Adventuremice at Farnham Lit Fest 2023

This week my Adventuremice co-author Philip Reeve and I travelled to Farnham, to meet young readers at the Farnham Literary Festival.

Tiny felt mouse created by Bronnie fro BookwagonUK!

But we started meeting young readers even before we got to Farnham, because we were sharing a train with a group from Blackawton Primary School who were on their way to London to visit the Houses of Parliament. Some of them were reading Philip’s books and they all wanted autographs, so we felt like Big Stars (but only in carriage C of that particular train).

In Farnham we were guests of the Blue Bear Bookshop which we also visited last year.

After coffee and cake, Khira Stanley took us to Potters Gate Primary School, where we did our first ever Adventuremice event. I showed the children how to draw Pedro, and then they helped us come up with some inhabitants for the Nameless Isles, the unexplored bits at the top of the Mouse Islands map where No Mouse Has Been Before. Apparently they’re home to cat-tailed crabs, fast sloths, and a taco-pooing monster … who knew?

(I won’t show you the fast sloth, I drew it quite badly.)

In the evening Philip talked about his Utterly Dark books to a full-house crowd at the bookshop.

It was lovely to see jewellery-maker Laura Robb (whom I formerly know as Sister Spooky the book blogger) and author-actor Andy Robb, and to catch up with Horrible Histories author and cartoonist Martin Brown.

Next morning, festival volunteer Paul met me at the Blue Bear Bookshop and took me round the corner to St Andrew’s CofE Primary School for a Grumpycorn event, where I led them all in designing their own unicorn-themed book covers.

Big thanks to Blue Bear Bookshop owner Sylvia Schüller, Khira Standley for looking after us. You can follow the Blue Bear Bookshop on Twitter –@BBbbookshop – and on Instagram – @blue_bear_bookshop.

Next time you’re in Blue Bear Bookshop, check just above the front door to see the framed poster that we drew last year!

And Liz Scott and Fraser Hutchinson on the David Fickling Books tea for helping us coordinate. And to everyone who drew with us during our events, we hope you’re been inspired to keep drawing and making up your own stories!

And then Khira dropped us back at the station to catch our train home to Devon, where our Adventuremice tour continues! Next stop: Tomorrow in Totnes, 11am! (Visit East Gate Bookshop’s site for last-minute booking details!)