Adventures in Oldenburg

I'm just back from the KIBUM Children's Book Festival in Oldenburg, Germany. It was a flying 24-hour visit and, as always, I wish I could have stayed longer. But I packed lots of good things into my stay, namely two lovely events on stage in the company of the actor Rainer Rudloff. Rainer was my translator, but also the reader of several excerpts from Amulet of Samarkand and Ring of Solomon - and he put in a spectacular performance. Not only did he read, but he acted out the parts, leaping and springing about the stage for the fight scenes, and taking on all sorts of strange, weird and hilarious voices for the different characters. His version of Bartimaeus's visit to Sholto Pinn's shop was a highlight, particularly his fabulously camp interpretation of the foliot Simpkin. I think someone took a bit of film of the performance… If I can get hold of it, I'll post it up, because it's well worth seeing!

In between events I had a delightful lunch with Rainer, his son Jakob, Jakob's friends Kolian and Magnus - and also two other authors who were there for the festival: the fantasy writer Jenni-Mai Nuyen (www.jenni-mai-nuyen.de) and the manga author/artist Natalie Wormsbecher (www.menolly.de). It was a very festive occasion!