Never fall in love with your own work

I seem to have at least one conversation every day about the pointlessness of the SATs or the frustrating state of the English education system. I have been a governor in two different primary schools in England and have seen many more visiting as an author and as an illustrator. I have a huge respect for teachers and for head teachers. But that does not mean I necessarily have a huge respect for the way they are asked to teach.

I basically spent today's painting session in my studio painting over most of what I did yesterday (which in itself was painting over what had been done before). The trick to painting - to my sort of painting anyway, and to the sort of painting I admire - is not to fall in love with what you are doing. Don't like it too much that you are not willing to change it entirely. Don't be influenced by people walking past and saying, 'I like that.' It's nice to hear people like your work, but it shouldn't influence you one tiny bit.

Peter Kirkham sent me some more moth pictures. They are fantastic and I shall put some of them up as soon as I get the chance.

Is Hellboy a Christian?

I went to the studio today, switching my working day around. Instead of writing in the morning, I went across town and did some painting. I got back to the landscapes I had been working on a few weeks back. I had deserted them in favour of some strip and illustration ideas I had been playing about with. The Peter Doig show had really inspired me - both to get back to painting and to be a bit more fearless.

I spoke to Helen at Bloomsbury and she said that David Roberts had been working on Tales of Terror from the Black Ship and we might see some roughs by the end of the week. I'm really intrigued to see what he has come up with.



We had some interesting debates in Art Club today. I was getting the children to copy some Mike Mignola drawings just to see what they could learn from such a controlled style. To my great surprise this prompted a lively discussion about whether Hellboy is a Christian or not.


No sooner had we moved on from that controversy when I was asked did I know the band called Queen. Yes I did, I said, wondering where we were going with this one. 'Were they from the 19th or the 20th Century?' That the question came from a Year 6 in SATs week is a little worrying.

But I do like the idea that Queen was a 19th Century band.

Scream if I do anything unbearable. . .

I walked my son to school today for the first day of his SATs and then I had to cycle over to the dentists to have the hygienist do some industrial scraping of my teeth under anaesthetic. She told me that she had been trained in the army, practicing on Gurkhas and paratroopers. Gurkhas have an especially high pain threshold, she told me, as she hovered over me with what looked like something the Inquisition might have employed as a last resort.

The dentist who recommended this treatment is Swedish. He began examining me with the words - in the same lilting accent as Sven Goran Erickson - 'Scream if I do anything unbearable.' What a fantastic opening line.

In the afternoon, I sent the proofs of Tales of Terror from the Black Ship off to Bloomsbury, hoping that I had spotted everything that needed spotting. If I have it will be the first time ever. However hard everyone tries, no sooner has the book been printed than some glaringly obvious error leaps out from the page. And every author I know says the same.

More proofs

Another glorious day in Cambridge, but I spent most of it indoors reading the proofs of Tales of Terror from the Black Ship to myself. This is my last chance to spot any errors or make any changes before I return them to Helen Szirtes at Bloomsbury tomorrow.


My son starts his SATs tests tomorrow. SATs are a curious phenomenon in England. The school spends months training the children to do the tests, which were intended as an assessment on the standard of teaching, and then take credit from the results. Perhaps they ought to pay the children for providing them with good PR. I would not mind if I thought that the tests and the endless preparation for them provided a format to reinforce learning, but I see little evidence of that.

If schools are going to be judged on the results of the tests, then of course they are going to train the children to do them. But SATs seem to have taken up nearly the entirety of Year 6. I struggle to think of any brand new information my son has taken on in the whole year. What History has he learned? What art has he done? Where is the creative writing? And when they are over, the children will do nothing new. It seems absolutely crazy to me.

Mortar boards and burnt flesh

There was one of those extraordinary clashes of town and gown in Cambridge today, with queues of scholars in black, ermine-trimmed robes sweltering outside the Senate House whilst hordes of young men trouped by, stripped to the waists, lobster pink.

Why is that Englishmen have to throw off all their clothes at the first rays of sunshine. Some have the body to get away with it, but most don't. For every Adonis there is a score of Bacchus (or should that be Bacchi?). Put it away. It's not nice and it's not clever.

And litter has now replaced swallows as the first sign of summer. A moraine of plastic sandwich packaging and salad containers and water bottles drifts across every area of open ground. There is broken glass form beer bottles and pint glasses near every pub. The ugliness seems even greater somehow, set against the beauty of a place like Cambridge

I suddenly feel very, very old. I think I shall lie down for a while and listen to the wireless.

Heffers

I had a very sad invite yesterday - to attend a farewell party for the staff at Heffers bookshop in Cambridge's Grafton Centre. It closes on 21 May.


I have been particularly involved with the children's section there over the last few years. I have been to so many well-attended events there - both as an author and as a punter. I will be very sad to see it go, and so will many, many other people in this area. It will be missed by children first and foremost; by their parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles - and by those of us who write and illustrate for children.


Children's bookshops are one of the areas in book selling where the purchaser often does not quite know what he or she wants. They need a pleasant place to browse, but they also need help and advice from staff who know about children's books and love them. Kate Johnson at Heffers is just such a person and I wish her well with her move to the Trinity Street branch.


A few years ago Cambridge had a dedicated Children's Bookshop in Trinity Street as well as a dedicated Art Bookshop, both under the Heffers banner. It seems terrible that a city like Cambridge cannot support such shops. And now we have lost another.


I met Suzanne Jones, the events organiser for Heffers, for coffee in the Trinity Street branch. Suzanne is another reason Heffers is so important to the cultural life of Cambridge. She is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic people I know and has been hugely supportive of local writers and incredibly encouraging of me personally. People like Suzanne make a difference. A real difference.

More doodling

I popped round to see my friend Anne Cunningham this morning. She was having problem with her blog and asked me for help. I wasn't much use, but it was good to see her. We shared a studio together here in Cambridge for a while and I miss our putting the world to rights conversations.

Anne has a background in textile design and used to rent a studio in the same building as me in Shoreditch many years ago when I was working as an illustrator. She built up and ran her own design agency for years and is now having a lot of success locally with her paintings. You can see them by clicking on the link to her website.

When I got back there was a big box of books from Doodled Books. Doodled Books got in touch with me via this blog. They get authors to doodle in their books and then sell them. It is a step up from signed first editions I suppose and I like the idea. All I have to do now is get myself in a doodling frame of mind and hope I don't ruin the books.