Robin Stevens's Blog, page 56

Jolly Foul Play – the schools tour!

Two weeks. Five days. Ten schools. Ten train journeys. Three hotels. Five bookstores. And six bunbreaks (at a conservative estimate). The Jolly Foul Play schools tour was the most exciting, exhausting and amazing thing I’ve ever done as an author.

I visited Milton Keynes, Hampton, Oxfordshire, Norwich and Streatham, and I had five incredible days of school visits. Below are a selection of my favourite pictures from the events – there are almost too many to share!

Milton Keynes: a jolly fantastic display at Shenley Brook School

A glorious lunchtime bunbreak by Nikki from Waterstones MK!

With pupils at Two Mile Ash School

Hampton: the view out of my window into the Hampton Court Maze

And my room’s name. Eek…

Talking at Hampton Junior School (photo by Mel @littlestarwrite)

With Hampton pupils – and my unicorn scarf! (photo by Mel @littlestarwrite)

A LSW selfie (photo by Mel @littlestarwrite)

My GORGEOUS peanut butter bunbreak in Hampton

Talking at Trafalgar School (photo by Mel @littlestarwrite)

Oh no! Those pesky LSW students! (photo by Mel @littlestarwrite)

Hooray! (photo by Mel @littlestarwrite)

Oxfordshire: beautiful Burford!

The hall at Burford School – about to be filled with 280 students!

Flowers from Burford School!

My editor investigates at Henry Box School

Norwich: a beautiful location for tea!

Gorgeous Norwich High School for Girls!

With NHS competition winners at lunch

With NHS pupils after the event

My lovely train bunbreak!

Streatham: About to speak at Clapham & Streatham Prep School – and the stage is a bit piratey.

Lovely glass at Clapham & Streatham Prep School!

And now, the credits. I might have been the only person giving the author talks, but I couldn’t possibly have got to my destinations, set up the rooms or sold the books without the help of an enormous team of people. They fed me, drove me, cheered me on and generally supported me, and I’m enormously grateful. So let’s hear it for …

My mastermind of a publicist, Harriet Venn, who planned out the whole trip.

My chaperones from my publisher, Harriet, Nat, Sophia and Annie. Authors on tour need people to tell them where to go and what to do, and also to write names on post-it notes so when they’re signing the hundredth copy of their book, they spell the person’s name right.

The five bookshops and their representatives. Nikki from Waterstones Milton Keynes, Mel from Little Star Write (and Kew Books, who supplied her), Rebecca and Alex from Blackwell’s Oxford, Debbie and Louisa from Waterstones Norwich and Tamara and Tracy from Tales on Moon Lane. There wouldn’t have been any book sales without them, and they found all of the schools we visited.

The schools themselves, and the teachers who looked after me! Shenley Brook End Secondary School, Two Mile Ash School, Hampton Junior School, Trafalgar Junior School, Burford School, Henry Box School, Heartsease Primary Academy, Norwich High School for Girls, Streatham and Clapham Prep School and Corpus Christi Catholic School. I met so many brilliant students, who asked fantastic questions and had wonderful ideas. Thank you for being such excellent audiences!

And that’s it. I had a wonderful time – now I’m going to take a rest, before we begin planning the tour for book 5 …

Jolly Foul Play – Cambridge launch

I can definitely say that Jolly Foul Play has been well and truly launched. It has had not one but THREE parties to celebrate its release – and I think the last, in Cambridge, might have been the best yet.

Cambridge Waterstones have been supporters since the first book was published – I used to be a local author, and they got behind the series fantastically. I’ve had two brilliant launches for previous books with them, so I was delighted to come back for Jolly Foul Play‘s launch. Saskia and Sylvie from Waterstones ran a brilliantly well-organised and fun event – I’m very grateful for all of the work they put in!

There was a brilliant turn-out, and I think that in the end, over 200 fans came. I was signing for two hours, and I loved meeting every one of you. I have to give a special mention to Scarlet, who drew me beautiful fan art of Hazel and Daisy, and Sophie, who wrote me a letter in Pig Latin!

The first thirty people in the queue were also entered into a prize draw to win a special detective notebook – congratulations to Stephanie, who won!

If you came, and stood in that queue, thank you so much. I really do have some of the best fans around!

All ready to go …

A Cambridge bunbreak for Jolly Foul Play

The first arrivals

Signing Jolly Foul Play

The queue is growing!

Raffle is drawn – congratulations Stephanie!

Reading from Jolly Foul Play. Photo by Kendra Leighton.

With the books, after the signing. What a launch!

Jolly Foul Play on Fun Kids Radio

The first day of my Jolly Foul Play tour, in Milton Keynes, is complete! My next stop is Kew, on Thursday – but while I get ready for that, I’ve got a fun interview to share with you.

Last week I went in to the Fun Kids Radio studio and met presenter Bex, who talked to me about my Murder Most Unladylike books, Jolly Foul Play and what’s next for the series. And I even helped her solve a very puzzling office mystery …

If you’d like to listen to the piece, you can find it here. I had a great time recording it – thanks to Bex for being such an awesome host!

With Bex in the Fun Kids studio!

Daisy and Hazel arrive in Italy

This week is a very busy one for me – I’m out at a tour of schools, speaking about Jolly Foul Play. But I’ve got a very exciting bit of news about Daisy and Hazel that I really wanted to share with you: the first foreign-language editions of Murder Most Unladylike and Arsenic for Tea have been printed!

They’re the Italian editions, from the publisher Mondadori, and they are a book lover’s dream. They’re hardbacks, with the most beautiful endpapers – I’m completely in love with the way Mondadori has reworked the British covers to fit with the new Italian titles. I’m also delighted by those titles. My Italian is quite wonky, but I think the rough translations are ‘Murder for Girls’ and ‘On Holiday with Death’ – and the series title, of course, is ‘Miss Detective’!

I can tell that the translators, Manuela Salvi and Manuela Piemonte, have really captured the essence of the books – there are loads of lovely touches, my favourite of which has to be Beanie’s new name. In Italian she’s ‘Scricciolo’, which means Wren – something small and sweet, just like Beanie!

Last week was Bologna Book Fair, the biggest children’s book rights fair of the year. My (tireless and brilliant) agent was there – and she got to see the enormous Miss Detective banner that Mondadori had put up to advertise the books. Hazel and Daisy have arrived in Italy in style!

Cambridge and Oxford: one weekend of two festivals!

It’s been a busy three days for me and Jolly Foul Play: I’ve travelled to THREE cities (if you count London in between), spoken at TWO literary festivals, and eaten SEVERAL bunbreaks.

On Friday, I headed to Cambridge. It’s a special place for me – I used to live there (I wrote Arsenic for Tea and First Class Murder on the commuter train between Cambridge and London), and it’s where my fifth book is going to be set.

A train bunbreak!

After a swift train bunbreak, I arrived at the festival to discover that the whole place had been themed around my book. How kind of them! My event was sold out, and it turns out that 100 people is quite a lot to see staring back at you when you get up on a stage. If you came, thank you so much – and if you waited in the enormous signing queue afterwards, thank you even more!

A very jolly literary festival

Showing off the colour coordination!

The queue to get in! This is when I started to get nervous …

About to go on stage …

On Sunday, I visited Oxford. Oxford is where I grew up – I lived in Pembroke College, where my father was Master. And it just so happens that the venue for Sunday’s event, The Story Museum, is across the road from Pembroke!

Before the event began, I went on a mini tour of Oxford bookshops. Both Blackwell’s (where I used to work, and where I wrote the first draft of Murder Most Unladylike all the way back in 2010) and Waterstones had Jolly Foul Play in their windows. Below are some pictures of me pointing at them excitedly, because pointing at my books is one of my favourite things to do.

Blackwell’s!

Waterstone’s!

The Oxford Literary Festival event was a panel with fellow crime writers Katherine Woodfine and Julia Lee. It was, delightfully, called Murder for Tea, which horrified the nice old gentleman I met in the green room. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked me kindly. ‘Murder!’ I said. ‘For tea!’ He did not speak to me again.

The Lit Fest had very cleverly (and luckily) supplied our audience with buns for a post-event bunbreak – we talked about buns so much that everyone must have been hungry. We also discussed real-life crime solving, and our ideal detective societies, as well as doing readings from our latest books. It was a thoroughly spiffing afternoon, and if you came, thank you so much!

Bunbreak! Not poisoned, we promise …

A lovely rainbow of books to be signed!

Three partners in crime! Katherine Woodfine, Julia Lee and me!

 

And all of this is just the beginning. Over the next week and a half I’m going to be travelling around, visiting as many schools as I can to talk about Jolly Foul Play. I’m very excited (and already stocking up on bunbreak) – wish me luck!

Jolly Foul Play’s Birmingham Launch

On Friday, Jolly Foul Play had its second launch day, at Birmingham’s beautiful new Waterstones. The store were wonderful hosts – they set up a bunbreak for us, and lots of fans came along. It was wonderful to see you all, and great to know that I’ve got fans in the Midlands!

We held a cover-illustration competition, with detective notebooks as the prizes, and I was very impressed by the entries. It was very difficult to pick the winners – congratulations to everyone who entered, and especially to the winners, Lilly and Lydia!

Below are some pictures from the event – if you were there, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Bunbreak ready to go!

Detectives hard at work on their covers!

One of the winning entries – by Lilly

The other winner – by Lydia

Honourable mention – this incredible space adventure by Ben!

With the winners, Lydia and Lilly!

And finally, my bunbreak on the way home – thank you so much to Jamie at Birmingham Waterstones!

Next weekend I’m going to be visiting both Cambridge and Oxford, for sold-out events at their festivals. My next public signing will be at Waterstones Milton Keynes, on the 12th April at 4:30pm – and after that, I’ll be visiting Cambridge Waterstones on the 16th at 3. Please come see me, and help me continue Jolly Foul Play‘s wonderful first month!

Jolly Foul Play in the media!

A sticky toffee pudding bunbreak for Jolly FOul Play!

Jolly Foul Play is well and truly out in the world! I’ve been getting so many pictures of the book, and all of you reading it – I’m adding them all to my Jolly Foul Play Pinterest board as they come in, and it’s looking wonderful!

As part of launching the book, I’ve been eating a lot of bunbreak, and also doing lots of interviews. If you’d like to read about how I write my mysteries – or you’re wondering how to go about writing your own – I’ve written a blog for the Waterstones website about how to construct the perfect crime. I was also interviewed by Bernie Keith on BBC Radio Northampton yesterday about murder, mysteries and Jolly Foul Play – you can listen again here for the next month.

If you’d like to come to one of my Jolly Foul Play tour events, you’ve got lots of opportunities. The full list is here – next up is my Birmingham Waterstones launch, tomorrow at 4pm. It’s free, and there will be bunbreak and activity packs. And, of course, I’ll be signing all of my books!

It’s been a great first week of Jolly Foul Play. Thank you so much for being part of it – I really do feel lucky to have such wonderful fans.

A Jolly Fine Launch Day!

On Saturday 26th March I launched my fourth book, Jolly Foul Play, in London’s Covent Garden Waterstones. I have to thank the resourcefulness of the Waterstones Trafalgar Square staff, who were so enthusiastic about the event that they did not let a flood in their basement stop it, and the generosity of the staff at Waterstones Covent Garden, who stepped in to host at two days’ notice.

The store was set out beautifully, with huge piles of all of my books. Seeing the four of them together as a series is still incredible to me – I can’t believe that I wrote all of them!

With my whole series!

We had a bunbreak set out, of course, with ginger beer and lemon shortbread biscuits that I baked myself.

I was overwhelmed by the wonderful fans who came along – some of you dressed for the occasion, and some even brought me presents! I enjoyed meeting each and every one of you, and I thought your questions and ideas were fantastic. I even met some girls whose whole class were writing a Murder Most Unladylike TV show!

Thank you so much for being there, if you were – and if you couldn’t be, I hope I’ll see you soon! Below are some pictures from the events. I had such a great time, and I can’t wait to do it all again in Birmingham this Friday!

With Sophie and Samira, who dressed in yellow for the book! You can see my flowers from Iris in the background.

With Maryam and Sophia, who are dressed as Deepdean girls!

With Ruben, blogger extraordinaire!

Some of the attendees at the 12pm event!

With Sophie, fan and blogger!

With Jasmine and Zara, who brought me a sweet bunbreak!

NEWSFLASH: Jolly Foul Play London Launch Location Changed

Hello detectives: I’ve got an important update about tomorrow’s London launch for Jolly Foul Play.

Unfortunately, Waterstones Trafalgar Square has had a flood, so the space in the basement we were going to have the event isn’t useable. Fortunately, the lovely Covent Garden branch of Waterstones has stepped up and offered their store as a replacement venue, so I’m very pleased to say that we WILL still be launching the book – but in Covent Garden, not Trafalgar Square!

It’ll be the same time (12pm and 3pm), and nothing else will have changed – I’ll be signing your books, and talking to you about Jolly Foul Play. And there will be biscuits!

Covent Garden Waterstones is on Garrick Street – it’s very easy to find, only five minutes from Trafalgar Square – and there will be staff on hand to direct you if you can’t find your way. The store phone number is 020 7836 6757 if you are really lost!

If you’re coming tomorrow, I can’t wait to see you there!

Happy Jolly Foul Play Day!

Today’s the day! The wait is over, and Jolly Foul Play is officially available in stores across the UK and Ireland. I went into four stores in London to see it this morning, and there it was – bright yellow and completely unmissable.

I can’t believe that I’m watching my fourth book publish today, and that I’m doing it as a full-time writer. The world has changed since Murder Most Unladylike published in June 2014. But all the same, the fear and excitement never goes away. I feel just as giddy and disbelieving as I did when I was a debut.

Jolly Foul Play‘s London launch is on Saturday at Waterstones Trafalgar Square (I have big plans for tomorrow that involve a lot of sugar, flour and lemons), but today I’m just enjoying the fact that my newest book is out in the world, and available to buy. Below are pictures from my mini-tour today – signed copies are in all of these shops now.

Happy hunting, Murder Most Unladylike fans!

Waterstones Piccadilly display

Waterstones Covent Garden display

Foyle’s Charing Cross Road

Waterstones Tottenham Court Road

And a very well deserved bunbreak!