[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-oxford-childrens-book-group":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Last Saturday, I gave a joint talk about picture books to the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.ocbg.org.uk/\">Oxford Children's Book Group\u003C/a> with my dear friend, the writer and illustrator \u003Ca href=\"http://www.laynmarlow.co.uk/books/B_07.htm\">Layn Marlow\u003C/a>. We've been in the same critique group on Charing Cross Road for years, so we know each other's working methods pretty well. Just before people started arriving, I doodled us on the flip chart.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/laynsarah-c68c7f0518.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIt was a great weekend for seeing friends; I also got to catch up with marvelous writer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.sallynicholls.com/\">Sally Nicholls\u003C/a>. If you haven't yet read her novels \u003Cb>\u003Ci>Ways to Live Forever\u003C/i> and \u003Ci>Season of Secrets\u003C/i>\u003C/b>, you are in for a real treat. Here's Sally striking a \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Burden\">Jane Burden\u003C/a> Pre-Raphaelite muse pose next to the pub. Neither of us knew night-time Oxford very well (Sally just moved there), so we picked a 13th-century pub called the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.theturftavern.co.uk\">Turf Tavern\u003C/a> for a quiet meal, only to discover it was the most lively student watering hole in town, heh heh.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sally_janeburden-8908cff870.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nActually, one of my earliest trips to Oxford (to meet my publisher David Ficking for the first time) involved Sally's book. I got to Oxford well early so I wouldn't be late for the meeting, struggled through the rain and holed up in a coffee shop to finish reading \u003Ci>Ways to Live Forever\u003C/i>. An hour later, I'd finished the story and sobbed my way through the rain to go see David. When I met him, rivers of mascara were running down my face, and I tried to explain weepily that I was fine, just fine, really, only I'd read this \u003Ci>very good book\u003C/i>. (Embarrassing, but fortunately David didn't seem to mind.)\\r\n\\r\nHere's one of the doodles in my notebook, of one of the speakers, writer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.maryhoffman.co.uk\">Mary Hoffman\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/maryhoffman-db1d22695a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more More under the cut-->\\r\nI'm too sleepy now to go into the talks (I'll try to soon), but I was impressed by how well both Mary and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philip-pullman.com\">Philip Pullman\u003C/a> had prepared for their talks. Philip looked a bit like he had just rolled out of bed, with hair sticking every which way, but hey, it was a Saturday morning. I loved the way he talked about breaking down stories to their smallest units, and drew parallels in historical art imagery, with figures engaged in the act of pouring a liquid from one vessel to another. (More about that later.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/oup5-483f60e2b9.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Mary Hoffman, me, Layn Marlow\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nI liked the way the leaves gathered under the Oxford University Press staff parking spaces.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/oup2-7ffd3841e7.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThis is where I've been going for meetings to work out my latest picture book, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/titus.html\">\u003Ci>When Titus Took the Train\u003C/i>\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/oup4-0448cde4fa.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the day a great success! Speakers Ron Heapy, Bill Laar, and Kim Pickin from the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.storymuseum.org.uk\">Story Museum\u003C/a> (more about that later) and organisers and members Fay Sinai, Moira da Costa, Jo Edwards, Louise Stothard and loads of other people. Thank you!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/oup3-8f488c2edb.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Our fabulous minders, OUP's Jennie Younger, Jo Steele and Jo's daughter (was it Jennifer?)\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nAfter the conference, I rushed back down to Kent to meet Stuart's family for his nephew Euan's 18th birthday. Here's me next to Euan and his brother Aneurin (surrounded by good-looking dudes, hey!)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyeeuan1-2c360e353c.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe got to see some early photos of Euan and Aneurin. The American in me couldn't help but squee at this one and say, \u003Ci>Oh, they look so very \u003Cb>English\u003C/b>!\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyeeuan2-ce266109cb.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's a rather compromising one of Euan that he said I could post (but not tag). I don't even want to know what he's doing against that gate.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyeeuan3-716c6b4298.jpg\">","2010-11-10T00:09:00.000Z","oxford-childrens-book-group",[],"oxford children's book group",1776628719071]