunned readers last year with BLOOD RED ROAD, her YA debut novel about a girl searching for her kidnapped twin brother in a bleak, post-apocalyptic landscape. Her book scooped up the Costa book award and now that she's back from a whirlwind USA tour, she's working on the second book in the trilogy.
Favourite sci-fi book as a child: A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle

High-energy writer STEVE COLE invented a time machine that lets him write more books than anyone else, and they sell in the millions. His books include the wildly popular ASTROSAURS series, COWS IN ACTION, Z.REX, ASTROSAURS ACADEMY, THE SLIME SQUAD and several original DOCTOR WHO stories.
Favourite sci-fi book as a child: STORIES FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE by Rod Serling

SF and dark fantasy writer KIM LAKIN-SMITH is obsessed with mechanics, dystopias, and all things punk. Her novel CYBER CIRCUS is shortlisted for this year's British Science Fiction Association Best Novel award. Kim's latest YA story is the steampunk action adventure, QUEEN RAT.
Favourite sci-fi book as a child: THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams


PHILIP REEVE teleports from the wilds of Dartmoor, where he's constructed the futuristic landscape of the MORTAL ENGINES quartet and the ongoing FEVER CRUMB books. His madcap LARKLIGHT trilogy begins in a Victorian house which orbits the moon. His latest book,

Add a Comment

On the way to Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road, I spotted this window display, which sums up steampunk festivities pretty well.



First stop, a signing by Philip Reeve of his Mortal Engines quartet, with me drawing for the people in the queue and occasionally signing Vern and Lettuce. Philip just LOVED the drawing I made of him...





It was fun seeing how many people had brought along first editions and versions with lovely covers. These were my favourites, I wish they'd do a reprint of them.



Surprise visitor! The amazing Dave McKean (The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish, The Wolves in the Walls, Mirrormask, loads of other fine stuff). Hurrah!



And I was chuffed to meet teenage blogger Rhys Jones, who runs a website that reviews Young Adult novels called Thirst for Fiction. Here's Rhys's write-up of the evening.



I've recently referred several young friends to Rhys's blog because it's an excellent way to immerse themselves in the book world, get publishers to send them free books and invitations to events, meet other writers and study the craft of writing. I used to review books for Write Away and I found being an official reviewer a real door opener. Blogs are free and easy to start up, all you need is time to do it.



After getting hit in the shins by tumbling, airborne cardboard boxes on the road, the next stop was Blackwell's bookshop for a Steampunk Evening! And that meant COSTUMES.



...And Plarchie the giant squid! The party had a stellar cast list, including (from left) Chris Riddell, Paul Stewart, Philip, Lauren O'Farrell and Alex Milway.



Look, it's Philip with China Miéville!



I met China earlier this year at the Heffers Sci-Fi Evening in Cambridge, which is also where I met Sophia McDougall, shown here with a fan holding a copy of Romanitas.



Plarchie was a real gr

Add a Comment

Two costume parties in one day! Here was the first, Fearfest, at Foyles bookshop on London's Charing Cross Road. I'm posing with a comics reader named Belle, in front of the piranha tank. (Yes, real piranhas! And one of them was getting rather chomped on by the rest.) Belle had a cool broomstick and, very gratifyingly, knew my comic Vern and Lettuce, back to front. I love it when that happens, she caught all these tiny details I knew most people would miss. (Maybe she'll contribute a page to Vern and Lettuce's online magazine, The Pickle.)



A quick poster of Captain Waffle that I drew for the shop, a be-wigged Children's Marketing and Events Co-ordinator Neil Jackson with a be-hatted Sam, who both were good fun, and one of the kid's pirates. (You can download a free Draw a Pirate pack here.)



The event had free sweets for the kids, but I partook of them rather extravagantly. The chocolate sweets were the best, but Neil also introduced me to mallow sticks. Thanks, Neil, Sam and the Foyles gang!



Then it was on to the house of my fellow Fleece Officer Ellen Lindner and her husband Stephen Betts, where all my studio mateys from the Fleece Station were costumed up! Gary Northfield and Lauren O'Farrell had evidentally had a massive row and stuck things through each other's heads. It was all a bit gory.



Look, two villagers from The Wicker Man! We love playing that soundtrack in the studio, it's well creepy.




I was never quite able that evening to be at ease around Dylan Wyn Owen, his seamless mask/makeup job was just a bit too convincing.



Ellen had bowls of gummy teeth lying around, nom nom.



Gary's gone a bit simple since his hatchet job.



Oo, don't look at Charlotte Brown the Medusa or she'll turn you to stone.



Noelle Davies-Brock went all Star Wars princess...



And Alfred wore his heart on his sleeve.





James Turner (have you seen his brilliant new Super Comics Adventure Squad comic book?) and Bond girl Akanksha:

Add a Comment

Foyles bookshop is to open its seventh branch near the site of the 2012 Olympics in the new Westfield Stratford City shopping centre.

The family-owned bookseller, which has its flagship store on Charing Cross Road, central London, will launch its latest shop in the Westfield Stratford City, dubbed "Europe's largest urban shopping centre" and due to open later this year.

The seventh Foyles will trade from over 5,000 square feet and be situated on the ground floor.

read more

Add a Comment

Today was FEAR FEST at Foyles... don't we look SCARY???! Heh heh. I love how Morris the Mankiest Monster is absolutely foul, but there's no real monster fear factor, just a horrible fascination. The kids at Foyles bookshop were as bogey-obsessed as ever and we had a great time making monsters... right next to a tank full of... PIRANHAS! That wasn't too scary - they're behind glass - but then one of the staff told me Marcus Sedgwick once had to stick his arm into the tank to fish out a book, with the piranhas still in it. Okay, that's slightly edgy stuff.



Foyles will host several more Fear Fest events on Sun, 31 Oct, with Sarwat Chadda, Sam Enthoven, William Hussey, Cliff Mcnish and L.A Weatherly. Some of them might be scarier than mine.



Here are the fab Neil and Jeni, who made the event a great success. (Thanks so much!) They gave me a goodie bag which included a rather sinister-looking cupcake, complete with big, gory eyeball.



I'm off tomorrow morning with DFC colleague John Aggs and studio mate Ellen Lindner to paint murals in Nottingham Market Square for two days. We'll each have our own lounge space at Game City, where people will be able to play video games while we do graffiti on the walls around them. I've never done anything like this, but I'll let you know how it went.

I just heard from Mei Matsuoka that she's going to be at the Sheffield Children's Book Award Ceremony on 23 Nov, along with Morris the Mankiest Monster writer Giles Andreae and me. (Morris is shortlisted.) Mei's fab (she illustrated The Great Dog Bottom Swap), really looking forward to seeing her. (Here's my post about her visit to our studio.)

Apologies if you've sent me a lovely e-mail and I haven't answered it yet. I have a terrible backlog of correspondence and, while I'm loving this eventing thing, I'm teetering a bit and I think I'll really welcome getting back to picture book work. And I'll need to do so very soon, as the deadlines are LOOMING. Yikes.

Add a Comment

I've been a fan for some time of the work of comics creator Marc Ellerby, so I was very glad for an invitation to visit him at work! He set up a children's event at his Waterstone's shop in Lakeside shopping centre and we had a You Can't Eat a Princess! Aliens Party.



It was great getting to do a Comics Jam with Marc, but then I looked over at the finished artwork, to find this little girl adding her two bits to it. She was very pleased with her final result and took it home with her.



Marc let me sabotage the front window and till with on-the-spot drawings and his manager seemed cool with it. (Thanks, guys!) :D



These were my two favourite alien drawings from the day.

Add a Comment

The Hay Festival of Arts and Literature is one of the highlights of the UK literary calendar. Every year it takes place in Hay on Wye, a small village on the English-Welsh border, famed for its numerous bookshops. This year sees events from lots of big names including  AC Grayling, Niall Ferguson, Ian McEwan, and Karen Armstrong. Several OUP authors are also doing events during the festival, including Anthony Julius, Ian Glynn, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, and Jerry Coyne.

OUP UK’s Head of Publicity, Kate Farquhar-Thomson, is also there, and this week will be sending her dispatches from the festival front line. Today, though, she writes about the other side of Hay.

It would be easy to make a list of the stars that I have spotted here at the Hay Festival since I arrived, or indeed the past colleagues I have worked with, but actually what strikes me more, on this visit, is what is going on outside the boundaries of the festival.

The fact is that whilst tens of thousands of people descend on this small Welsh border town for a week (or so) to mingle with politicians, models (oh yes, Jerry Hall was here!), historians, novelists and more, life around the UK’s premier ‘Book Town’ still goes on.  I see tractors going about their farm business, sheep lambing and hay being made.  However it is not only hay that is being made in Hay by the indigenous population.  There are numerous little stalls of bric-a-brac, tea shops, cake stalls and plant sellers that have sprung up in gardens, on pavements, under tents and in driveways.  The whole town embraces the festival and is keen to capitalise on it!  Good for them I say.  It happens but once a year and it is truly special.  It is like the circus is in town… all encompassing but transient.

Some of Hay on Wye’s native residents.

Talking of circuses there is actually one in town in the grounds of Hay Castle this year.  Giffords Circus, normally to be found every other year in a field just over the Hay Bridge has bedded down in the town centre this year.  Within the castle, which was built in 1200, is a flat owned by Richard Booth, the self-proclaimed “King of Hay” whose eponymous bookshop stands at the centre of Hay and was the first second-hand bookshop to open here well over 40 years ago.  And for the first time since I have been coming to Hay I actually met the man himself last Saturday night!

Add a Comment

Quest for Olympic knowledge stirs reading enthusiasm
A Frederick, Maryland Elementary School is using Olympic excitement to incent students to read.

The Most Amazing Libraries In The World Part Two
The Huffington Post features a slideshow of  the “Most Amazing Libraries In the World Part Two” as a follow up to part one from last month. Check out the amazing photos of some incredible libraries!

The joys of bookshop browsing
Sam Jordison comments that “searching real shelves is the most satisfying way to find literary treasures – but can it survive the rise of Amazon and ebooks?”

Oddest book title prize pits worm hunter’s afterthoughts against Nazi spoons
Check out the shortlist for this year’s Diagram prize for the oddest book title, which includes Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter and Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich.

Add a Comment

I almost got crushed in the crowd of Fulham Christmas shoppers and Chelsea football club fans on the Tube, but a bunch of kids joined me to make monsters at a sparkling, cosy bookshop in Southfields called The Golden Treasury.



Thanks, Will Dyson, Annie Horwood and Weinay Tang, for making me feel so welcome! They've had an amazing lineup in the last few weeks, including Axel Scheffler, Jane Ray, Anthony Horowitz and Marcus Sedgwick. You can follow The Golden Treasury on Twitter here.

Add a Comment

Topping & Co in Bath - photograph by Susan Humphreys
I guess its hardly surprising that I haven't had much time for writing lately - well not unless you count filling in application forms for jobs - I've written plenty of those! I've even written a report on social networking as part of my volunteer work and of course i'm writing all the time on Facebook and Twitter - even on here whe i can think of something to share! but as for actual fiction - nothing!

There's no excuse really though and as a former reporter I should know you just have to do it! I must try harder! Especially as this month's National Geographic magazine has Angkor on the cover.
I have however managed to find time for my quick trip to Bath where I got to hear my hero Glen David Gold read from his new book Sunnyside. He was very funny and admitted he is also very bad at writing when he should - "oh look there's a cat in the yard," was his comment. I got to have a quick chat with him after the reading and he very kindly signed my books and told me he is however working on something new (hurrah). I'm hoping it won't take him eight years as it did after finishing Carter Beats the Devil - my favourite book. I also mentioned I read his blog - which he seemed very pleasantly surprised about! Well I know how that feels - when I'm writing on here I always feel like no-one's reading it.
Topping & Company was a fanatastic bookshop - you could spend days in there and the staff were lovely. They are also open 7 days a week till 7.30pm! I couldn't resist buying the new Jonanthan Stroud book too - Heroes of the Valley especially as it was a signed copy. If you're in Bath and you love books do pop in - well linger!
I also got to pay my second visit to Bristol Zoo, it was a glorious day and I got to check out al lot of Madagascan animals again including the aye-ayes, mouse lemurs and mongoose lemurs. One of the highlights though was getting to shake hands - well legs- with Gabriella the tarantuala - which involved letting her carefully put her limbs on the palm of my hand. She was much lighter than I expected and very soft - not at all scary. I also got to hold a Madagascan Hissing Cockroach again - they were very noisy!

Add a Comment

Every red blooded bibliophile will eventually admit that at one point they have dreamed of owning, or at least working, in a bookstore.  The idea of getting to spend ones days bustling though the smell of the stacks, handling old books, and being able to recommend a book that makes the customer’s week are a fanciful notion.   But is this actually how it happens, or is it just the romantic fantasy we bibliophiles hold on to about the professional bookseller.

If you ever wanted to know what it was like to work in a bookstore but aren’t ready to jump in head first here are a few reads that might help paint the picture for you.

Top 10 books about bookselling 

1.Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry’s novels are barely mentioned. They just don’t seem that important to him. Books: A Memoir is a book about being a bookman, being a book scout, being a used bookseller. Countless authors stress the importance of literacy and bang on about how books must never die, but how many open bookstores and get their hands dirty at the sharp end of this business – flogging used books?

2.The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee
In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, a Book Sense selection, Lewis Buzbee celebrates the unique experience of the bookstoreé  He shares his passion for books, which began with ordering through the Weekly Reader in grade school to a fascinating historical account of the bookseller trade—from the great Alexandria library to Sylvia Beach’s famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare & Co. Rich with anecdotes, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is the perfect choice for those who relish the enduring pleasures of spending an afternoon finding just the right book.

                        

3. The King's English by Betsy Burton
Burton opened her bookstore in Salt Lake City in 1977, and this book explains the trials and tribulations of running an independent bookstore.  From competition from national chains, censorship under the Patriot Act, strange twists in reading tastes, and even stranger tastes in visiting authors whose lists of demands read like those of rabid rock stars.

4. The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
Unlike the previous suggestions The Haunted Bookshop is a novel set in Brooklyn just after the end of World War I.  The story juxtaposes a pair of middle-aged bookshop owners and two young lovers with a nest of German saboteurs, but more importantly for this list, the novel has a great insight into the bookseller’s trade.

5. Sixpence House by Paul Collins
This is Paul Collins account of his move, with his family, to the Hay-on-Wye book town (1500 residents and 40 bookstores) from San Francisco and the adventures he finds there.

6. Bookstore: The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & Co. by Lynne Tillman
The behind-the-scenes story of one of America's greatest bookstores, narrated by Lynne Tillman and the customers, employees, and famous writers who frequented it.

                

7. An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the World of Books by Wendy Werris
This book is another memoir in the life of books and bookselling.  Werris got her start in 1970 selling books at Pickwick Bookstore in LA.  She talks about her time with small presses and independent bookstores. 

8. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for…  by Nicholas A. Basbanes
Not directly about Bookselling per say but any conversation where books about books are talked about Nicholas Basbanes will eventually come up.  Basbanes has written no less than eight books about books, book collecting, bookstores, libraries and book culture and his works provide a great insight into the world in which booksellers live.

9. Shakespeare and Company by Sylvia Beach
In 1919 Sylvia Beach "opened an American bookshop in Paris called Shakespeare and Company.  The shop became a publishing house for a majority of The Lost Generation.  This book talks about how this little shop came to publish James Joyce`s opus Ulysses.

10. Left Bank waltz : the Australian bookshop in Paris by Elaine Lewis
Elaine Lewis left her home in Australia to open the first Australian book shop in Paris.  Elaine hosted events, book readings and encouraged an exchange of ideas and a love of literature, as well as midnight swims in the Seine! But when some bumbling and nasty French bureaucrats threatened to close down the shop, Elaine and her many staunch supporters were faced with a battle against the establishment that quickly became stranger than fiction Left Bank Waltz is the spirited story of an Australian woman's courageous decision to follow a dream

... I didn't include them on this list since they are not about bookselling per say but there is also a neat series of detective novels by author and bookseller John Dunning about a bookseller and ex-policeman named Cliff Janeway who solves crime.  Start with Booked to Die and work your way though the series.

Add a Comment

A few months ago I did some author visits at two schools (Russell and Franklin) in Missoula, Montana. They went so fabulously I thought I would share some tips I learned from these wonderful school administrators (thank you Pat and Nancy!).

The main component in making an author visit successful is getting the kids pumped for the visit. If the kids aren’t excited for me to come, the visit will not be very exciting–period. I do my best, but nothing beats teachers working with the students before the visit to generate enthusiasm!

To get kids ready involves preparation. I will do my part, which is sending you ideas and materials to help prepare the students for the visit. Your part is spend weeks (not days) preparing students for the author visit. Use the time to read the author’s books, do crafts and activities which revolve around the author’s books, and let the the students check out the author’s website, etc…

This is a great display the schools prepared for my visit. There were dozens and dozens of pictures of students reading my books. What a great idea! Every child felt included in the visit, which ensured the students had a vested interest in the visit succeeding! Eureka!

This is a craft (a little blurry, sorry) the kids made that is suggested on the Features for Teacher’s activities on my website. It is a paper quilt made of students’ drawings based on my bear books. It was truly adorable.

But this wasn’t all they did! They also did hippo crafts for Hilda Must Be Dancing, they did Frog art, they made posters. The hallways were a tribute to reading and my books! This isn’t about my ego (really). It’s about getting the kids thrilled for the visit, and boy were they! Kids were literally coming up to me, hugging me, saying how excited they were. They were talking about how much they love books and reading and how long they had waited for the visit. It literally reminded me of kids who had waited for Christmas. The schools even did a countdown for weeks before the visit! Every day they would count down one more day until “Karma Wilson Day!”

Here is one of the posters that was made especially for the big day. Isn’t this great? When children see that the teachers are this excited, they figure it must be something big!

If you are planning an author visit with me or ANY author I ask you to do what Russell and Franklin schools did. Get your students begging for the visit! There should be a carnival air to the whole event.

Here are a few more ideas:

1. A week leading up to the visit hold lotteries each day for a signed book.

2. Help kids think of great questions for my Q&A period, and be diligent about explaining the difference between a question and a statement or story. (I love hearing the names of their cats and their latest injuries, but it does eat time…heh heh!)

3. Kids are excited to share their stories with me, so have them write a story to give me when I leave.

4. Ask art teachers, librarians, and even the PE teachers to contribute to the visit. Art projects can revolve around themes in my books, librarians can encourage kids to check out my books or use my books in story time, and PE teachers can do physical activities related to themes in my books (Frog hopping, Bear crawls, etc…) You can even enlist the lunch cooks! Can Bear book themed foods be served on the day of the visit?

The more involved everybody in the school is, the more the kids will catch the enthusiasm for the visit. They will naturally be excited about reading and writing, and that is the whole purpose of any author visit! So go CRAZY and use your imagination! I guarantee, you won’t regret it!

Karma

Add a Comment