Have been along to a further two schools this week as part of the Wessex Literary Festival, so Applemore College on Tuesday and The Romsey School on Thursday.

On both occasions the aim was to share my children's books, show how I work, and then do a bit of cartoon illustration with the students. Where I had time we worked on some character design for a children's book and then planned an illustraion for an imaginary book using that character and a simple piece of verse I put up on to a board.

Throughout the week there have been some genuinely talented individuals that have shone, but what was particulalry pleasing was seeing the different results and individual paths of all the students.

I sat in on a presentation by another author, Craig Simpson, who has written some great adventure books inspired by events from World War II, and on Thursday I got to meet Dan Freedman who writes novels about football. Both authors write to engage everyone but are also tackling that difficult audience, boys, who are so much harder to get into reading.

It's been a very enjoyable week - looking forward to next year.