Monthly Archives: November 2010

Door Art

Posted on by
1

Courtesy of Blast-Off Books

So I walked into Linlithgow Bridge Primary School last week and what did I find but amazing The Blackhope Enigma ‘door art’ made by the P6 class I was visiting. The children were pretty humble about it, but I know the effort they must have made to create this for my visit. I was and am truly touched.

It made me think about how we didn’t really do things like this when I was in school. Hmm, why didn’t we? Probably because authors didn’t come to my school. To be honest, in those days there was a pretty good chance the authors of books you liked weren’t even alive. Or if they were, it seemed like they existed on some lofty celestial plane that didn’t involve visiting schools. I’m sure they did, but I never met any.

So, thanks again, P6 – you made my day!

Blackhope Enigma Events, Past and Future

Posted on by
1

On the road with mazes and monsters…

I am stopping to take a breath after a number of days out in schools and libraries talking to children and their families about The Blackhope Enigma and what I do.

I had a rollicking two days over Hallowe’en with The Works Festival in North Lanarkshire. The librarians at Bellshill Library were in full costume – and put me to shame, since I was not!

One young artist gave me her maze drawing, complete with dangers and enemies drawn in. I was so taken with this zombie, I thought it should go up on the blog.

Then it was off up to Moray in the northeast of Scotland to tour about with Yeadon’s Bookshop. Their branch in Elgin is wonderful, with not only a great selection of books for all ages, but a stationery section with lovely writing paper, scented inks and wonderful cards. We visited schools in Buckie, Cullen and did events at Elgin Library. It was a lot of fun, as always.

Yesterday I did a day trip to Linlithgow with the excellent Blast-Off Books and we visited two local primary schools. The classes were very well prepared (in Moray too!) and the children asked a lot of very good questions.

The next stop on my “road show” is the Lennoxlove Book Festival on November 20th. More about that soon!