[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-late-night-cake-with-philip-ardagh-david-roberts":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Happy 50th birthday, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philipardagh.co.uk/\">Philip Ardagh\u003C/a>! Last night I went along to a joint birthday party and book launch for the magnificently hirsute Philip and one of my very favourite illustrators, \u003Ca href=\"http://davidrobertsillustration.com\">David Roberts\u003C/a>. Philip's one of those people who loom largely on the children's book scene (he's 6'7\") and I always used to see him next to me in festival brochures, but we never actually overlapped until this year's \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/403126.html\">Hay Festival\u003C/a>, when we could compare heights. (And yes, it turned out that he's a wee bit taller.) And here's David and Philip with their fab new book, also larger than life, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philipardagh.co.uk/?page_id=477\">\u003Ci>The Eddie Dickens Trilogy\u003C/i>\u003C/a> (three books in one, actually).\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ardagh_roberts5-33bd92359b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI wore a new hat with an enormous silly swoosh of brown feathers coming out the back, which I thought complemented Philip's big beard, a sort of beard on the reverse side of my head. First Philip introduced me as his sister, but somehow we ended up getting married and here we are, cutting the wedding cake. We think the cake was supposed to be eaten earlier in the evening, but it somehow got overlooked until almost everyone had left. (More for us! Ha ha...)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ardagh_roberts4-d8aa69aba3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nDavid was our lovely bridesmaid.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ardagh_roberts7-f004adac74.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for more photos under the cut!-->\\r\nPhilip and I have been working on a TOP SECRET PROJECT (shh...!) with the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.discover.org.uk/\">Discover Centre\u003C/a> for the Cultural Olympiad, and it was great to see two of the Discover gang at the party, who helped me, Neal Layton and Ed Vere build \u003Ca href=\"http://www.discover.org.uk/whatson/event/welcome_to_monsterville/\">Monsterville\u003C/a>: \u003Cb>Sally Goldsworthy\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Kate Wolstenholme\u003C/b> (the two lovely ladies in the middle). They're \u003Ca href=\"http://twitter.com/#!/Discover_Story\">@Discover_Story\u003C/a> on Twitter. On the left is \u003Cb>Louise Ellis-Barrett\u003C/b>, head editor of \u003Ca href=\"http://sites.google.com/site/armadillomagazine/\">Armadillo Magazine\u003C/a> (I had fun with an \u003Ca href=\"http://sites.google.com/site/armadillomagazine/config/pagetemplates/interviews\">interview she did with me\u003C/a> earlier this year) and on the right, writer and children's bookseller for Waterstone's Piccadilly, \u003Ca href=\"http://reluctant-hypersomniac.blogspot.com/\">Nicole Burstein\u003C/a> (\u003Ca href=\"http://twitter.com/#!/NicoleBurstein\">@NicoleBurstein\u003C/a> on Twitter).\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ardagh_roberts10-1077e56b25.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd not to slight another fine magazine about children's books, here's David Blanch, co-editor with his wife Jenny of \u003Ca href=\"http://www.carouselguide.co.uk/\">\u003Ci>Carousel Magazine\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, here with Louise... and, oh wait, who's that just behind them?\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ardagh_roberts1-5353b3d76e.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI also got to meet writer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.anthonymcgowan.com/Hello.html\">Anthony McGowan\u003C/a> and his wife \u003Cb>Rebecca\u003C/b>, standing in front of some oddly empty picture frames. (I was so tempted to break out pens with David Roberts and draw in them.) Anthony writes loads of books including \u003Ci>Henry Tumour\u003C/i> and \u003Ci>The Donut Diaries\u003C/i>. (He's \u003Ca href=\"http://twitter.com/#!/anthony_mcgowan\">@AnthonyMcGowan\u003C/a> on Twitter.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ardagh_roberts2-459cede05b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here we are with two writer who've worked with Faber & Faber: on the left, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.cloudshillwriters.com/about-us.html\">Grace Dugdale\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://sam-mills.co.uk/\">Sam Mills\u003C/a> is sitting next to her, and that's Digital Culture Editor for \u003Ci>The Telegraph\u003C/i> \u003Ca href=\"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/martin-chilton/\">Martin Chilton\u003C/a> in the middle. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ardagh_roberts9-4d7bfce8f1.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd one last shot with the merry wedding entourage... thanks for a lovely evening, guys! I'm now a very happy bigamist.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ardagh_roberts6-b8d720baf7.jpg\">","2011-09-16T06:57:00.000Z","late-night-cake-with-philip-ardagh-david-roberts",[],"late-night cake with philip ardagh & david roberts",1776628720699]