An actual book!

This week has been amazing.

On Monday Lydia (one of my very lovely editors at HarperCollins) sent over a couple of advance copies of Blown Away. Actual finished, printed, bound copies of my book.

It was quite a surreal experience holding it in my hands for the first time - genuine dream-come-true stuff. Cheesy, I know, but true. And it looks lovely, even if I do say so myself! I’m so pleased with it, particularly the PLC (bookspeak for the cardboard cover thing underneath the dust-jacket).

Here’s a couple of pics… (will post more soon)

The week’s other surreal moment came at the HarperCollins Summer Party - an annual event held every July for HC authors published that year. And, according to the badge that I had to wear for the evening, I’m one of those! How hilarious.

Anyway, back to that second surreal moment; at the party I was introduced to… JUDITH KERR, author and illustrator of one of the best children’s books of all time, The Tiger Who Came to Tea.

She was so nice - sweet and generous. Plus she had some lovely encouraging words for me that I’ll always remember. Such an honour to meet her. She may be 91 but she’s as productive as ever - her new book The Crocodile Under The Bed is out soon.

So yes, quite a week. And there’s more exciting things coming as we get closer to publication date (August 28). Will be sure to keep you posted but in the meantime click here for a little book teaser…

Click here to see a teaser ad for Blown Away →

Coming soon to a bookshop near you… 

It's all happening

It really is.

Remember when I said that my first picture book, Blown Away, was coming out at some point early next year? Well, the publication date has just been brought forward to September. This is very exciting for me. I might actually get to hold an actual printed copy of my actual book before the schools break up for the summer holidays. 

The turnaround has been pretty quick.

The story was written last September,

sketched out in October,

signed by HarperCollins in November,

artworked in January,

proofed in February,

taken to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in March,

tweaked in April

and sent off to be printed and bound last week.

Along the way I’ve met lots of very talented people and I’m incredibly lucky to be working with the HarperCollins team behind the Judith Kerr, David Walliams and Oliver Jeffers books. Rachel, Lydia (editors) and James (art director) have brought so much to the party and improved Blown Away no end. We’re all really pleased with how it’s turned out.  

The HC rights team have been working very hard too and I’m proud to say that we already have publishing deals confirmed in the states (HarperCollinsUS), France (Éditions Milan), Germany (Diogenes) and Holland (Gottmer). I think the British version gets sent to Australia so hopefully my family down under will also be able to pick up a copy soon.  

All told, the last six months or so have been amazing, if slightly surreal. I still can’t quite believe that in a few months time I’ll be able to walk into any Waterstones and pick up a book with my name on the cover. 

Now I’ve just got to come up with an idea for the next one…

Packed-lunch post-its

When Poppy started in reception back in September the thing she was most anxious about was staying on at school for lunch. I suppose it’s quite a big deal when you’re four. So we thought that if we put something in her lunchbox that made her smile when she opened it the whole ordeal might seem a little more bearable. Someone suggested drawing her a little picture on a post-it note. And so it began.

She was very pleased with the first one (a decidedly rushed Humpty Dumpty) and immediately asked what her drawing for the next day would be. Suddenly it’s six months later and I have drawn about 120.

Yes, it does add slightly to the stress levels of a morning - it’s tricky trying to knock-out a picture in between the Weetabix and the ponytails. If I’m feeling very organised I will do it the night before but that has only happened about three times. The Mr Men are my go-to guys if we’re running particularly late as I can knock one of those fellas out in about two minutes. Unfortunately, Poppy’s decided that I’ve done too many now so I’m on the lookout for another quick solution. Any ideas gratefully received.

Some of the post-its arrive back from school in better condition than others, but we do keep them all. The plan is to frame them and put them up on her wall at some point. It might be something nice for her (and us) to look back on in the years to come. Having said that, she’s not shy about giving me a pretty honest appraisal of the day’s drawing when I get home from work. Apparently my Ewok didn’t look like an Ewok. “It looks like a rubbish teddy bear that’s gone wrong, daddy”. Charming.

Here’s a selection.

Footnote: I feel I must apologise to the people that drew all the original characters. My slightly cock-eyed interpretations of your work must be quite painful to look at. Still, at least Poppy likes them. Well, most of the time…

Share it with the class

A couple of weeks ago Poppy’s teacher asked me to go into school and read Blown Away to reception. My first ever reading. In fact the first time that any children other than my own have heard the story. Was slightly nerve-wracking (there were more than sixty of them!) but I think it went quite well. The children certainly seemed to enjoy the *ahem* penguin-drawing masterclass we held afterwards.

Here are some of the results…

A few of us had a stab at bears too…

A big thanks-for-having-me to the pupils and teachers of reception class at St Mary’s, N3. It was great fun and I’ll be back soon. Tomorrow morning, in fact, when I drop Poppy off. 

Adventures in storytelling

And so, my first picture book will be published early next year by HarperCollins. You have no idea how exciting it is to be able to type that sentence. It’s been a journey.

The book is called Blown Away. It features a varied cast of characters, including this penguin…

this seal…

and this bear…

…in a story about good ideas, homesickness and the perils of kites! Click here for the Bookseller announcement.

You can keep up to date with Blown Away’s progress from sketchbook to shelf by popping back here every now and again. I’ll try and post fairly regularly - maybe show some behind-the-scenes stuff, sketchbooks, a few Instagrams etc. Hopefully it won’t be that boring.

In the meantime you can find my website here, follow me on Twitter here and on Instagram here.

Until next time…

“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild
To pick up a book and read to a child.”

— Dr. Seuss