Saturday, November 20, 2004

The Northern Children’s Book Festival


Had a wonderful time in the North East. Three schools, the first two in the library at Crook, near Durham, and the third at a very large secondary school in Redcar where I read The Journal of Danny Chaucer (Poet) to three groups of 12/13 year olds. Three hours more-or-less solid reading with a song and a few questions and answers thrown in. Tiring, but great fun.

Also I met up with several other writers staying at the same hotel including Korky Paul. How fantastic is that?

The hotel was quite interesting. We had to wait for over an hour for a meal on the first night which was gruesome when it finally arrived (soggy risotto) (not helped by watching England’s dismal football performance against Spain on the bar’s big screen). An unusual bathroom, too, with a mirror so high that only a tall person could see his face in it and with the shower controls near the ceiling. One of our party, Sally Crabtree, who is a musician and writes books for young children, and isn't very tall, said she had to stand on a chair to wash! The following night we went for a Thai meal which was totally delicious. I won’t bore you with the details.

Wrote quite a lot on the train. Well, not literally on the train – it was in a book. Some more work on the graphic novel. Some poem bits. And a haiku. Well, of sorts. (See below)

But it’s good to be home.

5 comments:

Wastedpapiers said...

Shame you didnt have time to pop in on your way upt Nerth. You could have broken the journey up a bit.

Roger Stevens said...

I know. But Durham is on the other side of the country really. I did ask the train driver of the Flying Scotsman if he could make a detour and visit Rudheath but he said it would mess up all the timetables and things.

Still, we'll see you in January!

amiethinggoes said...

Love Thai food! Yum!

sylviasometimes said...

Had to comment on your new site!
Will be great fun to see these
students' offerings. Also have
to say I visited the "Poetryzone" and
thought...for kids?! What a fun
site, Roger! Hated that I no longer
qualify as a kid! All kinds of things
to respond to and me hands were tied!
Anyway, sounds like you are way busy
and all to good purpose. And John died...
and life goes on. And life goes on...

Roger Stevens said...

Thanks, Sylvia. The new sight has re-located. Same address but I didn't want all my profile information on it. It is for the students, after all. But I hope it will grow into something a bit more than just a site for students. (The students, BTW, are all grown-ups.)

The address is still battlingwithwords.blogspot.com

When it's up and running I'll add a proper link to this blog.