I will be appearing on the BBC1 programme, Countryfile, at 7pm on 24 June. I take Ellie Harrison on a bug hunt for beetles through a beautiful lupin meadow in West Sussex. We chat about beetles and insects to celebrate National Insect Week. If you miss it on the telebox you can always catch up on the iplayer.
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June is the month when we celebrate National Insect Week and the wonderland of insects on this planet.
This year the Royal Entomological Society and The Story Museum in Oxford are curating a wonderful exhibition to explore the insects that inspired children's fiction, featuring Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl & ME!
Can you imagine just how delighted and terrified I am in equal measure? It's going to be wonderful.
I'm opening the Exhibition with events on 16th & 17th of June with illustrator Carim Nahaboo. Check my events calendar for these events. They are free with the exhibition ticket entry price. YOU MUST COME!
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Me with wonderful author James Nicol, one of my favourite pictures from Hay 2018
The Hay Festival is one of my favourite literary festivals. I always stay as long as possible and see other author's events if I can. This year was fantastic.
I was extraordinarily honoured to be able to bring the eminent coleopterist, and good friend, Max Barclay to the Hay Festival this year. He brought with him a selection of drawers from the Natural History's Coleoptera Collection, including a drawer that featured beetles collected by Charles Darwin himself. Max Barclay is a font of beetle knowledge and a true inspiration to me. I also sneaked some slides into my event from my new non-fiction book The Beetle Collector's Handbook, which is published in September and features a section by Max. Those who were patient enough to brave the signing cue were rewarded with both mine and Max's signatures on their books. A treat indeed.
The second event I did at Hay was with Lauren St John, Jackie Morris and Nicola Davis to spread the message about Authors4Oceans and what the book community can do to support the reduction of plastic waste. It was an absolute treat to get to an event with these wonderful women.
I was lucky enough to see lots of great events. The one I enjoyed most, was watching my colleague and friend James Nicol, author of The Apprentice Witch, talk about his new book A Witch Alone, which is on my beside table and I'm eager to read.
Here is a gallery of images from my time at Hay Festival. A big thank-you to all who came to my events or waved at me in the campsite.
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I often get asked what it is like to record an audiobook, so when I went into the studio to record Battle of the Beetles, I propped up my phone and videoed myself reading Chapter One - Beetle Plague.
A useful video for classrooms or indeed if you are wondering if you want to read the third book in the Beetle Boy trilogy.
To get the full effect of the audiobook please close your eyes whilst watching!!! LOL! Or for the full experience head to iTunes, audiobook or any shop that sells audio CDs to get the whole book.
Enjoy! And please forgive the poor audio and lighting, my phone is only a little media machine. The audiobook recording is far better quality.
Featuring illustration by Karl James Mountford.
If you think reading an audiobook looks easy, below is a short 2 minute video of all my bloopers! Thank goodness for the producer, Carolyn.
I work hard to broadcast the message about the importance of insect conservation, but this is not the only area of our relationship with the natural world that concerns me. Anyone who saw the Blue Planet cannot help but feel the urgent need for change in our behaviours and habits, or we will destroy many species and habitats through laziness and ignorance.
I believe the state of the oceans is the biggest and most important environmental issue of our age and I am proud to be a part of the Authors4Oceans project founded by Lauren St John. It is a coming together of many authors and illustrators who feel as strongly as I do about this issue and we hope by uniting and leading a series of powerful initiatives we can effect change in people's behaviour and their use of plastic.
You can read more about the project in The Guardian.
Please do take the time to check out the website and follow our twitter, facebook or Instagram channels for more news.
Every now and then I write an article. Here's one I wrote for The Pool, which is a great online magazine that I contribute to occasionally. I decided to write about fear, and the way it controls us, but if we learn to understand fear it can help us with all sorts of things, like anxiety, or a fear of creepy-crawlies. You can read it here.
Me with Podcaster extraordinaire Mickey Noonan in the studio
I had a great time meeting the Standard Issue ladies and talking to them about beetles and other invertebrates.
You can listen here on Acast or listen here on iTunes
Standard Issue is the online magazine by women for women takes to the internet airwaves with its much-loved blend of opinion and humour.
WARNING: There is bad language.
I had a fab time chatting to Bex on Fun Kids Radio. You can hear the interview here, but also listen to me reading from Chapter One of Battle of the Beetles.
Check it out!
I wanted to make a blog post to celebrate the frankly incredible costumes you guys put together for this years World Book Day. I think you all look amazing.
Some children dressed up even though school was cancelled due to snow (that’s you Max!)
I was told one librarian dressed up as Lucretia Cutter and her assistant dressed up as a rhinoceros beetle, and Lucretia chased the beetle around every classroom in the school!
To all you wonderful readers, Thankyou. Here’s a gallery of images of your wonderful costumes.
If you dressed up and want to be added to the gallery just send me a picture via Facebook, twitter or email.
This morning I had a lovely chat with Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 music about my Beetle Boy trilogy and how I came to write three books inspired by the insects when I was originally scared of them.
I put together a playlist of five tracks that encapsulated each of the three books, so fifteen tracks in all, and Lauren selected five to play on the show.
You can listen here and find out what the other tracks were. If you're a Humphrey and Pickering fan, then you won't be disappointed. I've got tracks in there for Novak, Lucretia, Darkus and of course the beetles.
Enjoy!
ON February 1st 2018 the final instalment of my beetle filled trilogy was published. I hope you all enjoy how this epic story ends. Perhaps it might inspire you to go out into your gardens and befriend some beetles.
If you want to help me get the beetle books into the hands of readers, then please do hop over to Amazon and give the books a review. This is the single nicest thing you can do for an author whose books you've enjoyed.
I must also give a shout out to all the wonderful children who've sent me selfies of themselves with their books. These pictures rock my beetle loving world. Thank-you!
A limited number of the first edition of Battle of the Beetles will be made with beautiful sprayed edges. These will be exclusively available through Waterstones in the first weeks of publication. If you want one to complete your collection you'll have to be quick!
UPDATE - copies of the book have been spotted in the wild. If you want to grab one call your local Waterstones.
Just before Christmas I had the joyous experience of going to the book printing factory and seeing the final part of my beetle trilogy coming hot off the printing press. It was such fun I made a video about the experience to share with you. I can't wait till this book wings it's way out into the bookshops and people get to read the final part of my story.
If you have an idea for a story that could be a children's book, an animation or a movie, then you have a big idea! And, if you fancy submitting it to the big idea competition, then you could win £1000 and see it turned into any or all of those things. I am joining a very prestigious panel of judges who will be reviewing the ideas and choosing the winners. You can find out all about it here.
