The Fly and the window in Dublin.

Two exciting things happened recently. The first one is the publication of my book “The Fly” in U.S.A.

The Fly is a book I had published 2010. It took me a couple of years to persuade my publisher to do a book about a fly. The publisher’s argument was, that people don’t like flies; therefore they will not buy the book. It’s true and this is the way the market works.

Paradoxically that’s also what the book is about. About how difficult it is to be a fly.

I like the book. It was really fun to work on it and whenever I do a public reading this book gets most laughter.

The book is now officially out in America and so far has very a good response. It makes me happy.

Here is one of the pictures of the fly which was given to me by a young enthusiast.

The other exciting thing was my trip to Dublin. Going to Dublin, from where I live, takes only a couple of hours, but I had never been there before. I had no idea how much I’d been missing!

Dublin is amazing, so trendy, and full of lovely people, a great atmosphere and lots to see.

I was there to take part in Dublin Literary Festival. I did three talks and three workshops. It all went pretty well. “The Ark”, the place where most of the children’s events took place is a brilliant place. Perfect for shows, talks and workshops.

The whole festival was very well organised.

It wasn’t just work. Together with fellow authors, we were well looked after and taken around Dublin.

I managed to see Chris Haughton’s talk, which was really good fun and his illustrations on the big screen looked amazing!

I Went to Nicola Davies‘ talk. Nicola knows so much about animals that you could listen to her for the whole day. A real treat.

And I also saw the brilliant Gary Northfield in action. He ran on to the stage dressed as Julius Zebra and I laughed a lot. Unfortunately soon I had to also run, because I had one more event to do, but next time when Gary is a Zebra, I go again!

I was asked to decorate a shop window in one of the best bookshops I’ve been to recently. The Hodges Figgis bookshop in central Dublin.

The shop is big and incredibly busy. I was signing books for stock on Saturday afternoon and couldn’t believe when I saw a long queue of people trying to quickly buy a book just before the shop closed for the night. People in Dublin do like books a lot!

My installation was about my latest picture book “The Mouse Who Ate the Moon”.

And the last information is……. I’m going to be in this exhibition!

 

 

More about it later, but mark the date in the calendar if you can!