Ten Little Pirates Out Today! Arrrrr!

Ten Little Pirates is published today! ARRRRRRR!

It's an epic tale of sea battles, sharks, hurricanes, giant squids, alluring mermaids, mayhem, destruction and sea-faring thrills and spills. It even has a happy ending... and all this in less than 250 words.

Big thanks to Frances Elks and all at Orchard Books for publishing, and Simon Rickerty for his inspired illustrations. Me and the Ten Little Pirates all say "TAAAAAA!"

Ten Little Pirates

I have a new book out next week! It's called 'Ten Little Pirates' and is published by those nice people at Orchard Books on July 4th. Words by me, pictures by the brilliant Simon Rickerty.

As it's not due out for seven days, I'm only going to show you the back page for now. I'm mean like that.

More next week if you're good and promise not to go plundering the Spanish Main again.

Exhibition

A new exhibition of some of my work opened at the weekend at the Museum in Bruton, Somerset. There was a lovely private view on Saturday (thanks to Jackie Brooks!) and the show runs until the 30th May.

It features original artwork, animation, pop-ups and toys from a selection of the picture books I've done, plus a sneak preview of 'Ten Little Pirates', which is published in July by Orchard. Drop in if you're in the area. There are lots of colouring-in sheets in case you get bored.

Pewter Plate Winner!

I was excessively chuffed to find out last week that I'd been awarded the 2012 Pewter Plate Award for Best Cover of the Year, for a cover I did for Highlights High Five magazine in the USA!

I've been illustrating and writing for a considerable number of yonks now, but I've never won an engraved pewter plate before.

This is the cover in question...

Highlights is the biggest and most prestigious magazine for children in the States. It's been going for over 60 years and has sold over a billion copies since it started. Just so you know.

The funEverse!

Please, please with knobs on, check out the funEverse website if you can... (www.thefuneverse.com / funny blogs / funny poems). It's a site brimming over with chucklesome wonderfulness, a temple of rhyming jollification where schools, poets and illustrators come together to have a  hearty poetical laugh. This month I'm chuffed out of my socks to say that they're using a selection of my illustrations as their starting point. So far we've had brilliant poems from Alex Cragg, Kathryn Evans, Lesley Moss, Laura Louis Stewart and Maureen Lynas. And my heart is all-a-flutter to tell you that there's still more to come! Go on... have a giggle. Pirates, monkeys and bad haircuts all figure so far!

Bunny Slopes

Those nice people at Highlights High Five magazine over in the States asked me to do another cover for them for their February edition. This is it. Kelley the art director thought it really strange that we in Europe call the gentle ski slopes for beginners 'nursery slopes'. I think I find the term 'bunny slopes' a tad odder. Pity about the big white area bottom right. In the layout I was given there was supposed to be a large magnifying glass in the white space which has mysteriously disappeared from the final design. Probably some sort of last minute editorial dilemma to blame. That's usually the way things happen. Anyway, not to worry. It's got me in the mood for my own skiing trip, coming up in a couple of weeks time. And no, I don't need the bunny slopes these days.

Stars On Canvas 2012

I was asked to contribute to the Stars on Canvas Exhibition again this year. It's a charity exhibition run by the Willow Foundation, set up by Bob and Meg Wilson to provide special days for seriously ill young people.

Artwork featured includes canvases specially painted by such well-known children's book illustrators as Korky Paul, Peter Firmin, Mini Grey, Leigh Hodgkinson, and Thierry Henry.

This is my little effort. I dusted off my old acrylic paints to do this. Most of the stuff I do these days is digital, and I kept wanting to press the step-backwards button. A lot. It was fun to paint all the same.

The exhibition has its private view and press launch on the 29th November at the Maddox Arts, 52 Brooks Mews, London W1K 4ED (nearest tube: Bond Street). The exhibition runs to the 1st December. There's also an on-line eBay auction which runs from 22nd November to the 2nd December, so you can pick up a classy canvas with a click of a mouse.