Tuesday 24 January 2012

BULLET BOYS TOUR

A busy day in London yesterday, doing talks and writing workshops at Fortismere School (fantastic kids, lovely lunch...)and then a podcast at The Guardian, note, twenty minutes before this was was recorded I was only able to mutter BIG CAFFEINE PLEASE to the man in the cafe, so I'm a little concerned I may not be as sparkling and clever-by-half as I would have preferred. We shall see. (trembles with nerves) Whenever I come to London Town I expect to see celebrities as this is where they all seem to live, and I was pleased to spot Jarvis Cocker and then Sarah Beenie. My taxi driver told me how he never ate baked beans and had some good parenting advice for me which I fully intend to try. On the train the woman in front was having a most interesting conversation with her gentleman friend which I eavesdropped in a writerly way and will come in useful some day I'm sure.
A winner of a day!
Today I powered up the M5 in the rain and fog and landed at Brimsham Green School, Yate and spoke to some great students (120!!) about writing and BULLET BOYS. We had a raffle and a good chat. Thanks to Becky Harrison, the librarian, and her colleagues at the school for looking after me.

I was very impressed with the dedicated fiction room (as well as the library). All students get a fiction/reading lesson every fortnight. How intelligent! Why don't all schools do this?

Backwell School does! and I had the pleasure of meeting students there this afternoon. Here is a picture of uber-librarian Anne Gibson in her fantastic fiction room.
Backwell also has a great pasty shop. (I found no pasty shops in London I might add, celebs yes, pastys no -this is why I live in Somerset)
Tomorrow I press on to Preston with a mountain of badges, then to Salford for the Salford Children's Book 


2 comments:

Anne Gibson said...

Oh Ally, I've been called many things but Über- librarian beats them all. We loved having you visit, just sorry you had to talk so fast! Have a good trip up North tomorrow, and best of luck for the Saltford Book Award.

Ally said...

Thanks Anne, it was great to meet you and your team, thanks for having me!