[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-reeve-mcintyre-at-worcester-beeline-festival-2019":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Here's a shaky picture I drew on the train up to Worcester, where I was going to do author events for Worcester University's \u003Ca href=\"https://www.worcester.ac.uk/about/community-collaboration/beeline-storytelling-festival.aspx\">Beeline Storytelling Festival\u003C/a>: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/841860_original-6093849803.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThe first thing I noticed when I arrived in Worcester on Thursday afternoon wasn't the bees, it was the swans. SO MANY SWANS. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/845961_original-a832ce5114.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nOn Friday morning, schools bused in children from nearby towns to join me for a big rollicking Grumpycorn session. Here's a photo tweeted as the children were arriving by Mrs Beasley from Somers Park Primary (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SomersPark2LB/status/1185205519440629761\">@SomersPark2LE\u003C/a>):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/844391_original-9ee2594f33.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\nI always get kids drawing in my events, and I started them off designing their own books, taking inspiration from the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/grumpycorn/\">\u003Ci>Grumpycorn \u003C/i>\u003C/a>cover. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/842083_original-5aff357f36.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's a photo tweeted by Mrs Marsh from Somers Park Primary (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SomersPark2AM/status/1185162670619742209\">@SomersPark2AM\u003C/a>) where you can see some of the children's favourite foods, which we used to inspire titles: Carrotcorn, Bananacorn, Pizzacorn, etc. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/844180_original-573cd008cb.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's the fab team that made both Grumpycorn events that day run smoothly - thank you, team!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/842462_original-e48cb31a58.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nMy Roly-Poly Flying Pony books co-author \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philip-reeve.com/\">Philip Reeve\u003C/a> arrived on Friday afternoon - here you can see him on the right with chief festival organisers \u003Cb>\u003Ca href=\"http://boffyartsandevents.com/\">Steve Boffy\u003C/a>\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/annofthebel\">Annabel Collins\u003C/a>\u003C/b>:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/843402_original-40caa7fde8.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nWe headed over to \u003Ca href=\"http://www.thehiveworcester.org/\">The Hive\u003C/a> to check out the space for Saturday's public festival events, and gosh, is it beautiful. The Hive is both a university library AND a public libray, so everyone can use it, and it's usefully open quite late. At the moment they're hosting the lovely '\u003Cb>Picture This!\u003C/b>' exhibition from the winners of the 2019 Picture This! international illustration competition, which you can glimpse here: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/844596_original-653aef29ff.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's a closeup of some of the pictures, these by Hamburg-based \u003Ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hipaulinepete/\">Pauline Pete\u003C/a> for a story called 'Bird Home':\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/844860_original-02e89d83de.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThat evening, we tried out a burger place called \u003Ca href=\"https://www.hanbao.co.uk/\">Hanbao\u003C/a> which did not disappoint; Philip described it as being 'exactly like people in the ‘80s imagined burger joints would be like in 2019'. This menu burger description sounded so uniquely awful that I had to try it:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/845473_original-3899e0ac33.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd yes, with its Pop Tart and Lucky Charms on top, it was utterly ridiculous, but also AMAZING.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/845676_original-9917564e92.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nOne other thing I really wanted to do in Worcester was check out its famous cathedral. I'd had a glimpse at the exterior, walking around town on Thursday evening: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/846791_original-ca427a80a8.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nBut on Saturday morning, Philip and I had enough time before our event started that we were able to rush over after breakfast for a peek. You can see \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/philipreeve1/status/1185618166828949504\">a video Philip shot of it here\u003C/a>, with the big organ fired up. It's one of the most interesting cathedrals I've visited, with so many unexpected and wonderful details. Oh look, more swans:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/847038_original-ced18ebefb.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThere was a real theme of faithful dogs (and some lions) lying at the feet of their masters in life, which was very sweet: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/847262_original-6c3b4e5e5a.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's another carved dog I absolutely loved:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/847413_original-d7984b0f8a.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAw, just look at it...\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/847812_original-21b238d5dc.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI do so wish we could have been there for a full day; I really want to go back and draw a lot of these characterful features. But we had a \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/kevins-great-escape/\">Roly-Poly Flying Pony\u003C/a> event to go to - here's a much more svelte cathedral version:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/847886_original-6c798aa44a.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI didn't actually get any photos of my event with Philip, but huge thanks to everyone who came along! If you'd like to find out how to draw more of our characters, do go have a look at some of the step-by-step \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/books/\">tutorials on my website\u003C/a>. After the book signing, I got to meet a longtime Internet friend, comic creator \u003Cb>Nigel Auchterlounie\u003C/b> (also known as \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/spleenal\">Spleenal\u003C/a>). We ate some companionable Colin the Caterpillars together. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/844003_original-07029c42b5.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd on Thursday night, I did a bit of catching up over dinner with \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/G_M_P_SClass6CS\">Cathy Spence\u003C/a>, a fabulous teacher from nearby Great Malvern Primary who had hosted Philip and me for \u003Ca href=\"https://jabberworks.livejournal.com/798740.html\">a school visit that day\u003C/a> when the Beast from the East snowstorm blew in. (That was an epic visit!) It was great getting to see some of the Year 2 children from her school come along to my Grumpycorn events on Thursday.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/845168_original-5f8abb62e2.jpg\" alt=\"cathy_spence.jpg\" title=\"cathy_spence.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nA huge thanks to \u003Ca href=\"https://www.rovingbooks.com/rbframe.htm\">The Roving Bookshop\u003C/a>, who did an amazing job stocking our books! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/842518_original-dab816fd77.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThank you, Annabel Collins and The Hive! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/842753_original-684fa3cc31.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd thank you, Steve Boffy and Jane Churchill - we hope you get lots of great festival feedback! Big thanks to everyone on the team who made this happen.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/843692_original-2dc39d7938.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI'll miss you, Worcester! I hope I can come back and do even more exploring. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/846367_original-7ca565440d.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">","2019-10-19T20:11:00.000Z","reeve-mcintyre-at-worcester-beeline-festival-2019",[],"reeve & mcintyre at worcester beeline festival 2019",1776628730380]