Launching The Faber Book of Bedtime Stories!

On Thursday, I went back to London to celebrate the launch of The Faber Book of Bedtime Stories at the Faber offices. It was only the second time I’d been back to London since we moved in January (one school visit for World Book Day), and only the second time I’d ever visited the Faber offices. (The first time was when I was with Philip Reeve, who was dropping off his illustrations to Urgum the Axeman.) …And I’d never illustrated a 400+ page book with stories by 17 different authors! So this was all A Bit Special.

I brought along my ace author friend Candy Gourlay for moral support. We were the first to arrive, so we took our best Christmas-card-style photos.

Usually when I do a book, I meet up with the publishing team before we start, and go in for meetings, but of course since this book was commissioned in Lockdown, that never happened; I think Designer Emma Eldridge and I saw each other once by Zoom, but otherwise it was mostly email and simply getting on with things. So I was very curious about meeting the team and as many of the authors could get to London for the evening… here they are! Not every single author made it, but it was a very good showing.

Let’s see if I can identify everyone… from the left it’s Claire Barker (author of the first story in our book ‘Clementine and the Mighty Honk’), Pip Jones (‘Bug’s Bake Off’) Emma Carroll (‘The Happiness Safari’), Natasha Farrant (‘Abi and the Goldfinch’), editor Alice Swan, Lou Kuenzler (‘Do You Want to Swap?’), editor Natasha Brown, pubisher Leah Thaxton, Ann Jungman (‘The Dinosaur’s Egg’), me, Michael Mann (‘Bob and Pop’), Reba Khatun (‘Caring is Sharing’), Hannah Lee (‘The Pink Palace’), Ayesha Braganza (‘Fairy Godmothers Don’t Exist’), and editor Stella Paskins.

And here’s the ever-so-tough DEVON SQUAD (I’ve cut off the picture so you can’t see us all wearing muddy wellies). We’d all come up from the west country: Emma Carrol, Alice Swan, Claire Barker and me.

And a few more snapshots! I didn’t manage to get everyone, big thanks to Beth Carter, Sarah O’Connell, and authors Lucy Farfort, Kieran Larwood, Ingrid Persaud, Kate Saunders, Martyn Ford, Aisha Bushby and Rashmi Sirdeshpande! Here’s author Ayesha Braganza and me:

And Faber team! That’s our fab designer Emma Eldridge on the left, then Ama Badu, Simi Toor and Natasha Brown. Thanks so much for hosting (and publishing) us, Faber team!

Hannah Lee, Reba Khatun, Michael Mann:

Lou Kuenzler, Michael Mann:

Ann Jungman and me:

Alice Swan’s matching nails were on point:

Booksellers Adrienne Byrne from The Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, and Tony West & Margaret Wallace-Jones from The Alligator’s Mouth in Richmond, with Candy Gourlay and me:

Emma Carroll and Leah Thaxton:

(And then some shenanigans)

You can find The Faber Book of Bedtime Stories at all good bookshops; try to support a local independent bookshop if you can! Here are a few links to buy it if you don’t have an easily accessible shop:
From The Bookery in Crediton (Devon)
From The Ivybridge Bookshop (Devon)
From The Rocketship Bookshop (Salisbury)
From Foyles (London)
From Harbour Books (Kent)
From Sam Read Books (Grasmere, Cumbria)
From The Portobello Bookshop (Edinburgh)
From Golden Hare Books (Edinburgh)
From Book-ish (Crickhowell, Wales)
From Five Leaves Bookshop (Nottingham)
From Mr B’s Emporium (Bath)
From Kibworth Books (Leicester)
From Blackwell’s Bookshop
From Bookbugs & Dragon Tales (Norwich)
From DRAKE the Bookshop (Stockton-on-Tees)

From Halfway Up the Stairs (Greystones, Dublin)
From Powells or Barnes & Noble (USA)