Frog Impressions at Marple Festival

I had a lovely time with the children in Marple on Saturday, but it was really touch and go whether I would be able to make it.


I caught a cold the previous week and lost my voice (again!). I have been totally silent for 6 days (hurrah, says John). I thought I would have to cancel, but come Friday I had a tiny, croaky bit of voice back, so crossed my fingers and gave it a go.

I was decidedly husky, but made it through and I'm so glad, because it was a smashing day and the children were just great. I love it when kids 'hang around' afterwards, not quite wanting to go home.


One little girl, whose parents had got the time wrong, turned up just as we finished. I had plenty of time until my train, and she was so cute, we drew a picture together on the flipchart.

These are some of the sketches I did on the train and platform. I did some in fine-point pen and some in pencil.

It was a stop-everywhere, rattly, cattle-truck of a train, that worked its way slowly across the Pennines, but it was full of life and characters. Two teenage girls sitting directly behind me spent the whole journey helping each other to do their makeup and hair.

ha ha - I just noticed how perfectly our outfits match the book jackets in the photo, even down to the purple T shirt (all carefully staged, of course).