I have just been updating my calendar for March and as ever my schedule is bonkers. March begins in Warrington in the first 15 days I’ll go to Glasgow, Plymouth and Slough. I’m also heading back to Paderborn for what maybe the last time.
I have been visiting Bishops Park School in Paderborn, Germany for the past three years to work with the children of service families. It has always been a real highlight and privilege to spend time with the military community and I have always been made to feel very welcome by the staff and children.
In a lot of ways it’s just another day at the office but it’s the little differences that make my time in Germany special. For instance, the school day starts and ends earlier than a British school day so having reached my hotel bed at midnight I am in front of the children at what feels like 7.30am! Then there’s the fact that you are quite clearly working in a German building in a German town but as soon as you walk through the door you know you are in a British school whose population reflect the many nationalities who serve in our armed forces. For the children it’s there normal but when you think that whilst I prance about in the school hall the parents of the children I’m entertaining may be in some far flung dangerous corner of the world in the name of our national safety I find it very humbling.
The school has been really supportive and I have been able to do some crazy and ambitious stuff with the children. Some of the sessions were from my regular repertoire (eg The Hundred Mile an Hour Dog and The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party!) but we’ve also done other stuff including a huge narrative poetry workshop and tiny sessions for children with additional needs and through the staff I’ve been introduced to some really high tech ideas. A lot of what I do is about access and exposure to high quality performance and storytelling. It always pleasing to be able to share a story or run a project with a small school but to work with a group of children so far from home who might not otherwise have such an experience is wonderful and I feel that I am a better storyteller and person for having had the opportunity.
The MoD previously announced that Germany is to close in 2019 and that service families were to return home or be redeployed around the world. I recently read that Paderborn may remain open until 2023 but I don’t know if I’ll be a part of the school’s future plans. Would I like to carry on going back? Of course but then, you know, there are schools in other parts of the world too… how does The Enormous Crocodile in The Falkland Islands, Shakespeare in Cyprus or Greek Mythology in Brunei sound to you, because to me it sounds amazing!!
I work in schools, museums and libraries in England, Scotland and Wales and have led storytelling sessions at the Guernsey Literary Festival and Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival. If you looking to book a storyteller for an overseas school or festival or for work with international students in here the UK, contact me.
I’d like to start this postcard by apologising for its tardiness; I’ve been meaning to write this down for a while but 
Earlier this year I was contacted by Ann again. Now living in Lincolnshire, Ann was working with the Federation of Children’s Book Groups in Lincolnshire, helping to set up a literature festival in Grantham at the National Trust’s Belton House and she’d got in touch to see if I’d like to be involved. Well I don’t mind admitting that this was an extremely exciting invitation. Not just because it would be a chance to catch up with Ann again but because 10 years ago my father had suggested I do something at a National Trust property; a conversation which asi remember it has become a catalyst for telling my first and all subsequent stories. A decade on this would be a chance to fulfill a long held ambition.
The day was brilliant. Belton House in the early autumn sunshine is a spectacular setting and it was lovely to catch up with Ann and Chris Routh (chair of the FCBG who I worked with in West Berks). I had really good turnouts for 
The next day I was back in the Midlands to be a part of Loogabarooga 2018 (apparently that’s how Loughborough is pronounced in Australia!). Engineering work meant that it was quicker and cheaper to get a bus. Unfortunately the bus stop was outside the university leaving me a fair hike into town admittedly in glorious sunshine. Loughborough is the home of Ladybird Books and the festival celebrates all things illustration and cartoons so Dennis and the Chamber of Mischief was a natural fit for presentation in their Festival Den although this turned out to be a rather an intimate marquee for my rather powerful water pistols!
The wonderful thing about festivals is that you meet all kinds of people. At Belton I chatted all things babies and houses with illustrator Frank Preston Gannon and at Loogabarooga I was scheduled between Beano cartoonist Laura Howell and author Claire Elsom. It’s very easy to feel inspired when get to rub shoulders with heavyweight talent.
I love Scotland. I don’t really know why. Perhaps it’s because we went there a lot on our family holidays or because of the happy times spent at Edinburgh Festivals in the early noughties. Maybe it’s the accent or simply because I don’t have to spell out my surname to Scottish people but I have always had a soft spot for the place. Anyway, the last time I worked in Scotland was on a schools tour almost fifteen years ago. I have been trying to find a way of working there again ever since. Earlier in 2018 I thought I’d cracked it; I booked dates for the summer in Moray, Angus, Fife and Dumfries and Galloway but the plan was scuppered because of my family commitments. Then came The Beast from the East hit Britain. It caused chaos and lead to the postponement of the Wee Write! Festival. Determined to do something for young Glaswegians the organisers managed to pull together a wonderful programme of activity in just a few weeks. I hadn’t been originally invited to participate but when I was contacted I didn’t think twice – I was Ton my way to Scotland!
The thing about living in London and working in Glasgow is it’s a very long way and travelling on a Sunday is not easy. So my day begins at 3.45am (you haven’t misread that) as my alarm goes and I hop in the shower having spent the night sleeping on Verity’s play mat in the living room. I creep out of the house, terrified of waking her particularly as we’ve been camping this week and her sleep is all over the place from spending the night in our van. By 4.10am I’m at the tube station. I have used the night tube once before but never in the very depths of the night. As a train geek this is brilliant fun and I’m excited to see that a service runs every 10 minutes through the night. When the tube arrives it’s pretty empty but it soon fills up with people heading home from their nights out or, like me, to the airport. When I reach Victoria I stroll along Buckingham Palace Road arriving just before 5am. I try to talk my way onto an earlier bus but I’ve got no chance – all the buses from Victoria Coach Station have been fully booked from 3am because there’s no other way of reaching Luton at this time in the morning. No worries, I wander back to Greggs for a sausage roll (yes, Greggs is open before 5am in Victoria Coach Station!).
At this stage I am not worried at all. I have selected a bus which will get me to Luton in good time for my flight. I had foolishly bought a rail ticket only to discover that I’d miss check in by a minute if I used it so as the bus gets underway I’m feeling pretty smug. I read my book in the dawn light as we loll through the empty London streets. Looking out the window the dew in Hyde Park gives the grass a very eerie appearance. Everything is going fine until the bus suddenly stops. The driver informs us that a joy rider has crashed a car and abandoned it in the middle of the road. There is nothing on the road and the bus is still stuck. The minutes are now ebbing away as the Police arrive and inspect the vehicle. I know that they are working as fast as they can but as they check the vehicle over I am wishing they’d just find the hand brake and clear the road. The bus finally gets through and we arrive at Luton Airport ten minutes late. I have just enough time to check my bag before jogging through security and onto the the plane. An hour later I am reunited with my bag and am queuing for a transfer into the city of Glasgow.
I have only been to Glasgow a couple of times but the central area has never struck me as being that big (it is however very hilly particularly if you misread the google map and go up the same hill twice!). I finally find the Mitchell Library. The Mitchell Library is one of the largest libraries I have ever been in and it has a beautiful early 20th century exterior. Today its grandness is somewhat overshadowed by the fairly busy dual carriageway it sits next to but as I go inside and see the gathering crowds it is clear that the Mitchell Library is a much loved community asset. Having said my hellos I make myself scarce for a while. 
I take a turn along Bath Street and Sauciehall Street toward Buchanan Street stopping off to see the Duke of Wellington’s traffic cone hat before heading out onto the river Clyde and meandering via BBC Scotland back to the library. It still pretty early and the city has a very relaxed feel about it; the city is awash with colour with everybody wearing either Celtic green or Race for Life Pink. 
When I get back to the library the place is buzzing and there’s a very friendly atmosphere; there’s cartoonists leading master classes, toddler story times, a science workshop and people hanging out in the cafe space. The children seem to be having a high old time. In the foyer as I listen to the Seussical Musical it’s easy to forget that I am here to work.
Finally my moment arrives and I’m ushered into in the 400 seat Mitchell Theatre. This venue has seen some seriously big names play on it. I am doing a demanding double bill of “The Twits” and “The Hundred Mile an Hour Dog”. The presentations go down well. The audience seem to enjoy “The Twits” but it’s trickier to tell with Streaker. It’s quite quiet in the auditorium for both stories as the crowd give very little away. I worry that my brand of chaos seems to be getting lost in the vast auditorium and that I’m not getting up my usual momentum but there are still queues at the end of each session for photographs and lots of positive feedback.
Then as quickly as it all began my participation in the festival is over. By 4.30pm I’m back on the street and after another couple of hours in Glasgow city centre its back to the bus stop and off to the airport only to find my flight has been delayed (it’s now nearly midnight and I’m still not quite home). 
There are signs all over the city reminding its inhabitants that “People make Glasgow” well I will certainly remember the people who made my Wee Write! Festival so memorable and I am very grateful to the organisers for their hospitality and the audiences for supporting my work. Its been a crazy day but it was a pleasure to have been part of a very special event in a very special city.
So the six week holidays are coming to an end and another Summer Reading Challenge is drawing to its conclusion. Once again thousands of young people have participated as readers and volunteers in libraries across Britain and once again I have played my small part in launching, enhancing and celebrating the challenge through storytelling.
