Last Saturday I was lucky enough to be invited to Martin King's book launch in Leeds.

Martin self published his book as an e book and he has now published it as a physical book.

The title is Jack Hunter - Secret of the King. It's an adventure story full of twists and turns, with some interesting history facts too. I would say it's aimed at children aged 7 upwards.

Martin gave a talk about his book, read a section of it and also played a game with the audience based on envelopes with clues. I was really pleased to see Martin's book literally flying off the shelves by the end of the evening.

The staff at Waterstones, Leeds are so lovely. They knew I was coming to the event so they put out a display of my books, as well as Martin's. Thank you to everyone who bought one of my books.

If you want to know more about Martin you can visit his website at www.martinkingauthor.com

I believe there is another Jack Hunter book that will be released next year...

Martin talking about his book

Martin reading from his book

Martin's book, next to a display of mine

I've had a really busy weekend at the Leeds Thought Bubble Festival. It started off with me meeting Sarah            McIntyre in Leeds Central Library. Sarah's book, Vern and Lettice, was nominated for the Leeds Graphic Novel    Award.This is an award that school children vote for. Sarah won! Well deserved too. I've read Vern and Lettice        and it's brilliant.

Sarah stayed with me and my family over the weekend. I plied her with  many cups of tea and cake, chocolate of course. On Saturday we set up stall at the Royal Armouries for the Thought Bubble Festival. The organisers were brilliant, so friendly and helpful. As well as selling our books, we had activity tables set up where people could design their own pirates. We had well over 100 pictures by the end of the day, most of them created by grown ups! I shall put some of these on here on my next post. It was lovely to meet so many people and the day just flew past. Sarah and I were too tired to party but I know some people stayed out until the very late/early hours. I wasn't able to do the event on Sunday so Sarah took charge - with a couple of wonderful helpers. Thanks, Sarah!

It was so lovely to see Sarah again. We seem to see each other every 3-4 months. Thank you to everyone who stopped by at our table and a big, big thank you to the Thought Bubble Organisers.

Here are a few photos from the day.

                                                                Sarah with her Leeds Graphic Novel Prize

Our table and Pirate Cove area

Sarah setting up the tables

Storm Troopers passing by

Batman posing for a photo

A few weeks ago I visited some schools and libraries to talk about my book - Children's History of Leeds. This was kindly organised by Lorraine who works for Leeds Libraries. Lorraine is wonderful and can instantly control large       groups of children, I think she must have magic powers. Lorraine has always been supportive of my books and                   it was lovely to meet her, and her colleagues, again. 

Usually, when I go on school visits, I sit with young children who are no older than 6. I read my picture books to them,     have a chat about stories and then give them colouring in pictures. This time, I was faced with years 5 and 6 and I          had to remember not to make things up and stick to the facts. All the children were wonderful and I had some great answers to my questions.

I started off with the building of Briggate and how this made Leeds grow from a small settlement to a bustling town.      Here is one of my favourite drawings in the book - an early map of Briggate. Sorry about the quality of the photos.

I told them how Leeds grow and soon the town had a coat of arms. This explains where the owls of Leeds came from. If you walk around Leeds you'll see quite a few. There are some spectacular gold owls outside Civic Hall. The children were quite inerested in how young children were made to work in mills. They also liked the story of a young boy who is said to haunt Armley Mills. He died after having his leg caught in one of the machines. Thank you to Kenneth Goor's great book, 'Haunted Leeds'. Here's the coat of arms and Armley Mills.

Leeds grew so much that there was soon a problem with poor housing, poverty and disease. Back to backs were rapidly built. I feel this is a sad time in the growth of Leeds as it really separated the poor from the rich. However, it meant that Leeds continued to grow. Here is a picture of a smoke filled street.

The children's favourite part of my talk was when I told them about Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch. Mary was quite a character and thought nothing of tricking people out of their goods. She even resorted to murder. She was eventually caught and hung. Strips of her skin was sold as good luck charms. I showed the children a picture of Mary's skeleton which you can see at Thackray Medical museum.

Leeds has grown so much and is still growing. One of the newest buildings is the 'Rusty Building' which was built last year at a reported cost of 50 million pounds. I really like this building and I actually passed it on my way to the first venue that day.

I ended my visits with the signing of books and postcards. I gave the children 2 wordsearches, only one girl finished the more difficult one - well done!

Thank you to Rory at Radish Books who sold copies of the book on the day. He actually sold out within the first ten minutes. Rory told me that the book is selling really well.

I enjoyed my visits and talking to older children. A huge thank you again to Lorraine and all the lovely Leeds librarians - you are amazing! 

I've had a very busy weekend at literary festivals. On Saturday I drove to Ilkley and met up with Zoe from Scholastic. I did a reading of both of my Princess Saghetti books. Then the children drew pictures of pirates and aliens. The children were so lovely and sat so still when I read the stories. Some of the children had the books at home and knew exacly what was going to happen next. The event was well organised and we were constantly asked if we were okay and did we need anything. Thank you to the organisers for inviting me. Here I am holding the children's work.

After the event Zoe took me to Betty's tea room. It's one of those places that I've walked past and drooled at the windows but never gone in. We met Liz Pichon there, the author of the wonderful Tom Gates books. Liz was going to her event in the afternoon. I met Liz briefly at an awards ceremony earlier in the year so it was great to have a chance to talk properly. The cakes at Betty's all looked delicious and it was hard to choose just one. I finally went for the coffee and walnut torte. Yum! Note the empty plates in front of me and Zoe.

On Sunday I went to Beverley for their literary festival. I was overjoyed to meet one of my favourite picture book authors - Debi Gliori. We had time for a little chat before I went 'on'. It's wonderful to meet other authors because writing can be quite a solitary business - although I seem to be getting out quite a lot at the moment! Thank you to Lara at Beverley who organised the children's events, it was lovely to be invited for a second year. And thank you to my lovely audience at Beverley. I hope the little girl with Princess Spaghetti hair is feeling better now.

On the Wednesday I visited a school and 2 libraries to talk about my Leeds history book - but I will talk about that next time.