[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-cuteness-overload-in-coventry-with-alex-t-smith":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Today I went up to Coventry for another storming pirate event, this time for the city's very first literary festival, \u003Ca href=\"http://literallycoventry.eventbrite.co.uk/\">Literally Coventry\u003C/a>. And one of the main planners was \u003Cb>Sian Smith\u003C/b>, \u003Ca href=\"http://alextsmith.blogspot.co.uk/\">Alex T. Smith\u003C/a>'s mum! I met Alex for the first time at the \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/319280.html\">Edinburgh book fest two years ago\u003C/a> but while we've chatted away on Twitter, we'd never managed to meet up again. So I was excited when I found out we had events on the same day. Here's Alex at lunch with Claude (who is a dog) and Sir Bobblysock (who is a sock).\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_claude-33a7f85295.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for drawings and photos under the cut!-->\\r\nAnd here's the lovely festival logo Alex drew, featuring Coventry's most famous resident, Lady Godiva. I'm such a fan of Alex's work.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/literally_coventry-6dcae87dbd.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe drew pictures of each other! This is so, so awesome. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_sarahportrait-bfd6793164.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAlex's mum and dad collected me from the train station, and after my event and before lunch, they somehow managed to slip away and pick up both of Alex's dogs. TOO CUTE. The one on the left is Mr Bongo and the smaller one is CocoPop. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_sarah_dogs2-6c4602251c.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's my drawing of Alex and his fab book character, Claude! (Who's named Léon in France.) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sarah_alextsmith_portrait-665a3c3af9.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks to the great team who have worked so hard to make the festival happen: \u003Cb>Joy Court\u003C/b>, Alex's parents, and lots more fabulous folk! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/literally_team-5e23460cec.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nMy event came right after the screening of Aardman's \u003Ci>PIRATES\u003C/i>, which is an excellent film with humour on several different levels. One of the organisers told me that some of the kids in the audience had never been to a cinema before, and I've never seen kids so rapt and involved in a showing; they cheered, gasped and clapped at all the right bits, and shushed us adults when we burst out laughing at the bits they didn't understand were funny. (The film's based on artwork by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.arenaillustration.com/Artists/thumbsJonnyDuddle.html\">Jonny Duddle\u003C/a>, another fine pirating children's books illustrator.) I didn't think the kids would be able to sit still after a feature-length film without much of a break, so I changed tack a bit with the event and we started out with competitive pirate roaring, and then got a bunch of kids up on stage and turned them into a Pirate Piano. Which is something I think I will build on and use again, so look out for the Pirate Piano.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"1769\"/>\\r\n\\r\nI got all gooshy when I uploaded these photos to my computer and I just have to post them. CUTE CUTE CUTE. Here's Alex's dad with CocoPop.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_dad_dog-105ec25d53.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIf you follow Alex on Twitter (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/Alex_T_Smith\">@Alex_T_Smith\u003C/a>), these dogs get lots of mentions. You can even follow Claude (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/CLAUDE_and_SirB\">@CLAUDE_and_SirB\u003C/a>).\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_sarah_dog2-561d1d56e3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks, Alex, for the fabulous drawing and a fine lunch!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_sarah_dogs1-c606bacc75.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_mum_dog-1b830fdd15.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_family_dogs-0d8b2801d4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alextsmith_sarah_dog-f6a129fc2c.jpg\">","2012-06-14T22:12:00.000Z","cuteness-overload-in-coventry-with-alex-t-smith",[],"cuteness overload in coventry with alex t. smith",1776628721942]