Mar. 5th, 2022 at 3:00 PM
Isle of Wight Story Festival 2022
Huge thanks to everyone who came along to our events at the Isle of Wight Story Festival. Philip Reeve and I had a fabulous time, and I hope you did, too! Here's a write-up by Peta Rainford for On the Wight.
I hadn't been to many festivals since lockdown, so it was great to get out and meet up face-to-face with real live readers and book lovers. I made some brand-new headgear for the occasion:
It was great fun with everyone drawing Grumpycorn (turned astronaut this time)! (Instagram photo by sassgirl77):
You can find lots more drawing activities on my website. Here are a few of the drawings we did together:
My co-author Philip Reeve and I presented our new book, Kevin vs the Unicorns! Here's a joint flipchart drawing we made, showing Kevin over the Needles, a great landmark on the west of the island (which we got to visit this time!).
It's always wonderful catchign up with other writers and illustrators! We had dinner with festival patron Nicholas Allan (author of The Queen's Knickers and lots of other books) and Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler. Axel seems to have a lovely new website with all his books - check it out! Here I am with two fabulous writer-illustrators: local Isle of Wight resident Neal Layton and Laura Ellen Anderson.
Laura Ellen Anderson is the author-illustrator of the Amelia Fang and Rainbow Grey books, and she drew our picture!! (Thanks so much, Lil!)
Laura drew Kevin with us, too!
Several young reporters did interviews and it was great talking with them:
Here's Philip signing copies of Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep after his event. It's a perfect book for the island, being set on an island itself, full of mystery, magic and quite a few excellent sea shells. (Ffion Wood's photo from the On the Wight article)
Our booksellers were this fabulous team from Medina Bookshop, based in Cowes:
We were able to visit the lovely shop the very next day:
Huge thanks to the whole festival team, including Elspeth Giddens, author-illustrator Peta Rainford (who introduced our events), author-illustrator Jules Marriner, author Debbie Webb, storyteller Susan Bailey and lots more staff, patrons and volunteers who made it all happen.
And thanks to Philip's wife, Sarah Reeve, who drove us! A few more highlights from the trip... Riding over from Southampton with Sarah, Philip and Stuart on the ferry:
A couple visits to Quarr Abbey:
The working buildings built in the early 1900s:
And the medieval abbey which got completely destroyed by Henry VIII's men in the Dissolution of the Monasteries:
And Stuart and I took the Reeves back to Osborne House, which we so enjoyed visiting last time we took part in the festival, in 2020.
Like Quarr, Osborne has beautiful grounds - including a beach - and makes for a lovely day out.
Ventnor had terrific waves:
Ryde had a great seafront with an excellent cafe called the Chocolate Apothecary.
Thanks, too, to Karen and the team who ran the boutique B&B in Newport where we stayed, One Holyrood - highly recommended! (You can see our Scrabble scores in the notebook in the lounge.)
I hadn't been to many festivals since lockdown, so it was great to get out and meet up face-to-face with real live readers and book lovers. I made some brand-new headgear for the occasion:
It was great fun with everyone drawing Grumpycorn (turned astronaut this time)! (Instagram photo by sassgirl77):
You can find lots more drawing activities on my website. Here are a few of the drawings we did together:
My co-author Philip Reeve and I presented our new book, Kevin vs the Unicorns! Here's a joint flipchart drawing we made, showing Kevin over the Needles, a great landmark on the west of the island (which we got to visit this time!).
It's always wonderful catchign up with other writers and illustrators! We had dinner with festival patron Nicholas Allan (author of The Queen's Knickers and lots of other books) and Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler. Axel seems to have a lovely new website with all his books - check it out! Here I am with two fabulous writer-illustrators: local Isle of Wight resident Neal Layton and Laura Ellen Anderson.
Laura Ellen Anderson is the author-illustrator of the Amelia Fang and Rainbow Grey books, and she drew our picture!! (Thanks so much, Lil!)
Laura drew Kevin with us, too!
Several young reporters did interviews and it was great talking with them:
Here's Philip signing copies of Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep after his event. It's a perfect book for the island, being set on an island itself, full of mystery, magic and quite a few excellent sea shells. (Ffion Wood's photo from the On the Wight article)
Our booksellers were this fabulous team from Medina Bookshop, based in Cowes:
We were able to visit the lovely shop the very next day:
Huge thanks to the whole festival team, including Elspeth Giddens, author-illustrator Peta Rainford (who introduced our events), author-illustrator Jules Marriner, author Debbie Webb, storyteller Susan Bailey and lots more staff, patrons and volunteers who made it all happen.
And thanks to Philip's wife, Sarah Reeve, who drove us! A few more highlights from the trip... Riding over from Southampton with Sarah, Philip and Stuart on the ferry:
A couple visits to Quarr Abbey:
The working buildings built in the early 1900s:
And the medieval abbey which got completely destroyed by Henry VIII's men in the Dissolution of the Monasteries:
And Stuart and I took the Reeves back to Osborne House, which we so enjoyed visiting last time we took part in the festival, in 2020.
Like Quarr, Osborne has beautiful grounds - including a beach - and makes for a lovely day out.
Ventnor had terrific waves:
Ryde had a great seafront with an excellent cafe called the Chocolate Apothecary.
Thanks, too, to Karen and the team who ran the boutique B&B in Newport where we stayed, One Holyrood - highly recommended! (You can see our Scrabble scores in the notebook in the lounge.)