Bookshops

On Friday, I popped into Forbidden Planet to sign copies of Candy – you can get in-shop, or online here. Only a limited number though!

Yesterday, I did a mini-tour of some of the independent children’s bookshops in London. It was a blast! And eye-opening – I had no idea there were these wonderful shops all around London!

We started in Pickled Pepper Books in Crouch End, then Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town, then the wonderfully-named Tales on Moon Lane (where I even got to sign a couple of copies!).

Then more bus, coffee-on-the-go and train to Richmond-Upon-Thames, and to the amazing The Alligator’s Mouth, where years ago there used to be a bookshop that I spent hours in, browsing second hand books in the basement! I got to sign a bunch more copies of Candy there, and then we were off to the big Waterstone’s in Kingston, where I’ve done a couple of events in the past.

It was a surprisingly long day! That roughly went train, train, train, walk, bookshop, bus, tube, tube, bookshop, train, train, bookshop, bus, train, bookshop, bus, bookshop, bus. (The “walk” part was what I thought was a straight road but turned out to be a pretty steep hill! Thanks, Google Maps!).

Also lovely: first thing that morning a review by Jonathan Thornton popped up on the website Fantasy Faction, which calls it “a perfectly pitched noir take” and “a subversive children’s story [that] for all its joyous sense of fun still packs a surprising emotional and philosophical punch.” He also rightly notes the close link between Candy and my adult books.

In fact, the one question I kept being asked was “So why did you decide to write a children’s book?” – and I didn’t know how to answer! Candy feels to me so much of whatever it is I do that it feels a perfectly natural continuation of that, rather than some whimsical departure…

Just confirmed a couple of new events for the summer to do with Candy, so that’s all new and exciting! More stuff to come, plus of course the various translations are edging closer to coming out, and I can’t wait to share some of the artwork for those.