I am just back from a lovely week in sunny Trieste in Italy, where I was able to spend some time writing as well as  recovering after a very hectic spring.  I am now looking forward to getting much more writing time over the summer.

Last week I had a lovely time visiting GOREBRIDGE Primary School in Midlothian who were enjoying a Scottish week. Primary 1 and 2 classes had been reading the Hamish stories and doing all sorts of Hamish related activities so they were quite excited about meeting Hamish himself!

Hamish is appearing at the THREE HARBOURS FESTIVAL in East Lothian. I am going to be speaking to an invited class at Port Seton Library on Wednesday 10th June.

Sally J Collins is exhibiting some of the original Hamish artwork at Prestonpans Library during the festival and  she will also be in the library, doing an illustration workshop with an invited class on Tuesday 9th June.   Sally will be appearing at the PORTSOY BOAT FESTIVAL doing her illustration workshops,  at the beginning of July.

Later in June I am looking forward to visiting Sunderland and the HYLTON RED HOUSE SCHOOL for a few days to lead a series of creative writing fun events with the young pupils who are moving up to the high school after the summer.  I will also be talking to them about the research involved when I was writing SPIDER and how I create my characters.