Monday November 3rd 2025

Dear Diary,

I had the pleasure of spending the day at Redmarley Primary Academy today. This school may be small, but it has a big heart. As the pupils filed into my morning assembly, one of them pointed at my giant revolving book props and proudly whispered “I’ve got the REAL books”, which really made me smile. They all dreamt up some great book title ideas, including Doughnuts and Dragons – which somehow had me reminiscing about the brilliant animated series of Dungeons and Dragons that I watched back in 1983! And there were lots of questions about what it’s like being an author and how I come up with my story ideas.

During my workshop for pre-school and Reception, the Reception pupils really wowed me with the speed at which they completed their tracing sheets, and the pre-school pupils had some super ideas for stories they’d love to write one day. In my session for Years 1 & 2, there were some extremely talented artists as well as accomplished writers. And during my afternoon sessions (for Years 3-6), there were so many fantastic stories, poems, raps, and letters produced that we didn’t have enough time for everyone who wanted to read aloud to get the chance to!

I had a wonderful time at Redmarley. The pupils were a joy to spend time with… as were the teachers, who really got involved during each of my workshops, with one of them even writing a story of her own!