Wednesday 9 November 2011

ROALD DAHL FUNNY BOOK PRIZE WITH PICTURES AND BBC BREAKFAST

I STILL can't believe I won!
It's been amazing and my face hurts 
from smiling so much.


MANY thanks to the ALL the judges, 
children and everyone involved.
Thanks to TEAM SCHOLASTIC (my publishers) 
who work so hard to get the books out and 
into the right places.And to Caroline
my agent who is SO supportive.


Must mention Peter Bently and Jim Field 
who won the picture book category with
CAT'S AHOY... the illustrations are superb.




Here are a few pictures from yesterday. 
And a few more from today at BBC Breakfast
which was a TOTALLY surreal experience.
It should be on line to see soon (I haven't
watched it!)
But the press has made 
Tom Gates JUMP up the amazon table! 
It's 32 in the top 100 now and number 3 in the
humour books. Unbeliveable. I'm delighted!

The great and the good at the ceremony 

Children performing for everyone.


TERRY JONES! I had a little chat.
His book "ANIMAL TALES" is very funny too.

OMG look at me laughing. Francesca Simon is
looking at me like I'm a nutter.
She was SO nice but unfortunately our
picture together didn't come out.
 (She's in the background)
She's sold 17 MILLION HORRID HENRY books. 


Laughing again..and being a total FAN
of Danny Wallace who was lovely and
very complementary about the book!

I bought DANNYS book
Awkward Situations For Men
And got him to sign it.



Winners of the Picture book prize were
Peter Bentley and Jim Field with CAT'S AHOY!


All the books.


Michel Rosen was poorly and
trying not to pass on bugs.

THE FANTASTIC Julia Donaldson


The Brilliant Scholastic team. Clare (editor)
Catherine (publicity)
And Andrew (top art director)

Mark took these at home.. So weird.


I didn't swear... phew.

Lisa and Mark

Mark and Clare (my editor.)


Children performing.

We had a celebration at
TATE restaurant!

My fantastic agent Caroline,
Mark, Andrew, Catherine,
Claire, Jess and Lisa.

THE WINNING ENVELOPE and a years
FREE pass to the Roald Dahl museum.

Nice car I was picked up to go to BBC TV centre
on Wednesday morning.


I asked for "Adele eye flicks"
and to look younger which apparently.
everyone asks for.


Angela Rippon was there
(it was a squashed waiting room.).

Hard working Catherine!

Before TV with Michael (feeling better).
He gave me good advice... don't play with my hair on TV.

And Adam Ant.. I was too timid to
ask for a photo with him!
Mark and I scrub up well!



Back to the shed now......
it was a bit messy when I got back.


This is the glamourous room
you wait to go on BBC breakfast.
My sheds tidier..just.

Monday 7 November 2011

Nice news and other brighton things.

NICE NEWSHere's a lovely piece in the Telegraph that Martin Chilton very kindly did about the Tom Gates books. The Telegraph sponsored the Hay Festival this year where Martin was writing about some of the events (including mine).It was my Mums 86th birthday on the 4th November so I showed her the nice things I'd been saying in the article. It made up for the birthday card I did, putting my photoshop skills to good use.
She laughed then told me I was dreadful (true).
 


Getting set for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize tomorrow. 
I heard Francesca Simon (Horrid Henry)
on the radio yesterday which was really interesting. 
I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.
Will blog about it on Wednesday.

It was White Nights Festival 
in Brighton last weekend. 
I love living in Brighton, 
it's totally bonkers sometimes.
At my old studio "the Annex" 
Pete and his wife Claire did a
fantastic puppet show with live action,music and gorgeous 
pictures at the windows. 
At one point all the windows 
looked like they were filling 
up with water. It was amazing!
Here's a behind the scenes video they did.







Light sculpture in Brighton
Lily made this pumpkin for Halloween.
It's Karl Pilkington... she's very clever!