Robin Stevens's Blog, page 7

The Body in the Blitz – cover reveal!

It’s finally time! I am thrilled and delighted to reveal the final cover for the second Ministry of Unladylike Activity adventure, The Body in the Blitz!

It’s another wonderful cover by Jan Bielecki – I love the gorgeous green, I love how dynamic my three detectives look (especially May in her shorts!) and I love the addition of Pfote the cat, who will play an important role in this book!

I hope you’re as excited as I am – The Body in the Blitz will publish on the 12th of October this year, and of course you can pre-order it NOW!

The Body in the Blitz – Guess the Colour!

Congratulations to you if you cracked the case of the title of my new book! The full cover of The Body in the Blitz will be revealed next week, on the 20th of April – I can’t wait for you to see it! But before I show you what it’s going to look like, I have one more puzzle for you to solve. What colour will it be? The lovely team at Puffin have put together this graphic – but which colour have we chosen? Check back here on the 20th to discover the truth…

Title reveal – the second Ministry book will be called The Body in the Blitz!

Some news that I’ve been holding in for quite a while – we have a TITLE for the second Ministry of Unladylike Activity book, and it is THE BODY IN THE BLITZ!

We actually chose it back in October last year, during my tour for the first Ministry adventure. I asked all my audiences to suggest a title from the plot summary I gave them. In the very first school event, Tashinga suggested A Blitz of Bodies, which I knew had to be close – and then at my Bath Festival public event Colette suggested The Body in the Blitz and I realised it was perfect.

So, The Body in the Blitz it is!

From the official blurb …

Britain is at war, and a secret agency called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up children as spies – because grown-ups always underestimate them.

Enter May, Eric and Nuala: courageous, smart, and the Ministry’s newest recruits. They have travelled to London for spy training, and are staying on a quiet street close to the Ministry, home to an unlikely collection of people thrown together by the war.

One day, while exploring the bombed-out house at the end of the street, they discover something that should not be there. Something that was not there when the Blitz wreckage was first combed through. Something that has been placed there recently. A body…

Could this be the missing Ministry spy that Daisy Wells is on a dangerous mission in France to find? Or could it be someone else – someone a resident of the street wanted silenced . . . ?

The Body in the Blitz will be out on the 12th of October, and you can pre-order it NOW! And if you want to know what the cover will look like … keep watching my social media accounts over the next week or so …

Ministry of Unladylike Activity 2 – Guess the Title!

I’ve got some very exciting news – Ministry of Unladylike Activity 2 is officially on the way THIS YEAR! It’ll be out on the 12th October, and I’m currently working on the second draft of it. I think it’s going really well, and I’m so excited for you to read May, Eric and Nuala’s second adventure very soon.

But first, we need to reveal its title and cover …

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting a series of hints – first you’ll have to guess the title, then once the title is revealed you’ll have to work out what colour the book is going to be, before I finally unveil the full finished cover on the 20th of April.

And your task for today is to solve the mystery of the title of MUA 2. What will it be? Here’s your hint … and I’ll be back on the 11th to let you know if you were right …

Ministry of Unladylike Activity Paperback – special editions announced!

The Ministry of Unladylike Activity is publishing in paperback on the 25th of May – and there will be not one but THREE editions of the book available to buy!

First, we have the edition that will be available everywhere the book is sold, online and in stores. It’s got bright blue sprayed edges, and it has brand-new maps and inside illustrations (Emil the Hedgehog fans, you’re going to love them!). We’re calling it a limited edition because it’s possible that not every print run will have these sprayed edges, but you shouldn’t have any trouble getting your hands on one of these copies!

Next, we have a special independent bookstore edition! This has the same gorgeous maps and inside illustrations as the main edition, but it has red sprayed edges and a die-cut cover that opens out to reveal the message May discovers that leads her to the Ministry. This is a limited edition, and if you want to get your hands on it you need to contact your local independent bookstore in the UK and Ireland and ask them to reserve you a copy!

And finally, we have the Waterstones exclusive edition! Again, this has the maps and inside illustrations, but its sprayed edges are yellow with black magnifying glasses. And it also has some VERY special extra material: letters between my characters that expand on the story of Book 1, and give a tiny teaser about what’s coming in Book 2. There are ONLY 3,000 copies of this edition and you can ONLY get it from Waterstones, so you’ll want to order yours right now!

Thanks to Jan Bielecki for the wonderful cover, and to Puffin for all of these beautiful books – I can’t wait to get my hands on them! Not long to go now!

Event announcement – Towers and Tales 2023

Good news for the Irish fans who’ve been asking when I’ll be back next: I can now reveal that the answer is April 29th 2023!

I’m coming to this year’s Towers and Tales in Lismore to do not one but TWO public events (they’re the same event, please don’t book both unless you REALLY want to hear me talk).

Details are below – I’ll be talking about my new series, The Ministry of Unladylike Activity, and giving you some hints about what’s next in the second book …

12pm, April 29th, Lismore Heritage Centre

4pm, April 29th, Pugin Hall

See you all soon! I can’t wait!

Ministry has been shortlisted for the 2023 Crimefest Children’s Award!

I’m delighted to announce the first shortlisting for Ministry of Unladylike Activity – and it’s a particularly wonderful one!

It’s on the Crimefest Best Crime Novel for Children 2023 shortlist, along with some of my favourite children’s crime writers. I’m so pleased to be part of the list, and grateful to CrimeFest for recognising my book! The full shortlist:

– Elly Griffiths for A Girl Called Justice: The Spy at the Window (Quercus Children’s Books)
– Anthony Horowitz for Where Seagulls Dare: A Diamond Brothers Case (Walker Books)
– Sharna Jackson for The Good Turn (Puffin)
– M.G. Leonard for Spark (Walker Books)
– Robin Stevens for The Ministry of Unladylike Activity (Puffin)
– Sarah Todd Taylor for Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Recipe for Trouble (Nosy Crow)

The awards will be announced in May – which gives you enough time to read the whole shortlist!

Deepdean is a literary legend!

A very fun mention for my books in the SoGlos magazine – according to their list, Deepdean school is one of 11 ‘Gloucestershire Literary Legends’.

I really love this, because it’s all true – I did base Deepdean on my school Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and these days the college does actually run regular Murder Most Unladylike tours – so if you really want to know what it’s like to be Daisy and Hazel, see if you can get a spot on one of them!

War Through Children’s Eyes competition

The War Through Children’s Eyes competition is a creative competition that aims to raise awareness of the impact of war on people around the world. 2023 is its second year, and I’m pleased to say that I’m going to be one of this year’s judges.

The competition is open to anyone aged 7-17 who’s resident in the UK – so if that’s you, and you’d like to get involved, visit their website now. I think this is a great initiative – as they say,

Our ultimate objective is to empower children to speak out, take action and share the stories of their peers who have no voice

The competition is open from now until the 15th of May, so there’s plenty of time to work on your entries. Good luck!

Thanks for another wonderful World Book Day!

Last Thursday was World Book Day in the UK and Ireland. I wasn’t able to do any events this year because I’m working so hard on Ministry 2 (more on this soon, I promise!) but I had the most wonderful time seeing all of your creative and brilliant costumes and art projects!

[image error]My very favourite costume this year – it’s Nina Tara’s silhouette of Daisy![image error]And a proud moment – my very first Nuala!

If you sent something to me, thank you so much. It means a lot to know that you were inspired by one of my characters! And if you did dress up as Daisy, Hazel, May, Nuala, Eric or another one of my detectives, I hope you had a wonderful day being part of the Detective Society!

I hope I’ll be able to do some visits for WBD 2024 – and I can promise that I’ll be out on the road more later this spring and summer. I’ve got lots of events and festival appearances in the works – keep an eye on my calendar for where I’ll be next!