Month: September 2015

On the topic of fame…

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Oh, there you are. I was wondering when you’d arrive because I’ve got so much to tell you. Mainly about fame, really. And why not.

So yes, on the topic of fame, Dara Palmer’s Major Drama came out on 6th August in the UK and has been having some cracking reviews, for which I’m humbly grateful. I was in Cambodia at the time visiting Dara’s birthplace, and specifically a children’s charity called the Cambodian Children’s Trust in Battambang that helps to keep children out of orphanages. I talked about my visit there at my event at the Edinburgh Book Festival on 23rd August with fellow author, Elen Caldecott, who writes the  excellent Marsh Road series, and I’ll be talking about Cambodia and Dara in more depth at the multiple school and library visits I have lined up over the next two months, not to mention the festivals and conferences I’ll be attending. So that’s all MUCHO EXCITING. Dara will like the fame, I just know it.

Staying on the topic of fame, the piece I wrote on why I was – and continue to be- inspired by the great Pippi Longstocking was published in The Guardian yesterday. I’m sooo famous now. Actually, that’s a lie. I’m not at all. But it’s great to see something you wrote in The Guardian, no less, and if you haven’t read Pippi, or haven’t read her in a while, I highly recommend a revisit. I think one of my favourite stories ever is about the Squeazle, which can be found in ‘Pippi in the South Seas’. She is just amazing, and so was Astrid Lindgren.

Continuing on the topic of fame just a tiny bit longer, Dream on, Amber has now received four, yes, four starred reviews from the top library journals in America. Getting one of those stars is a big deal, but getting four is a big deal times four, so I’m delighted and so are the publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. I’ve just received this praise sheet summarising the four reviews, so I’m going to share it with you all, right here, right now. DreamOnAmber-PraiseSheet

Amber comes out on 6th October in the US, which is soon indeed. I wish her the very best of luck.

And that’s all the fame I think anyone can cope with in a single afternoon, so I’m bowing deeply and heading to the wings with my flowers. See you backstage.

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