H.M. Castor's Blog, page 12

Good drizzle & bad drizzle

This morning, I still had a souvenir of last night’s FCBG meeting (see yesterday’s blog here) on my hotel room desk:

Oxford CBG lemon drizzle cake

Somehow I had managed not to eat it overnight, but what a treat I had in store. It was a triumph of lemon & drizzle. So much for indoors. Outdoors, the drizzle was rather less lovely. It was more than drizzle, for a start – it was torrential rain. Rain so torrential that many roads were flooded and poor Fay Sinai from the Oxford CBG, who had kindly volunteered to pick us up (that’s Liz Scott & me) & take us to the first event of the day, spent, overall, over 2 hours in the car from 7.30a.m. in flood- & accident-related traffic jams just to get us there, never mind back again… (Thank you Fay for your cheerful fortitude!)

However, get there we did, and our first stop was at Wood Green School in Witney, where librarians Val Donaghue & Judith Bovington had made a fab display (thank you both!)…

…and had brought together an audience made up of their own Year 8s, along with visiting groups of Year 6s from two local junior schools, Blake School and Madley Brook School. Together they made a lovely hall-full & were a fantastic audience.

After the talk, there was time for signing books and chatting with some of the students one-to-one – my favourite bit! – including Sophie, Georgie & Rubie from Wood Green:

(l-r) Sophie, me, Georgie & Rubie

Then Liz, Fay & I had a quick coffee & chat with Val & Judith – who had organised the visit so brilliantly, & hadn’t even turned a hair when, due to the road problems, we’d turned up at the school with just one minute to go before the talk was due to start… We found all the IT ready set up – perfect!

And after that it was off to another school in Witney, The Henry Box School. Founded in 1660, Henry Box is situated right next to Witney’s St Mary’s Church…

St. Mary's Church, Witney

…which has (I could see as I peered over the wall) some fabulous ancient-looking gargoyles, & stone angels bearing shields. I would have loved to get a chance to peek inside. No time for that, however – it was straight into the school… which has, I discovered, some very lovely old buildings of its own…

There I met librarian Nicola Patrick, who had been wonderfully active in spreading the word about the event. The talk itself – to a mixed group of Year 7s and Year 9s – took place in the lecture theatre:

And all went swimmingly except that we couldn’t get the book’s trailer to play. So if you’re a Henry Box student reading this and you haven’t seen the trailer yet, please have a look on the home page of this website – you’ll find it there!

After the talk, for anyone who wanted a book signed or just wanted to chat, there was a drop-in session in the library. It was great to meet some pupils and to have a chance to talk more with Nicola and towithLynne Cooper, who was visiting from Burford School.

Then Moira da Costa from the Oxford CBG kindly took Liz & me to the station in Oxford, where we caught a train to Leamington Spa. We had been so well looked after, both by the Oxford CBG, and by the librarians of the schools we visited during our Oxford-&-area stay, Christine, Val, Judith & Nicola. Huge thanks to all!

Next events: tomorrow in Leamington & Warwick… And the Warwick one is a public event at which I’ll be speaking alongside Nicola Shulman, author of Graven With Diamonds. I have been reading the book in snatches all tour & loving it. It’s erudite, insightful & hugely entertaining. I will enjoy my task for the rest of today, which is finishing the book. Yum yum!

Life, the universe & Monopoly

My weekend behind the green door (see Friday’s post here) was lovely, & as relaxing as it could be in a house where more than half the inhabitants (my daughters & my cats – a deadly team) think that nearly-almost-six-o’clock is a reasonable time to start the day. I barely left the house. But I did get thrashed – twice! – at Monopoly by my eldest daughter, who got hold of the dark blue set both times & proceeded, ruthlessly, to build hotels…

It struck me that in Monopoly, once you’ve got wads of cash, it’s supremely easy to make more. But if you’re bumping along the bottom (as I was), mortgaging things to pay the rent & permanently scraping around just to survive, there’s simply no way you can lift yourself up & improve your situation… As in Monopoly, so in life: a profoundly unequal system. Socio-economic & political lessons from a board game! My innocent children don’t realise this… ah, what it is not yet to have developed an adult’s jaundiced eye. Now, anyone for Cluedo?

While we rummage around in the toy cupboard, let me tell you about today. I am back on the road again. At 8.30 this morning I left my house (my 5-year-old saying, “Goodbye Mummy – for ever!” – a week is a looong time at that age) and at 11a.m. or so I arrived at John Mason School in Abingdon. And, astonishingly, it was sunny! At the school I was met by Liz Scott, my trusty helper for the week, plus John Mason’s librarian, Christine Barker, and Moira da Costa from the Oxford branch of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. I realise that if you’ve read all of last week’s posts on this blog, you might have become overwhelmed or bored (or both!) by the superlatives I’ve been using for the librarians I’ve met on my travels and for the Federation members too. For the sake of you, the reader, I will try to keep my adjectives under control this week. But the quality of the people I’m meeting doesn’t alter: Christine & Moira were both completely fab.

And as for the biscuits Christine had on offer to go with our pre-talk coffee, well…

Om nom nom, as they say...

My talk took place in the gym, where the whole of Year 9 gallantly agreed to sit on the floor:

(In truth they had no choice, but they were jolly uncomplaining, I thought.) They were a splendid audience & I was only sorry that we ran out of time & so couldn’t have questions at the end. If any John Mason student is reading this & has a question – do email me! (You can send me an email through the ‘Contact’ section of this website.)

Then it was on to our Oxford hotel, the best of the tour so far. There were free biscuits in the room! (They lasted about 5 minutes.) My bed is a whole 3 pillows wide! (I can turn a full 360 degrees in my sleep & not fall out.) And, like Henry VIII crossing the Fleet River in London via an elevated gallery leading from one part of his palace to another, you can make your way from the main bit of the hotel to the Leisure Club without going outside! Just down the corridor from my room & round a few corners, there’s a gym with running machines (I generously left them free for other guests), a swimming pool (didn’t bring my cozzie), & a therapy room where you can have a massage. This I did book myself into, on account of being about an inch shorter than I used to be before all that lugging of luggage up and down station steps last week. Of course, if I were really organised, like Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks, I would combat spine-squishing by having my own set of ankle whatnots so I could hang upside down in my hotel room of an evening while dictating a message to Diane…

Anyone who's unfamiliar with Twin Peaks should ignore this (it'd take too long to explain)

My precious inch of extra height regained, I made my way this evening to a meeting of the Oxford CBG. It was held at Moira’s beautiful house in Boars Hill, a village just outside the city. The Oxford group, as it turns out, are expert cooks as well as book buffs: a delicious supper was put together with contributions from various members, & we ate in Moira’s conservatory. Then we moved to the sitting room for the talk. Here’s Moira introducing me:

Moira da Costa introducing me at the Oxford FCBG event

It was such an enjoyable evening. I couldn’t have been given a warmer welcome, and both over supper and after the talk I had a chance to chat with some of the group’s members – Moira, Fay, Erica, Mary, Ophelia, Becca & Gaynor, amongst others – which was delightful. The event was very kindly supported by Mostly Books, of Stert Street, Abingdon, who have a blog here on which they’ve asked all sorts of authors the same 5 questions. I was asked the same 5, and my answers will, I think, be posted soon!

Thank you so much to everyone who was there this evening!

And now I must turn in. It’ll be an early start tomorrow…

 

The one that (nearly) got away…

An extra photo from my visit to Chantry High School, Ipswich, last Friday morning. Here’s me with Mr. Moseley, the long-suffering but very kind history teacher who had to sit through my talk twice:

Health food & brain-dribble

I admit it, I’m knackered. Any nutritionists reading this will be glad to know I’ve been boosting my energy levels whilst on the road with only the healthiest of snacks…

Three talks were on the schedule for Friday. The first two took place at Chantry High School in Ipswich, where I met another librarian who’s a whirlwind of energy, enthusiasm & expertise, Sandra Johnson. Sandra, assisted by her colleague Louise, had prepared brilliantly and everything was set up waiting for my arrival. I spoke in the library, which is stuffed full of tempting stock (later Sandra gave me a tour of the manga section, as I know nothing about manga, but I love Japanese animation films & am keen to learn…).

At Chantry I spoke to two groups – the first a mix of Year 8s and 10s, the second a group of Year 9s, and they were both brilliant audiences.

Me with some of the wonderful Year 8s

Then, after lunch with Sandra, she kindly drove us (that’s me & my trusty supporter Liz Scott) to St Albans RC High School where I was due to be interviewed down the phone line by Radio Suffolk. Finding a quiet spot to take the call was tricky during the lunch hour, but School Manager Alison Turner kindly gave up her office for quarter of an hour for the purpose. Apart from the fact that, in answer to the first question, my command of grammar failed me utterly (Interviewer: “How’s it going?” Me: “It’s going lovely!”) I did manage (I think) to hold a sensible conversation about VIII. But I must admit, by this stage in the week, my brain felt as if it was dribbling out of my ears.

Then it was into the hall to talk to around 170 students (some visiting from another high school) – my final gig of the week.

It was another fab audience – thanks everyone! And thanks, too, to librarian Amanda Park, who’d organised everything we needed, & who gave us such a warm welcome. Big thanks also to Ipswich CBG’s superstar Jayne Gould, who kindly came along to lend her support.

The talk went really well – it was a hall full of focussed & enthusiastic students, yay! By the end my last drop of energy was spent & I really needed to be scraped off the floor, dumped in a wheelbarrow & wheeled home. Given that South West trains curiously don’t offer that service, however, there was nothing for it but to go to the station to start the journey back home to Bristol.

Four hours later, the sight of my home front door was a lovely one…

Now there’ll be a brief break in this diary, as I’m home for the weekend. I think I could do with lying on a sofa for the duration, but I have a feeling my kids won’t let me…

And then it’ll be back on the road again on Monday morning for Week 2 of the tour! Come back & see what happens & whether the knees, the voice & the plimsolls hold out…

A game of three halves

Today has been a game of three halves. Yes, somehow it was stuffed with more than was surely possible – and yet it all worked wonderfully. And this was thanks to the brilliant organisation of Jayne Gould from Ipswich Children’s Book Group, who has masterminded my two days in Ipswich (of which today was the first).

Event number one took place this morning at Westbourne Sports College, in the large, light-filled library, the domain of inspirational school librarian Sarah Greenacre.

Tomorrow is Sarah’s last day before retirement, and it was thoroughly obvious to me just how much the school will be missing once she’s gone. It is a theme of this tour that I am meeting astonishingly dedicated, enthusiastic, expert & inspiring librarians… and Sarah is certainly one of them. (Mr Gove, are you listening?)

Along with Sarah, I met the equally energetic, dedicated & imaginative history teacher Zoe Potter, and was wowed by her account of some of the ways she approaches the teaching of history, engaging the pupils’ creativity.

(l-r) Zoe Potter, me, Sarah Greenacre

I spoke to a group of 30 or so Year 8s – and they were a delight. Switched on, interested, enthusiastic & intelligent, they were generous with their attention and thoughtful in their questions. I had a great time – thanks Westbourne!

And on the way out I was impressed by some of the pupils’  ceramics on display too:

PR-whizz Liz Scott is my very kind & supportive minder, helper & all-round problem-smoother for the rest of the tour. After a lovely lunch with Zoe & Sarah, Liz whisked me off in a taxi out of Ipswich to Farlingaye High School in Woodbridge. There, in a hall this big…

…I was due to speak to 260 Year 8s. Looked after by another fantastic, welcoming & energetic whirlwind of a librarian, Elaine Bate, and helped by the school’s IT expert, we set up my powerpoint and the book’s trailer, overhearing, all the while, some simply astonishingly virtuoso piano-playing from a Year 10 student who was practising in the next room. My mouth was literally hanging open at the sound, and Elaine told me that Farlingaye has some wonderful musicians – I believe it!

The school also has, as I had found out on my way in, great designers – I wish my daughters could have seen these pieces of work on display, because I know they would have loved them:

Before long the Year 8s – all 260 of them – poured into the hall and I was off, talking and questioning, showing them pictures and waving my hands in the air a lot, as usual. They were a wonderful crowd, though after an hour of projecting my voice, I wasn’t sure I would be able to answer all their questions audibly… The voice held out – just! The extra treat was that lots of pupils came up to me with questions in the signing queue, and it was fab to have a chance to chat with them one-to-one.

Then, Liz and I returned by taxi to our hotel in Ipswich, passing this fine Suffolk windmill en route, if you can spot it in my photo!…

And so to the third ‘half’ of the day: an evening event with the Ipswich branch of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, where I had the pleasure of meeting up with Jayne Gould herself. I had first met her – and several other lovely FCBG members who attended the event tonight – at the FCBG conference in Kesgrave near Ipswich last autumn. Just as I found on that occasion, the welcome this evening was warm, the atmosphere relaxed and friendly, and the audience for my talk interested & interesting, enthusiastic & knowledgeable. I love Federation events – they are a real treat to come to, and an honour to speak at.

The venue this evening was Church’s Bistro, whose home is an ancient house right next to the church of St. Mary-le-Tower. The event was held on the top floor, in a room with wonderful exposed beams and, to add to the historical flavour (if you’ll forgive the pun), the chef had researched & devised a menu of Tudor food (including a delicious pottage). We were all very happy diners.

I gave a reading in front of a loo door (those are genuine Tudor fairy lights, obvs)…

…met some fantastic readers…

…and had a great time chatting with Federation members about historical mysteries & Josephine They, about researching the history of a house, and about our shared fevered anticipation of Hilary Mantel’s forthcoming Bring Up the Bodies.

Thank you so much to Ipswich CBG for an absolutely lovely evening in a wonderful setting!

And so to bed…

 

Squelching round Hampton Court

Bit of a steamy start to the day. No, not in that way. I checked out of my London hotel, & on my way to the tube had a tangle with one of these:

…and then, by sheer strength of will & physical recklessness, got myself and my luggage onto a tube train that was as packed as this:

Playing sardines in a moving tin can with hundreds of other people is a warm business. It dried my trouser-cuffs out nicely & even made a start on my socks.

By the time I made it to Waterloo & the (thankfully emptier) Hampton Court train, I was much less soggy, though the weather hadn’t improved…

Little did I know that the day would involve a great deal more water before it was over.

At Hampton Court station I met up with fab Templar Commissiong Editor and all-round book genius Helen Boyle, & together we splashed our way to the palace.

Here I am – with luggage – at the beautifully gilded gateway to the Clore Learning Centre there:

In the Centre’s foyer, I encountered this wicker Henry VIII by artist Janet Lightfoot:

Every home should have one!

And this gorgeous dragon, though sadly I don’t know who made it:

The organiser of my event was Kingston Library’s Vanessa Howe – a librarian with huge commitment to her local community & its schools, who is an awe-inspiring example of just how much difference librarians make. I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to take part in her event. Vanessa had invited students from 2 local schools – Tiffin Boys’ & Tolworth Girls’ – to come & hear me speak about VIII. They were not, however, the only people in the room…

The day was facilitated by Gillian of the Clore Centre staff (thank you, Gillian!). It was a lovely event at a dream venue. A prize was offered for the best question at the end of my talk and the students rose impressively to the challenge!

Then, after lunch, and despite the relentless rain, we all met up at the front of the palace to have a look round inside.

By the time the students had splashed round the maze, this was one very wet author:

Luckily, help was at hand. My dear friend, the writer & script-editor Merle Nygate (see her website here) picked me up and whisked me off to a fantastic tea shop a stone’s throw from the palace, for a long overdue catch-up and (in my case, anyway) the hugest piece of coconut and lime cake I’ve ever seen.

Then it was back by train to London and on up to Ipswich, where I’ve arrived ready for tomorrow’s 3 events (eek!). Ipswich was the birthplace of Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII’s long-term right-hand man, and the first great expander of Hampton Court (it had had previous owners, but Wolsey was the man who commissioned a great deal of the palace we know). Funnily enough, earlier at the Clore Centre I had spotted a wonderful old poster featuring the very man:

Cardinal Wolsey - red was most definitely his colour!

Tappetty-tap-tap

I remember seeing some TV footage, it must be a few years ago now, of J.K. Rowling at work, finishing one of her Harry Potter books. She was working in a hotel room – to get away from distractions – and the action went like this: J.K. sitting at computer, tappetty-tap-tap-tap… writes the final sentence… tappetty-tap… shuts file (no checking through, no agonising)… puts disc (or maybe whole laptop) in a briefcase with a fearsome combination lock. That briefcase is suddenly, quite literally, worth more than its weight in gold. It is then taken – no doubt by some expert martial artist in a suit and a whisper-clip – to her agent. I’m assuming it was all staged for the cameras but hey, what do I know? Maybe that’s how it really happened.

I only say all this because writing in hotel rooms always brings that dramatic little scenario to mind. I don’t have a ninja-in-a-suit waiting outside the door for my every page, needless to say. Mostly I spend my time appreciating the undisturbed quiet (apart from the industrial rumble of some outside pipe thing near my room). Sometimes I spend my time getting a little freaked out by the undisturbed quiet. But that’s OK because the quiet is punctuated regularly by trips into the outside world for events.

Today I had two, both in London. First, accompanied by Jessica Dean, who was my very kind & resourceful minder from Templar for the day (thank you, Jessica!), I found my way to Hampstead Garden Suburb to give a talk at Henrietta Barnett School, a girls’ grammar school founded by the eponymous Dame Henrietta, whose portrait hangs in the hall where I gave my speech:

Dame Henrietta Barnett, social reformer & writer

I am looking forward to having the chance to find out more about Dame Henrietta (maybe a good subject for a future History Girls blog?). All I can tell you now is that her portrait was rather wonderful (and her hair was practically luminous, though apparently that’s only since the portrait has been cleaned). Since I’m a graduate of Girton College, England’s first residential college for women, portraits of pioneering females on the walls of a place make me feel at home.

Dame Henrietta seemed to be smiling kindly on us today; the event went well. It had been organised (excellently) by the head of history, Stephen Cowling, who gave Jessica & me a very warm welcome. I spoke to the whole of Year 7 – a fantastic group of girls – and it was great fun. Many thanks are due, too, to Muswell Hill Children’s Bookshop, who organised the supply of copies of VIII. Then Jessica & I had to dash by taxi back into the centre of London – next stop: Queen’s College, Harley Street.

I must admit I had no idea there even was a school in Harley Street. What a location. It’s in a lovely townhouse – or rather several townhouses knocked together, I think – and Wikipedia tells me that it was founded in 1848, and was the first institution in the world to award academic qualifications to women (hooray – and also ugh that this first should’ve occurred in the mid-19th century… shockingly late).

Amongst its charms, Queen’s even has a school dog in the form of the Deputy Head’s very sweet floppy-eared something-or-other (I’m as good at dog-knowledge as gardening-knowledge), whose lead stretched just far enough for him to be able to peer out of ‘his’ office into the school corridor where I was signing books. I wish I’d caught a photo of him…

Anyway, all that came later. The talk was first, to Years 8, 9 & 10, in this hall:

Dr Sally Perry had organised the event and looked after me brilliantly. Adam from Daunt Books was supporting the event from the VIII-selling point of view, and we had a lovely chat beforehand about history-at-school, historical-fiction-reading and the awe-inspiring Hilary Mantel. The talk itself went well, the mixed-age group came up with great questions & there was lots of demand for the book afterwards.

All in all, a good day! Tomorrow I’ll be up early, checking out of my hotel and heading for an event at Hampton Court. Talking about locations, this one’ll be hard to beat…

Mind the Gap… between writing and ‘performing’

A bright & early start this morning. I crossed London by tube, marvelling – as I always do these days – at how such dense rivers of people can push through the underground system at rush hour. For years I lived & worked in London, and travelling across the city to and from work was something I didn’t question. It was exhausting, yes, and frustrating, frequently, but I wasn’t struck by the sheer quantity of people on the move. Now, after a few years in Bristol, it hits me between the eyes every time I come back here. My imagination strains to take on board just how many individual lives pass by (and if I can’t ‘get my head round’ the number of people in London, what about the rest of this country – or the world?).

At Waterloo I caught a train – travelling, mercifully, against the tide – out to Ashford in Surrey. The railway line passed by the upside-down snooker table that is Battersea Power Station…

I can’t see it now without thinking of how that intrepid Blue Peter presenter, Helen Whatnot, crossed one end of it on a tightrope, hundreds of feet up… mmm, I’m feeling queasy just thinking about it.

At Ashford, I was met by the super-lovely expert bookseller Natalie Likness from the Staines branch of Waterstone’s. Natalie is a Twitter friend of mine, so it was great to meet her in person (I have recently discovered that this is called a ‘tweet-up’). She took me to Thomas Knyvett College – her old school, in fact. Outside stood this beautiful tree:

My gardening knowledge hardly goes further than ‘plant’, ‘flower’, ‘tree’, but I’m wondering if this is a crab apple? If it is, we have one in our back garden at home. And if it ever grows this big it will fill the entire plot…

At Thomas Knyvett I had an hour with all 115 of the Year 8 pupils, in the library. They were an energetic group – loud & lively – and as I watched them bound into the room, I knew I would have to match them for energy. It turned into a great session, in fact, and they came up with some excellent questions. Many thanks to Madeleine Manning & her colleague Rob who were in charge of the event, & to all the staff who attended.

Then Natalie and her colleague Chloe opened their stall selling copies of VIII, and I got the chance, while signing, to chat to some of the pupils. One told me that the title of the book was boring, but the talk (& trailer) had made it sound really good. Result! Though maybe I need to work at my titles…

Chloe, me, Natalie & Madeleine

Hooray for the fab Year 8s!

Next stop: lunch with my wonderful minder Jayne Roscoe from Templar who this morning, as at so many events before, had been my invaluable support & helper. And then a train back into London. I’m washed out as a dishrag after an event; although I enjoy ‘performing’ it’s just so different from the kind of mental energy required for writing that I find myself both needing to build up to it, and taking a while to ‘come down’ again. But I do need to develop some stamina, because today has been the super-gentle start to the tour: Thomas Knyvett College was my only talk for today, and later on I’ll have two events a day & sometimes three. For now, however, I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon working on my new book at my hotel, with dinner with Helen Boyle (Commissioning Fiction Editor at Templar) to look forward to as my reward at the end of the day.

I’m very glad of a chance to do some thinking about the new book in amongst the events. It’s at a crucial stage, and before I came away on this tour I was concerned that the concentration needed for the events would drive the new book so thoroughly out of my mind that it’d be a hard & time-consuming task to pick it up again afterwards. It may still be! But I’m off, now, to at least try to keep my hand in…

Armed with a necklace…

Appropriate necklace for a writer, isn’t it? Self-referential, in a tongue-in-cheek way… At least, I hope it looks like a tongue-in-cheek way, rather than… ooh, what?… a pretentious way? (Oh, no – accessory anxiety! I see a whole new world of worry opening up to me…)

Stop, I will cut that one off at the clasp. This post is not concerned with accessories, worrying or otherwise. It is concerned with a tour: my first ever, fully fledged, two-week book tour, to mark the paperback publication of VIII. It begins tomorrow.

I thought I would attempt to keep a daily diary during the fortnight, here on this blog. As you’ll notice from the date of my last post, this blog is long overdue an update.

Talking of which, here’s a quick summary of what’s happened since I last posted:

I went to lots more events in the autumn to talk about VIII – including the very exciting Cheltenham Festival (my first visit), a clutch of lovely schools, and a Schools Library Service event in Bristol (and, as I discovered, there’s nothing more inspiring than spending an afternoon with a group of expert, dedicated & enthusiastic librarians – it was great). Two days after the final event at the end of November, I got ‘flu… which turned into pneumonia… which turned into a hospital stay. I owe the staff of Frenchay & Southmead Hospitals in Bristol a huge debt of gratitude – they sorted me out brilliantly & I’m all better now. I’ve spent the last couple of months hard at work on the follow-up to VIII (which I’m very excited about - it’s a novel about Henry VIII’s eldest daughter Mary), and giving a few talks here and there, including two fantastic & full days in Norwich, arranged by the fab Rob Welton at Jarrolds (thank you, Rob!)

And all this time I’ve also kept up with my monthly blogging on The History Girls’ site. Here are links to my last couple of posts:

“With Beards and Without Beards” (12th March 2012)

Snaggle-toothed beauty (12th April 2012)

But, to return to today, & the idea of a daily diary… I must admit that my track record with diaries is not good. I tried to keep a diary several times as a child but ended up, for some reason, spending most of the time recording what I’d eaten. (You have been warned.) I will try to do better here. Still, it won’t be polished – or profound. But it will give you an idea of what happens on a book tour. Erm, well… it’ll tell you what happens on this book tour. I’m sure it’s different if you’re on tour with, say, Beardy Ardagh.*

Tomorrow morning I’ve got to be up bright and early to catch a tube & a train to a school in Surrey. Tonight, therefore, I’m staying at a hotel in London. I’m armed with work-books to read (Mary-related) – which is no hardship at all because they’re fascinating:

And I’ve also brought Graven With Diamonds, since I am sharing a stage with its author, Nicola Shulman, next week in Warwick. The book looks fascinating, & it’ll be a real treat to read it this week:

I’ve got my notes, & USB stick for the talks, plus my copy of VIII to read from…

…and, of course, I’m armed with that necklace. Wish me luck!

*Especially for the wonderfully bearded Philip Ardagh, here is a photo of the most interesting lampshade in my hotel room:

(Not, in truth, a remotely interesting shade, but do I get points for the base?)

If you are unacquainted with the marvel that is Mr Ardagh, check out his blog here.

 

Down Memory Lane, Up Memory Tower… – events 3

On Tuesday October 11th I was up bright and early… yikes, I had to get to school in time for assembly! Not just any old school either, but my Old School – or one of them. My senior school, which I attended up to the age of 15 (eleventy hundred years ago), was a dancing school, but for my two years of Sixth Form I went somewhere else: to King's High School in Warwick, to be precise. And it was to King's High that I was returning this particular Tuesday. In time, as I said, for assembly.

Once upon a time King's High was a direct grant school – now it is an independent school, and it has expanded and become glossier since I was there: today it has lots of new shiny buildings with fantastic brand new facilities. In my day it was, in part, a connected jumble of old quaint buildings. One of them, in fact, was Warwick's East Gate, shown here.

Eastgate in Warwick. Photo © Copyright David Stowell and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence

In my Lower Sixth year, my classroom window was the larger of the two arched ones that you can see below the blue clockface. I clearly remember sitting in there studying the Tudors for my A level History (a great setting for a History lesson!). These days the school no longer rents Eastgate – instead it has been turned into a holiday apartment (note to self: stay there one day!)

In my Upper Sixth year, my classroom was a low-ceilinged, wonky-floored little room in a building known to the school simply as 'Cottage'.

Landor House, with a bit of 'Cottage' visible on the left. Photo © Copyright David Stowell and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

 

Cottage is the half-timbered building you can just see on the extreme left of this picture. It is still part of King's High, but my former classroom is now the office of a member of staff. The grand red brick building next door, known to us pupils as 'Landor', is also still part of the school, and was once the home of the poet Walter Savage Landor. I remember taking an A level French exam in an upstairs room there – though without any help from the two ghosts who are said to haunt the house.

I had a lovely morning at King's, experiencing a strange mixture of recognition and surprise as I walked along corridors I had forgotten I remembered, and passed through doors that were never there in my day… I spoke to lots of the pupils, (who were – without exception – fantastic) and had my first go at being Oprah Winfrey (well, not quite) with a hand-held mic (so how do you then hold your notes and the laptop remote as well? Note to self: grow extra hand!). And the staff looked after me wonderfully, even down to the break-time provision of chocolate biscuit cake (oh my, how did they know about me and chocolate biscuit cake??).

Result: one very happy author. Many, many thanks to all!

Oprah (not) in action.

Wishing I had a 3rd hand... Photo by Mrs Bray of KHS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signing in the Library. Photo by Mrs Bray of KHS.

 

 

 

 

 

Patient waiting...