The storyteller

I was at Heffers Bookshop in the Grafton Centre in Cambridge today, invited there by the ever-enthusiastic and helpful Kate Johnson. Heffers are so fantastically supportive of children's authors and illustrators - and not simply of those who can guarantee a queue out of the door (and therefore require no support). Both branches of Heffers in Cambridge have been very good to me, and Suzanne Jones who has organised most of the events is a star.

I have to admit, though - I was a little concerned that we might not get an audience. But I needn't have. There was a nice little group of very friendly children with their equally friendly parents. It was great actually and everything you want from a children's department in a bookshop.

I made the decision that Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror were perhaps a little too terror-filled for the age of children, most of whom were under ten, so I read a bit from Billy Wizard and asked the children what their favourite books or types of books were. I put in a bid for The Cat in the Hat as one of mine. I may bang on about Dr Seuss and his genius at a later date.

I'd brought an edition of Saki short stories with me and read The Storyteller, which went down well. I need to devote a post to Saki at some point I think. He is brilliant. I sold a few Uncle Montagues and talked about Tales of Terror from the Black Ship - and a little about how I work and what I'm writing now.

When everyone had gone I signed a pile of books for the children at St John's College School who had missed out because we ran out of books on the day. Actually the warehouse ran out of books. Bloomsbury are reprinting a couple of thousand, which is great news. And I even got a box of chocolate biscuits from Kate for coming along.

More tales of covers for the Black Ship

Sarah Odedina at Bloomsbury sent me a copy of the US cover for Tales of Terror from the Black Ship. They have adapted the UK design (see below), adding a stronger background colour as they did for Uncle Montague. As before, the illustration is by David Roberts.

I should have been at the private view of the students on the Cambridge School of Art MA in Children's Book Illustration this evening, but I sadly did not make it. The course is run by Martin Salisbury and judging by the invitation, the show should be great. It is at the Illustration Cupboard, 27 Bury Street, London SW1Y 6AL until Saturday and then at Anglia Ruskin University's Ruskin Gallery from 21 February to 5 March.

The Black Ship

Helen Szirtes at Bloomsbury emailed me a copy of the cover design for Tales of Terror from the Black Ship yesterday - so, as promised, here is an early glimpse. The book is out October 2008. The lovely illustration is by David Roberts.

More tales of terror

Of course, a big part of this blog is going to involve shamelessly plugging whatever I'm involved in at any given time. So - what am I up to at the moment? Well, for a lot of last year I was working on the sequel to Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror and it is now at the fine tuning stage. This book - Tales of Terror from the Black Ship - will come out in October, at the same time as Uncle Monty goes into paperback.

The new book features a mysterious seafaring storyteller and the tales all have a nautical flavour. There is more outright horror in this book. If M R James was the main inspiration for Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror, the Black Ship owes more to Edgar Allen Poe.

The book will once again be illustrated by David Roberts, who did such a fantastic job on Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror. My editor at Bloomsbury - Helen Szirtes - sent me the rough for the cover the other day and the book is going to look great. I will keep you posted on how Tales of Terror from the Black Ship progresses and give you an early glimpse of the finished cover when I get it.