Bogey Glue and Luggage Racks...

I am working really hard at the moment, doing all my book events. 

Last week went well, although I was TOTALLY shattered by the time I finally got home at 7pm on Friday evening, after a bit of a nightmare journey, with missed / late / overstuffed trains: especially horrible after you have been so much on your feet during the day. I actually climbed into the luggage-rack at one stage, as my feet were so totally blasted. It's not actually that easy to jump up into the top shelf of the luggage rack when you are only 5 foot 1, as I discovered. I got myself to that point where I needed slightly more arm strength than I suddenly realised I had. Eeeee... It was only the thought of the humiliation that would ensue if I fell into a yelping lump at the feet of my fellow travellers, which provided the extra boost to get me up there.

Anyway, this is me strutting my stuff for Birmingham Young Readers Festival, in a sort of children's amphitheatre in the brand new Birmingham Library on Friday morning. The whole place is very gleamy and interesting. Unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to look round, so I will have to find a reason to go back.

One highlight of the week was working with poets Paul Cookson and Conrad Burdekin at Sheffield's Bag-a-Book Day. It's a lovely event for looked-after-children, which I do each year. Paul, Conrad and I each had separate rooms, where children could pop in all day and work with us, but we very quickly decided to repeat what Paul and I did last year and pooled our resources, which was hilarious. The most memorable bit was the 'Making Bogey Glue' song: Conrad created a totally gross poem with the children, which Paul then set to music with his ukulele. While they were all singing it, my job was to illustrate it on the flipchart.

The bonkers things I end up doing for my work...