Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Hope you all have a brilliant Christmas and a great year in 2012!

Arvon 2011

I've just come back from teaching for a week on an Arvon course, which was brilliant!

http://www.arvonfoundation.org/

The course was entitled "Writing and Illustrating" and was focussed on the ins and outs of the creation process that is involved in the making of a picture book.

My co-tutor was Peter Bently and the house was set in the midst of the beautiful countryside of Devon. It was great working with Peter and all those who signed up - who were a mixture of wonderfully diverse backgrounds, talents and full of interesting/exciting ideas.

Tessa Strickland from Barefoot Books was our mid-week guest and Claire and Ollie - the Centre Directors - did a wonderful job organising everything and making us feel at home.

Thanks everyone! The work that came out of the week was amazing and I hope that everybody will go on to do really well. Also, if anybody is interested in doing an Arvon course, I definitely recommend it!

Sheep Pom Poms

Here are some sheep that I've made as part of THE GREAT SHEEP SHENANIGANS events!

THE CILIP KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL

The Great Sheep Shenanigans has been nominated for the 2012 Kate Greenaway Award!

http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/pressdesk/press.php?release=pres_nom_green_2012.html


The winning titles will be announced at an awards ceremony in June 2012

The Greenaway Medal is a very prestigious annual award for children's picture books, which specifically awards excellent illustration. It has been going since 1955 and is named after the popular 19th century illustrator Kate Greenaway.

It was also featured in the Guardian's 'Reading With Kids' suppliment published a couple of weeks ago. The suppliment is full of brilliant recommended reads for children aged 0 - 7, both classics and new. It also gives you tips on how to get your children into reading and a helpful Q&A by Julia Eccleshare.

Bath Literary Festival

Peter Bently (Pictured) and I did a THE GREAT SHEEP SHENANIGANS event at the Bath Literary Festival on Saturday 24 September.

It was a brilliant workshop with lots of enthusiastic and creative children (and adults!) They made some amazing fluffy sheep! Thanks to everyone who came to the event and looking forward to more fun sheep-making at the Cheltenham Festival next month.

Cheltenham Literature Festival 2011

I will be performing at the Cheltenham Literature Festival this year! It will be on Sunday 9 October at 3:30pm:

http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/find-events/literature/lb38-great-sheep-shenanigans

Please come along if you live(or will be) in the area, I am very excited about this as many of my family members live in and around Cheltenham.

Hope to see you there!

(Pictures added later... :-))

Sheep Shenanigans in Japan

If anybody in Japan is interested in purchasing a copy of "The Great Sheep Shenanigans" please go to:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Great-Sheep-Shenanigans-Peter-Bently/dp/1849392072/ref=sr_1_3?s=english-books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315390779&sr=1-3

This is the page where it is currently available (If you go through the search engine, you could end up with an order that will not be delivered until January or April 2012!)

Thank you!



日本のみなさん

もし日本にお住まいで「The Great Sheep Shenanigans」をお買い上げ下さるのでしたら、是非こちらのサイトからお願いします☆

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Great-Sheep-Shenanigans-Peter-Bently/dp/1849392072/ref=sr_1_3?s=english-books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315390779&sr=1-3

他のページからお買い上げになると２０１２年以降の発送になってしまう可能性があるので。。。


どうもありがとう！！！

Sheep Shenanigans Review

'The Great Sheep Shenanigans' was reviewed in the Mail on Friday:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2032187/PICTURE-BOOKS.html

Edinburgh Book Festival

I have just returned from a great weekend at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. THE GREAT SHEEP SHENANIGANS event took place at 12:30 on Saturday 13th August. This is the second time Peter and I have been invited to this amazing festival, which takes place in Charlotte Square Gardens and runs between 13 - 29 August 2011.

It was brilliant to be there at the opening weekend and the whole festival, as well as Edinburgh city itself, was buzzing with excitement. I met so many kind and friendly people while I was there. Thanks to everyone and to the children who took part in the event!

The Great Sheep Shenanigans

My new book THE GREAT SHEEP SHENANIGANS has been published on the 4th August 2011

This is the second of a collaboration with Peter Bently - Author of 'A Lark in the Ark' and 'The Shark in the Dark' among others - following THE GREAT DOG BOTTOM SWAP which was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and published again in paperback last year.

We will be doing events and workshops based on the book around the country over the Summer. I hope you enjoy Lou Pine the wolf and his tale of sheepy shenanigans!