Oct. 3rd, 2023 at 9:00 PM
Adventuremice at Bath Kids Lit Fest 2023
It's great getting feedback after a book festival event...
... (especially when they call Philip Reeve and me Absolute Stars). This weekend my co-author and I did an Advemturemice event at Bath Children's Literature Festival, in a venue we'd never visited before, called The Egg. The tech team told us we wouldn't need microphones, and we were fearing it might be some tiny conference room tucked away somewhere. But when we got there, it was possibly the prettiest and best venue we'd ever performed in! I was told that, before it was built, children were asked what kind of theatre they wanted, and they said they wanted a miniature version of Bath's Theatre Royal, and that's exactly what they got! Here's technician Matt from The Egg, and Harvey from the Bath Kids Lit Team:
Philip tweeted this photo while Matt and Harvey were helping us set up. There's nothing like a lovely theatre to make an author excited before an event.
Big thanks to everyone who came along! Here's a photo of the Mouse Islands tweeted by @Marjorie73:
And another big thanks to everyone who queued up to show us your Pedro drawings and buy copies of Adventuremice: Mice on the Ice, available in advance of this Thursday's launch date! Photo posted by Amy Tilston/Feest on Instagram:
We also managed a three-bookshop tour, starting at Waterstones Bath. And what a lovely surprise, we ran into Sally Hamerton on the road (SLA School Librarian of the Year 2023!) and she directed us to her son Archie Hamerton, whom I'd met up with years and years ago with his family when we lived in London. But I hadn't met him as a grown adult or realised he worked at the Waterstones we were just about to visit!
So thanks for hosting our visit, Archie, and it was great to see you and Sally!
We also stopped at Toppings & Co, which I'd visited years ago, way before they'd moved venue to this remarkable Quaker meeting house site. (More of a temple, really!)
It's a gorgeous place, very central, and was absolutely heaving with tourists! We slipped in and Jess in the Children's Book department sorted us out signing books, and we slipped out again quickly so she could get back to work. (Thanks, Jess!)
We coudln't go to Bath without visiting Mr B's Emporium of Books, where there were lovely painted window displays by authors Sam Usher and Neill Cameron.
They have a beautiful painted signing room in the back, where Laura settled us to sign Adventuremice and lots of other books they had of ours. Do pop in to any of the three shops and pick up signed copies! The third Adventuremice book hadn't hit shops yet, but we signed lots of the first two books.
Because of Friday's trains strikes, we had a bit more time than usual, so we thought the most fun thing to do would be to meet up with Canadian author Moira Young, whom we both know way back from when her novel Blood Red Road won the Costa Award.
We took full advantage at The Architect's bookish nook in their restaurant with this very authorial photo:
The other terrific thing to do in Bath is visit the abbey! There's a whole world of beautiful art and architecture in there, right at your fingertip.
I'm a huge fan of medieval wooden carved bench decorations!
On display at the abbey, we found twelve magnificent illuminated calligraphy panels by Sue Symons which are on display right now in the 'Treasuring Creation' exhibition. They're paired with abstract embroidered pieces, but it's these lettered paintings I love best.
Another highlight were the large-scale illuminations in the crypt museum by York-based Ailsa Burrows. She has such a great sense of line and medieval perspective. Do visit if you can; her pictures look nice on her website, but tremendously good when they’re blown up much larger. I love their kindly, sensitive feel, and gorgeous pencil-style linework. (I think it's pencil but it might be digital pencil.)
Big thanks to Bath Kids Lit Fest and the team for inviting us to take part and looking after us during our event! And to Meggie and Fraser at David Fickling Books for helping coordinate our complicated autumn Adventuremice schedule, along with my wonderful husband Stuart, who has been keeping track of emails, tickets and itineraries for us. Thank you!!
... (especially when they call Philip Reeve and me Absolute Stars). This weekend my co-author and I did an Advemturemice event at Bath Children's Literature Festival, in a venue we'd never visited before, called The Egg. The tech team told us we wouldn't need microphones, and we were fearing it might be some tiny conference room tucked away somewhere. But when we got there, it was possibly the prettiest and best venue we'd ever performed in! I was told that, before it was built, children were asked what kind of theatre they wanted, and they said they wanted a miniature version of Bath's Theatre Royal, and that's exactly what they got! Here's technician Matt from The Egg, and Harvey from the Bath Kids Lit Team:
Philip tweeted this photo while Matt and Harvey were helping us set up. There's nothing like a lovely theatre to make an author excited before an event.
Big thanks to everyone who came along! Here's a photo of the Mouse Islands tweeted by @Marjorie73:
And another big thanks to everyone who queued up to show us your Pedro drawings and buy copies of Adventuremice: Mice on the Ice, available in advance of this Thursday's launch date! Photo posted by Amy Tilston/Feest on Instagram:
We also managed a three-bookshop tour, starting at Waterstones Bath. And what a lovely surprise, we ran into Sally Hamerton on the road (SLA School Librarian of the Year 2023!) and she directed us to her son Archie Hamerton, whom I'd met up with years and years ago with his family when we lived in London. But I hadn't met him as a grown adult or realised he worked at the Waterstones we were just about to visit!
So thanks for hosting our visit, Archie, and it was great to see you and Sally!
We also stopped at Toppings & Co, which I'd visited years ago, way before they'd moved venue to this remarkable Quaker meeting house site. (More of a temple, really!)
It's a gorgeous place, very central, and was absolutely heaving with tourists! We slipped in and Jess in the Children's Book department sorted us out signing books, and we slipped out again quickly so she could get back to work. (Thanks, Jess!)
We coudln't go to Bath without visiting Mr B's Emporium of Books, where there were lovely painted window displays by authors Sam Usher and Neill Cameron.
They have a beautiful painted signing room in the back, where Laura settled us to sign Adventuremice and lots of other books they had of ours. Do pop in to any of the three shops and pick up signed copies! The third Adventuremice book hadn't hit shops yet, but we signed lots of the first two books.
Because of Friday's trains strikes, we had a bit more time than usual, so we thought the most fun thing to do would be to meet up with Canadian author Moira Young, whom we both know way back from when her novel Blood Red Road won the Costa Award.
We took full advantage at The Architect's bookish nook in their restaurant with this very authorial photo:
The other terrific thing to do in Bath is visit the abbey! There's a whole world of beautiful art and architecture in there, right at your fingertip.
I'm a huge fan of medieval wooden carved bench decorations!
On display at the abbey, we found twelve magnificent illuminated calligraphy panels by Sue Symons which are on display right now in the 'Treasuring Creation' exhibition. They're paired with abstract embroidered pieces, but it's these lettered paintings I love best.
Another highlight were the large-scale illuminations in the crypt museum by York-based Ailsa Burrows. She has such a great sense of line and medieval perspective. Do visit if you can; her pictures look nice on her website, but tremendously good when they’re blown up much larger. I love their kindly, sensitive feel, and gorgeous pencil-style linework. (I think it's pencil but it might be digital pencil.)
Big thanks to Bath Kids Lit Fest and the team for inviting us to take part and looking after us during our event! And to Meggie and Fraser at David Fickling Books for helping coordinate our complicated autumn Adventuremice schedule, along with my wonderful husband Stuart, who has been keeping track of emails, tickets and itineraries for us. Thank you!!