HARTFIELD STORYFEST and MORE good news!

Brilliant World Of Tom Gates is SHORTLISTED for the Southwark Book Awards

Last week I sent off the first draft of Tom Gates GENIUS IDEAS (mostly) which is scarily already on AMAZON and WATERSTONES. No rest for the wicked.


Guess what... Tom Gates is only on another shortlist for the 
SOUTHWARK BOOK AWARDS! Good company too. I met the author of the Doughnut Diaries in Glasgow (Anthony McGowan) his books are very funny too. 


AND I forget to say THANK YOU to all the children who took part
of The BOOK FACTOR AWARDS arranged by SIMPLY BOOKS and VOTED for The Brilliant World Of TOM GATES! I did a little video thank you and a sneaky look around my messy shed. But it's not uploading...I'll put it up another time.

Went to the very FIRST HARTFIELD STORYFEST, held in winnie the pooh country near the ashdown forest. It was lovely weather thank GAWD or the big top and fields might have been a bit soggy.


Met up with an old friend Lawrence and his partner and kids who Mark and I knew from JIVE RECORDS (where I used to work years ago in a portacabin). He was in great form! I have some good photos from JIVE days that I must dig out. The ones with the cardboard cut out of Rick Astley are worth sharing...


Here are a few pictures from Sunday which was ACE.

Storyfest and hay.

And the winners are...

Brian Moses  - writer,  poet and performer -
and I  gave out prizes to children who had
entered various competitions.

The ringmaster.

Stupidly forgot it was being held being held in a field...with mud. So left my fancy shoes to one side.

Fabulous organisers.
See if you can guess who the
organisers are from their
photos on the STORYFEST website!

SUCH a good idea! They were working very hard making
up poems to order.

I have NEW BOOK MARKERS YEAH! 

Great selection of books for everyone.

I signed loads of books and met a lot of children!

Adam Stower was there too.
He got a lift withme and Mark and
Lily and had to put up with us
getting lost and a RATTLING car.
He has a NEW book out
NAUGHTY KITTY coming soon. The second in the
series after - Silly Doggy 

Open Houses and other creative stuff

As a freelance illustrator I was lucky enough to work for a GREAT company called CAMDEN GRAPHICS (now owned by UK greetings). Bob Borzello set the company up and now throws fantastic get
together's for all people that were part of the company. 
Bob's an amazing person and entrepreneur, who made Camden Graphics a brilliant place to be part of. Quite a few of the 
creative department went on to work on books. Like Lovely Deborah Allwright and Phil Powell who worked as a designer at Egmont books. Pip and Chris came up from Brighton too. It was great to catch up with everyone!


And I'm getting to the age where 50th Birthday parties are coming up thick and fast. Pete Greenwood's 50th a few weeks back where his wife Claire brought out a cake with some serious fireworks on. (Pete's illustrations are superb...take a look.)


Once the LADYBOY posters go up in Brighton, you know the May festival is on the way. Managed to get to a few open houses last weekend which great. And did a talk at DAVID HIGHAM ASSOCIATES (my agents) last week too. More about that below... 

The unique Bob Borzello

Pip Adams (Textile designer and artist) and me.

Lovely Deborah Allwright.
Look at all her wonderful books.

The very talented Pete Greenwood's 50th
birthday.I shared a studio with Pete at the Annex. Take a look at his work here.

Chris Scott (Pips husband) Pip and Phil.

Fredericks in Islington

Monica Willett
(and editor at Camden Graphics)
and Phil.

Deborah and Peter Kimpton
( Journalist and writer.)

There was a magician entertaining us.
I made half his head disappear.

My Mum took this photo...

My Mum - look at the WAITRESS in the mirror
and her expression!

BRIGHTON OPEN HOUSES and the festival started in May 1st.

Lots of nice houses stuffed full of all kinds of ARTS and CRAFTS. Wonderful gardens too (with tea and cake if you're lucky.)

Took my Mum to a few including this 

caravan and THE GARDEN HOUSE, which is 

huge and not what you expect from the 

outside. I bought a plant which is being eaten by slugs as I type.

Flower beds in The Garden House

Real chickens...

... not real chickens.

Lily's oil pastel drawing is very good.
(I would say that!)

The Team at David Higham Associates. 

Last Wednesday, I was asked to do a talk at David Higham Associates (MY AGENTS) about my work, how I started and anything else I could think of. Which was fine, until I walked into the room and everyone was sitting there looking at me! They were all very kind and it was so interesting listening to the other author (Victoria Routledge) talking too who writes adult fiction.Caroline Walsh (right at the back of the picture next to Alice) has been ,my agent since 1997.  She told me I'd done 30 pictures book to date. Doesn't



time fly when you're having fun?

Shrewsbury Bookfest Award

Had a FANTASTIC time meeting everyone at 

the Shrewsbury Book Awards.

Thanks all the children who voted and took part organising the Bookfest. There were 600 children at the ceremony,it was quite a "do"!I can't actually believe that the kids voted for Tom Gates as the shortlist was top notch, so just be in with the other authors was pretty bleedin brilliant. 

I Met Fiona Dunbar (Divine Freaks) and Rose Impey (The Get Rich Quick Club.)who were both lovely and great company too.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Did that really just happen? Wow...

Rose Impey and Fiona Dunbar

Me saying "thank you" (very much!)

The lovely LARGE B&B.

Gorgeous stream and
pond in the garden.

Hannah from Scholastic and
Marcus who compared the event
and wrote and performed
poems about all the books.

Dinner with the organisers and authors.

On stage with Marcus asking questions.

Children all performed
extracts from ALL the books.

Giving a sort of speech.

Which book is the winner? 

Dinner with everyone
the night before.

The BIG theatre.

Breakfast in the B&B.   

Children's artwork for
a book cover COMPETITION.
The standard was VERY high.

Grumpy Tom by Joe Jones

How good is this?

I'm checking...
but I think this is the Mayor!?

The other authors books.

I got a lovely plate!

YEAH!

Rose and Sophie Peach who
organised the event
along with her team and did a
FABULOUS job. Thanks Sophie.

Signing stickers on the train home.