Home Again

Back from Cornwall, which was gray, rained every day but one, but still worth the trip. We saw the Muse gig at Eden, and got to see behind the scenes when Rob (husband) interviewed Chris Hines, the Sustainability Director at the Eden Project. Rob was asking how they approach running gigs and keeping them enironmentally friendly. Very inspiring - they offset the carbon for all electricity, and are working towards recycling as much waste as possible, eventually to become waste neutral. It all makes you want to work harder at recylcing, composting, and reducing waste.


We also went to the pretty astounding Carnglaze Caverns. These were created by 200 years of mining, completely carved by children and men spending twelve hour days, removing blocks of slate to become roof tiles and building blocks. In some ways a sad memorial to so many days and years spent underground under pretty terrible conditions. But beautiful nonetheless. It made me think of David Almond's books, though I know that's coal mining, not slate. They also had a lovely Enchanted Dell, full of fairies, which could be twee, but was actually quite sweet. Children can count the fairies and get a sticker if they guess the correct number. Here's a picture of me with one of the larger ones.


We had one really sunny day, which was glorious (and thank god, it came before we started to grow mold). We forded our way up a gorse hill. It was worth it for the view.

Some may notice a quick redirect when the come to the blog. Turns out I set it up wrong, forgotting to add the html at the end. Thankfully the husband sorted me out, but it meant adding the redirect to those who have the old URL. Hey ho.

More children's lit stuff soon. I've had a fair bit of interest in the creative writing workshops I'll be teaching in Brighton starting in mid-October. And have correspended with others about the Brighton Children's Literature Festival. Set-up a lunch meeting with Daniel Hahn who is Brighton-based and edits the Ultimate Book Guides. He's asked if I want to write reviews for the picture book one they're putting together now. And I want to get in touch with as many south England-based children's lit people as possible to prepare for the Brighton Children's Lit Fest. I was also contacted by Jean Burke who runs a children's book festival in Bexhill, not far from Brighton. The next one will take place on September 30th and it's free! It will feature Ian Whybrow, whose book I am somewhat chagrined to say that I 'Americanized', changing it from Harry and the Bucketfull of Dinosaurs to Sammy and the Dinosaurs (that was a marketing decision - long story). I wrote an essay which talks about some of the changes made to this book and others that I edited. It's included in New Voices in children's Literature Criticism, edited by Sebastien Chapleu and published by Pied Piper Publishing.

Enough rambling from me.