[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-knitted-squid-on-telly-audrey-niffenegger-a-greenwich-treasure-kidnapping-philip-reeve":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Phew, a lot's happened in the past few days. Today I am going to do some \u003Ci>real work\u003C/i>.\\r\n\\r\nTo start off, my lovely studio mate, \u003Cb>Lauren O'Farrell\u003C/b> went on from her \u003Ca href=\"http://www.stitchldn.com/Books.html\">\u003Ci>Stitch London\u003C/i> book\u003C/a> launch to appear on the \u003Cb>Alan Titchmarsh Show\u003C/b> with \u003Ca href=\"http://makeanddowithperri.wordpress.com/\">Perri Lewis\u003C/a> (my Guardian editor for \u003Ci>Vern and Lettuce\u003C/i>) and \u003Ca href=\"http://plarchie.tumblr.com/\">Plarchie the squid\u003C/a>. Look, that's the phone box they graffiti knitted! You can see more pics over on the \u003Ca href=\"http://thefleecestation.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/alan-titchmarsh-hearts-plarchie/\">Fleece Station blog\u003C/a> and, if you're in the UK, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=279053\">watch it again on ITV Player\u003C/a> (they're the very first guests).\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=279053\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/alan_titchmarsh1-10497cc590.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nLast night I met up for dinner in Soho with two lovely writers: \u003Ca href=\"http://hayleycampbell.com/\">Hayley Campbell\u003C/a> (whom you may recognise if you ever shop in \u003Ca href=\"http://www.goshlondon.com/\">Gosh! London\u003C/a>) and \u003Ca href=\"http://audreyniffenegger.com/\">Audrey Niffenegger\u003C/a>. (You can read my fangirl goings on \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/301205.html\">in an earlier post here\u003C/a>.) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sarah_audrey_hayley-b7b0e2174f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI first came to Audrey's work through her novels, but she started her career as a visual artist, and I've come to admire her graphic novels, drawings, paintings and prints (mostly etchings), which you can see \u003Ca href=\"http://audreyniffenegger.com/\">on her website\u003C/a>. It's such fun having a good gab with people who love the smell of ink.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://audreyniffenegger.com/gallery\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/niffenegger1-4bdf6b1383.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nI'm going to be doing a piratey event at the Cheltenham lit fest on Saturday (which was \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/334009.html\">where i first met Audrey\u003C/a>), which is great, but it means I'm absolutely gutted to be missing her \u003Cb>event that evening at the French Institute in London\u003C/b>. I don't know if there are any tickets left, but if you can get one, GO! She'll be showing work by the magnificent \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_Beardsley\">Aubrey Beardsley\u003C/a> and a lot of her own work that's been influenced by his. If you go and do a blog write-up, please send me a link, I'd love to read about it and link your post. (\u003Ca href=\"http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/bdandcomicspassion/events/sat8.html\">Details here.\u003C/a>) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/bdandcomicspassion/events/sat8.html\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/audrey_frenchinstitute-a8d1b945d8.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for loads more stuff under the cut-->\\r\nAnother good thing that happened yesterday! I was doing my sketch in Greenwich Park, but I sort of lost concentration after about ten minutes and went for what I thought was going to be a quick wander through the antiques market. But I discovered the most wonderful new shop, full of original screen printed gig posters, movie posters and art prints. It's called \u003Ca href=\"http://www.thefloodgallery.com/\">The Flood Gallery\u003C/a> and I'm so glad it's moved here! There's some great stuff in there.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.thefloodgallery.com/\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/flood_gallery_greenwich_5-c0990d6439.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nHere's the owner, \u003Cb>Chris Marksberry\u003C/b> and employee \u003Ca href=\"http://michael-cowell.com/\">Michael Cowell\u003C/a>, who turns out not only to be a printmaker and illustrator himself, but a big comics fan. Hurrah!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/flood_gallery_greenwich_10-2d1e9f2ba2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe first print that stopped me in my tracks was by Chicago-based printmaker \u003Ca href=\"http://thebirdmachine.com/\">Jay Ryan\u003C/a>, and I'm a big fan of his. (I love his book \u003Ci>100 Posters, 134 Squirrels\u003C/i> and, as it would happen, he's a friend of Audrey's, something I found out that evening.) I took this photo, intending to blog to you, 'look at the amazing Jay Ryan print you can buy, the colours and textures are so wonderfully lush', but no, you can't buy it now because, um, I have it. (Eek!)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/flood_gallery_greenwich_3-c77842073f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's Michael with one of his prints:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/flood_gallery_greenwich_1-5a9544ce21.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe shop's lovely, being just on the edge of the market. And \u003Ca href=\"http://www.shopgreenwich.co.uk/greenwich-market\">Greenwich Market\u003C/a> is fabulous, so do have a peek in if you're in the area.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/flood_gallery_greenwich_6-cbca687305.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThere's another Jay Ryan print on the bottom left:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/flood_gallery_greenwich_9-79e92416c1.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's a tester print of the same picture - where Jay was trying out the colours and overlapping different prints - which is a beautiful art object in its own right.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/flood_gallery_greenwich_7-0591c776b2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI'm glad I got there when I did, as this Arctic Monkeys print by Jay had already just been bought.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/flood_gallery_greenwich_8-7c0a258559.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nRight, so \u003Ci>another\u003C/i> thing I did since my last blog post was to pop along to the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.sla.org.uk/slya.php\">SLA School Librarian of the Year Award Ceremony\u003C/a>. Partly so I could meet the Librarian of the Year, the most excellent \u003Cb>Carol Webb\u003C/b>...\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/philip_librarians1-e9c5a78591.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n... but mostly so I could kidnap the speaker, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philipreeve.blogspot.com/\">Phliip Reeve\u003C/a>. I have a recording of the fabulous talk he gave about the importance of libraries and a reading from his amazing upcoming book, \u003Ci>Goblins\u003C/i>, but he won't let me post it, so you'll have to go over to \u003Ca href=\"http://www.facebook.com/pages/Philip-Reeve/104518809593653\">his Facebook page\u003C/a> and harass him about it. Here we are with our Scholastic UK managing director, \u003Cb>Alan Hurcombe\u003C/b>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/andrew_sarah_philip-ceb7712aff.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nPhilip and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.kevincrossley-holland.com/\">Kevin Crossley-Holland\u003C/a> had a mutual fanboy moment and swapped books, and Philip nabbed me a copy of Kevin's \u003Cb>\u003Ci>Bracelet of Bones\u003C/i>\u003C/b> and said I must read it. Cool.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/kevin_philip-96bebff3f9.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nKidnapping accomplished! Here are Philip and me on the Hungerford Bridge with my fab friend from university days, \u003Cb>Laura Waldrop\u003C/b>, who'd just flown in from Tokyo. The three of us had an amazing long cobblestoned ramble down the river, in the golden sunlight, all the way from the West End to the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe. Stuart met us for dinner at a restaurant next to the museum, called \u003Ca href=\"http://www.simplicityrestaurants.com/\">Simplicity\u003C/a>, where, besides the food being very tasty, the waitress had the most amazing long earrings and fingernails.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sarah_laura_philip-2959648f15.jpg\">","2011-10-07T08:49:00.000Z","knitted-squid-on-telly-audrey-niffenegger-a-greenwich-treasure-kidnapping-philip-reeve",[],"knitted squid on telly + audrey niffenegger + a greenwich treasure + kidnapping philip reeve...",1776628720789]