5th April
It may be very early in the month, but so far things have been very busy. I have come up with a rough for the new Musicians Benevolent Fund card, rewritten a picture book text about wolves, eaten too much chocolate and attended the Federation of Children's Book Group Conference in St Albans. Finally had an offer from my publisher for the Snow Leopard, but not one that I leapt at, so negotiations are still going on. Anyway, the Federation Conference was a wonderful break from the daily routine.
The weekend began with me driving to Haverfordwest to pick up Eva John as we were traveling down together, but Eva had migraine, so the first bit of the journey was very subdued. A detour to Carmarthen in search of sketchbooks became very expensive. No sketchbook, but I did buy a rather beautiful necklace from Oriel Mryddin. They were showing the most wonderful work with sculptures and jewelry made from recycled materials by Val Hunt and I fell for a necklace. By the time I got back to the car Eva had finished being sick and the lure of beautiful things was too much for her so we both went back to the gallery.
Back on the road we navigated our way to James Mayhews' house for tea and cake and a look through the proofs for a new book of his The Knight Who Took All Day, fantastic, and as a result were late for the start of the conference and missed Anthony Horowitz doing the opening speech and launching his new book Archangel. We didn't miss the Walker Books 25th birthday party though, and managed to catch up with old friends and make lots of new ones.
Saturday was busy. I listened to a panel discuss fantasy fiction, with Chris D'Lacey, Catherine Fisher and Mary Hoffman, chaired by the wonderful Wendy Cooling. Not sure what they were looking at here, but Wendy was very animated!
I started to get nervous and twitchy as time kept closer to me doing a painting workshop, and noticed that it was fully booked. But also found a copy of Carousel with an article I had written about picture books, which made me feel very grown up.
|
Later Axel and Julia talked about the famous Gruffalo and I was very heartened to hear that Axel also had trouble with covers as he went through many versions of cover ideas for the Gruffalo. Not that I am still smarting from not getting my own way on the cover for Little Bear, or indeed feeling at all bitter about it! I was at college in Corsham with Axel ( twentytoomany years ago) and had always loved his sketchbooks, which were packed with tiny drawings and ideas and quirky creatures. He was brilliant at college, when I couldn't put an illustration together to save my life. We have both worked for a magazine called Resurgence for years and I talked to him about a new article I have to illustrate for them on the nature of consciousness, but he didn't come up with any ideas for me, which was a shame! |
 |
 |
I managed to get through my session, painting and talking about illustration and writing and it was great having Jude, my art editor from Frances Lincoln there as it added to the session for people who wanted to know about the process of making books. The picture went into the raffle and was won by.......... who loves tigers. |
A storytelling session by Sally Pomme Clayton took all who listened out across the Steppes with music from far away and stories from long ago and she was captivating, rhythmic, stunning.
The evening was filled with a wonderful talk by Jonathan Stroud and bedtime stories from Cat Weatherill.
So, off to bed with a head full of stories for a good nights sleep..................As I left my publisher asked what my talk would be on the next day, and when I said " Oh, you know, divorce, extinction and then I thought I'd read a story", she looked a bit worried. As I tried to get to sleep the size of the stage got bigger and bigger in my mind and things went over and round in my head and the night slipped away in a haze of tossing and turning.
|
By 6 o'clock I thought I might as well get up and wander about and it was a beautiful morning. Before I knew where I was I was on stage and giving what started off as a hymn of praise to Pembrokeshire and I began to wonder whether I wouldn't be better off getting a job with the Welsh Tourist Board. I managed to get through the 45 minutes before I knew what was happening, almost burst into tears reading out facts about tigers and their vanishing numbers, though people always seem to like the story about drawing the elephant that had a cold. I can't understand why people find the thought of me being an elephants handkerchief amusing, but they did like the drawing I manages to salvage from the experience. And looking at the pictures of me, live on stage I realized it was time to eat a little less chocolate, and walk the dogs a little more! |
 |
Lots of people wanted books signed afterwards and were lovely, and someone told me where I could find Snow Leopards, in Welyn Garden City, and somewhere to find tigers, and I got to see the picture I had painted for an exhibition in Cardiff very large.
Later Kaye Umanski made me laugh so much that I bought two of her books, but wanted to take her home so that she could read them to me.
The long journey home was filled up with talk about books, and the car was weighted down with them. I dropped Eva off and drove through thick fog like dragon's breath the rest of the way. Back to earth and back to reality and my American publisher who are keen to do more work with me and want to work on developing my writing, which is very encouraging.
Walking the dogs over the back of the hill from my cottage the next day the air was filled with the song of skylarks battling for territory, song upon song tumbling down like singing in rounds.
Had lovely pictures sent through from Peters Book Selling Services where they have an exhibition of the artwork from the Lord of the Forest.
22nd April
Out and about on travels again, this time to Buckland School near Oxford. I stayed in a b&b near White Horse Hill and walked to Wayland's Smithy, a long barrow, a place lost in time. Walking to the Smithy along the ridgeway the clouds were building and the sun was setting. Lapwings were calling across the fields and dancing in the air, flashing black and white wings and tumbling. In the morning I had walked by the sea and skylarks had thrown down their songs in a challenge, and in the evening their calls mingled with the lapwings' cries.
And the long
barrow was every bit as magical in reality as I had hoped.
The next morning I was up early and into school. The children and teachers gave me a warm welcome and showed me some of the work the children had done inspired by the books I have illustrated.
|
We read stories from books and stories that are still too new to be in books. We talked about dragons and mermaids and bears and tigers. We talked about artists and painting and writers and all the children drew and told stories. To see more of the work produced by the children click here or on the String of Stars picture. |
 |