I've spent the most amazing day at the Belfast Book Festival today. I mingled with and met writing royalty. The first session I attended today was Dame Jacqueline Wilson talking to a sold out room about her writing journey and her latest books.
It was an absolute joy to listen to her, to watch how she engaged with young and older fans and a privilege then to later meet her and chat about her writing.
Alongside catching up with some of my writing friends today, it was also lovely to finally meet some of the Children's Books Belfast group - Clive, Colleen and Ashling - in person. After lunch we had fun at Colleen Larmour and Ashling Lindsay's session hearing them read from their newest picture books.
They are both very talented illustrators - I'm not so sure the same could be said for the attempts I made in the creative session they led that followed. But it certainly gave Marianne McShane, Myra Zepf and I a laugh. My attempts are below:
Later the whole room - from the youngest to the oldest - was enthralled as Martin Waddell read some of his picture books to the audience and talked about how he created these books.
I've been a fan of his writing since I was a teenager. At school I chose one of his books, written under the Catherine Sefton pseudonym, 'In a Blue Velvet Dress' as a prize. It was a delight to meet him afterwards and ask him to sign that book.
Altogether it was an amazing day celebrating children's writers.
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