Monday October 13th 2025

Dear Diary,

I wasn’t fortunate enough to be part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival lineup this year, but I was asked to kick off this week’s literature festival at Grangefield School today. And what a fantastic time I had there! I was made to feel at home from the moment I arrived, and I could tell straightaway how passionate this school is about encouraging reading for pleasure. The pupils were a wonderful audience during my assembly… with so many hands up to ask and answer questions that it could have gone on for an extra hour! But there wasn’t time for that because I had seven workshops to fit in, as we wanted every single one of the 421 pupils to be involved in my activities throughout the day. Along with being big readers, the older pupils at Grangefield were a very talented bunch when it came to writing poems, stories, raps, and diary entries of their own. The younger pupils had some great ideas for future stories in the Words of WARNING collection, and they designed some fabulous book covers… many complete with blurbs, opening sentences, and excerpts. And the Reception pupils (who were only a few weeks into their very first term at school) did some super letter tracing and colouring. It really was an honour to be invited to spend the day at this school and launch their literature festival. I couldn’t have been more impressed by the speed and enthusiasm with which the pupils worked, and they were all a joy to spend time with. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to spend far longer with each year group! And as for who won my dragon prize… well, there were so many brilliant pieces of work that I’ve had to leave it up to the teachers to decide who my dragon will be awarded to later this week!