Nov. 15th, 2022 at 10:05 PM
Dublin Book Festival 2022
Visiting Halfway Up the Stairs bookshop in Greystones, just outside of Dublin, has been a big goal of mine...
...ever since Kevin beat me to it on our 'Reeve & McIntyre Big Up Bookshops' virtual tour during Lockdown (with Philip Reeve, of course). It was funny walking up to the front of the bookshop, which I could spot from a long way away, because I knew the fittings so well from painting them! You can read Kevin's interview with the owner, Trish Hennessy, here.
Big thanks to everyone who came along to our Unicorn event! There was a great local turnout and it was fun to meet everyone and get drawing.
Author and in-store Events Manager Sarah Webb set up the event for me Trish and here with are with Meriel on the bookshop team.
Hanging out with Irish people is always the best fun; we went for dinner nearby afterward - here's Trish, Amanda and Meriel:
And I also got to meet Irish debut author Ellen Ryan, who was such a good laugh; I was practically wheezing by the time I left.
The main reason I was able to come out was Dublin Book Festival, and our main event was on Saturday. Here are two of the most fun people in Ireland: Sarah Webb and author-illustrator Alan Nolan, who chaired the events.
I took part in two events under the name 'Proper Book' (as in 'Why don't you read a proper book?') As a bookseller, Sarah Webb encounters this often with parents who aspire to have their children to read books without pictures, and get sniffy about picture books and comics. She has a lively explanation to help them understand that picture books and comics are indeed proper books: if people want to read them, it helps them develop a lifelong love of reading and is to be encouraged. And it helps people develop their visual vocabulary, which is ever more important in the digital age. Photo by Children's Books Ireland's Ruth Ennis:
On the first panel we had Alan Nolan, Andrew Donkin, Sarah Webb, Bruno Batista of Big Bang Comics and me. And in the second panel, I got to meet writer and artist Aoife Dooley!
Scholastic had asked me to write a blurb for her book's back cover ages ago, so I'd been curious about her and wondering if I'd ever meet her. Hurrah! She's great to listen to and I really enjoyed hearing about how she makes comics.
Here's Andrew Donkin, who's probably best known for co-writing comics with Eoin Colfer. (They've recently been working on Illegal with artist Giovanni Rigano.)
Big thanks to Sarah and Alan for organising those events, Anna and Róisín from Dublin Book Festival, and the Gutter Bookshop Dalkey for hosting book sales (which I did manage to visit on my afternoon off!)
Since I was making the trip over, Sarah Webb also generously organised a visit to Alexandra Junior College, to talk with the girls there about Grumpycorn, Kevin the Roly-Poly Flying Pony, coming up with stories and drawing pictures.
Usually I have kids draw Kevin, but this time I had them draw minor guinea pig characters Neville & Beyoncé (sidelining most prominently in Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit). We didn't have time for a formal comic making class, but some of them managed to draw comics anyway!
The staff were so warm and helpful: the school's Head Avril Lamplugh was the best, really enthusiastic. And we were joined by Scholastic Ireland publicist Helen McKean and Vivienne and Catherine from the Rathmines branch of Dubray Books. Thanks so much to everyone who helped out!
The big star of the show was Sarah Webb, who made everything possible; Sarah is an absolute legend of connecting everyone in children's book world. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time in your busy schedule, Sarah!! Here we are, having a festival dinner with agent Lydia Silver (on a panel after mine) and Andrew Donkin.
Oh, one more thing, I got to catch up with pro photographer Ger Holland (pronounced 'Ger' as in Geraldine, not 'Ger' as in Gertrude), who's taken so many amazing photos from events in years past! Do follow her on social media to see amazing landscape shots and festival celebs, etc.
A couple of Ger's photos from years past. I hope I'll get to return to Ireland soon for some more good craic.
...ever since Kevin beat me to it on our 'Reeve & McIntyre Big Up Bookshops' virtual tour during Lockdown (with Philip Reeve, of course). It was funny walking up to the front of the bookshop, which I could spot from a long way away, because I knew the fittings so well from painting them! You can read Kevin's interview with the owner, Trish Hennessy, here.
Big thanks to everyone who came along to our Unicorn event! There was a great local turnout and it was fun to meet everyone and get drawing.
Author and in-store Events Manager Sarah Webb set up the event for me Trish and here with are with Meriel on the bookshop team.
Hanging out with Irish people is always the best fun; we went for dinner nearby afterward - here's Trish, Amanda and Meriel:
And I also got to meet Irish debut author Ellen Ryan, who was such a good laugh; I was practically wheezing by the time I left.
The main reason I was able to come out was Dublin Book Festival, and our main event was on Saturday. Here are two of the most fun people in Ireland: Sarah Webb and author-illustrator Alan Nolan, who chaired the events.
I took part in two events under the name 'Proper Book' (as in 'Why don't you read a proper book?') As a bookseller, Sarah Webb encounters this often with parents who aspire to have their children to read books without pictures, and get sniffy about picture books and comics. She has a lively explanation to help them understand that picture books and comics are indeed proper books: if people want to read them, it helps them develop a lifelong love of reading and is to be encouraged. And it helps people develop their visual vocabulary, which is ever more important in the digital age. Photo by Children's Books Ireland's Ruth Ennis:
On the first panel we had Alan Nolan, Andrew Donkin, Sarah Webb, Bruno Batista of Big Bang Comics and me. And in the second panel, I got to meet writer and artist Aoife Dooley!
Scholastic had asked me to write a blurb for her book's back cover ages ago, so I'd been curious about her and wondering if I'd ever meet her. Hurrah! She's great to listen to and I really enjoyed hearing about how she makes comics.
Here's Andrew Donkin, who's probably best known for co-writing comics with Eoin Colfer. (They've recently been working on Illegal with artist Giovanni Rigano.)
Big thanks to Sarah and Alan for organising those events, Anna and Róisín from Dublin Book Festival, and the Gutter Bookshop Dalkey for hosting book sales (which I did manage to visit on my afternoon off!)
Since I was making the trip over, Sarah Webb also generously organised a visit to Alexandra Junior College, to talk with the girls there about Grumpycorn, Kevin the Roly-Poly Flying Pony, coming up with stories and drawing pictures.
Usually I have kids draw Kevin, but this time I had them draw minor guinea pig characters Neville & Beyoncé (sidelining most prominently in Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit). We didn't have time for a formal comic making class, but some of them managed to draw comics anyway!
The staff were so warm and helpful: the school's Head Avril Lamplugh was the best, really enthusiastic. And we were joined by Scholastic Ireland publicist Helen McKean and Vivienne and Catherine from the Rathmines branch of Dubray Books. Thanks so much to everyone who helped out!
The big star of the show was Sarah Webb, who made everything possible; Sarah is an absolute legend of connecting everyone in children's book world. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time in your busy schedule, Sarah!! Here we are, having a festival dinner with agent Lydia Silver (on a panel after mine) and Andrew Donkin.
Oh, one more thing, I got to catch up with pro photographer Ger Holland (pronounced 'Ger' as in Geraldine, not 'Ger' as in Gertrude), who's taken so many amazing photos from events in years past! Do follow her on social media to see amazing landscape shots and festival celebs, etc.
A couple of Ger's photos from years past. I hope I'll get to return to Ireland soon for some more good craic.