“The Changeling Child is a great sequel, with heart, and marvels galore — moth magic! — which leaves more treasures to come as the series develops. This one body can’t wait.” Thank you @thomastaylor.bsky.social ! 💚🧚💙 Find out more: linktr.ee/hsnorup 🧚 @pushkinchildrens.bsky.social

I’ll be making a rare 2025 public appearance on the 3rd of October, as part of the Ipswich Book Festival. There will be scribbling, story creation, live drawing, and book signing if you like. Dancing optional. Maybe see you there!

Tamsin Rosewell is an British artist, historian and broadcaster with a background in politics. As an an illustrator she uses various techniques to tell stories in her work, such as mathematics and geometry for composition, and color and silhouette figures to convey emotions and stories.

119. The Seamaiden's Odyssey by @berliedoherty.bsky.social, illustrated by @hobslantern.bsky.social An enchanting tale of the deep sea with utterly gorgeous illustrations!

Always a joy to celebrate a new book by @pennychrimes.bsky.social - and what a lovely launch for Hero, The Highway Girl! New from @fireflypress.bsky.social - Hero is a fast-paced adventure in the wildnerness of C18th London. It has wolves, secret caves, gargoyles, chandeliers and great outfits.

I had a fun time at the launch of @pennychrimes.bsky.social ‘s fabulous new book last. And I even got to try on the hat! Congratulations Penny✨

Hurray! Thank you @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social for sending me The Poisoned King by Katharine Rundell. I loved ‘Impossible Creatures’ (of course!), so I can’t wait to go back to the Archipelago. I’m delighted to be getting there early😎 #poisonedking

Thank you, once again, for inviting me on your brilliant podcast.

I loved this too. And the Joan Aiken comparison is well made.

This was was glorious. A heart-filled pistol-flash of an adventure, filled with daring deeds, odious villains, and amazing hats. A wronged girl with her vengeful wolf meets an outlaw boy with a stallion only he can ride? Yes please! Thank you @fireflypress.bsky.social and @pennychrimes.bsky.social

I had to disguise some boxed-in wiring in my new bookshelves. Eagle-eyed readers of my Eerie-on-Series might spot how I did that…😉✨

Another beautiful book from ⁦‪@ManderleyPress

Book post! Penny’s new book looks wonderful. I might wear my tricorn hat to read it. Out in September — definitely one to look out for. Thank you @fireflypress.bsky.social for the proof. @pennychrimes.bsky.social ✨

The vet appointment is in ten minutes😑

I’m delighted to have been sent an advance copy of ‘The Changeling Child’, sequel to the brilliant ‘Into the Faery Hill’ by ⁦‪H S Norup‬⁩. I only opened it to take a look and I’m on Chapter 8 already. Thank you ⁦‪@PushkinPress‬⁩ ✨🧚

Well, that was wonderful. My slow read thru of Joan Aiken’s brilliant ‘Wolves Chronicles’ has reached Book 3: ‘Nightbirds on Nantucket’. And now I know why Dido Twite is such a beloved character. A joy to read, and perfectly illustrated by Pat Marriott in these Jonathan Cape editions.

In which I make a new feline friend, and discover that his name is Bigfoot.

@thomastaylor.bsky.social Just wanted to share this with you! Since reading the fabulous Malamander to my Year 6 class, so many of them have got hold of their own copies of Gargantis! I count 9 copies and 3 Shadowghasts! I've got boys reading it in their lunch break! Thank you!! 😀🤜🤛

Thanks for including Malamander, Tom🧜🏻✨☺️

A great evening at the Cartoon Museum yesterday, hearing Berlie Doherty and @hobslantern.bsky.social talk about their collaboration on ‘Seamaiden’s Odyssey’. It was wonderful to hear Berlie’s thoughts on the changes she’s seen in publishing. Makes me want to travel back and be a writer in the 80s!

It’s weird to reach my vast old age and discover a new favourite Diana Wynne Jones, but this book! ‘Fire and Hemlock’ is one of the most maddening and slippery stories I’ve read in a long time, but I loved every wonderful page of it, and will read it again this year, I think. Have you read it?

Nothing ridiculous going on here. Nothing ridiculous at all.

I was privileged to take part in the pilot session of this workshop, and it’s brilliant!

I’ve been dog sitting, and to mark the end of my time with the little darlings I’ve made dachshund lasagne…

Someone should write a book about all the crackpot theories that have ever been proposed about Stonehenge, and title it 'Unhenged'

Teachers! Parents! The latest episode of The Chatterbooks is here. It’s under 8mins so a great ‘filler’ to get your class chatting about books. This episode, Year 6 rave about Malamanda by @thomastaylor.bsky.social and Crater Lake by Jennifer Killick. www.thehumanish.co.uk/chatterbooks

I’m reading Patrick Harpur’s ‘Daimonic Reality’ (1994) and I wish I’d known about this book when studying for my Philosophy degree at Cambridge; it would have enraged my lecturers delightfully

Reader, I bought her.

I finally read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken, for the first time. A joy, but also a little baffling until I discovered, half way through, that it was written as a Dickensian parody. Once in on the joke, I enjoyed it all the more, and will certainly be reading the rest of the series.

Interesting little curio shop in town, which is new, but which also looks like it has been there forever. Shall I go in and ask about this boat?

Look, all I’m saying is: Dry August would be easier. #draugust

Great to see Malamander in such fine company. Thank you, ✨Tom✨

This jigsaw has one piece too many.

Each of the buildings represented in the repeat pattern of these endpapers (and matching gift wrap) were of relevance to Mary Shelley’s brief but influential time living in Bath. We’ve created a book all about it and artist Eleanor Macnair has brought it to life beautifully! tinyurl.com/ykn2scn3 💙📚

People ask why I didn’t do the cover art for my Eerie-on-Sea books, and, fact is, I did have a go. Here’s the result, unearthed as I tidy my studio. Book covers are hard work, subject to enormous scrutiny, so I’m glad George Ermos took on the burden in the end. But nice to find this again.

Good morning.

I’ve been searching through old artwork, and I turned up this sketch of Eerie-on-Sea, drawn while I was still writing Malamander (back in 2017). The town wasn’t set in my imagination yet, but I think you can see Hastings here, and also Cromer.

Just reread this masterpiece: ‘I, Coriander’ by Sally Gardner. Has anyone else read it? Contains two of the most despicable villains in children’s fiction, but also one of the most glittering depictions of Faerie. Amazing to think it’s 20 years old this year.

Some modest beachcombing finds from blustery Happisburgh this afternoon: seaglass, banded flint, carnelian, and part of a belemnite. Happy new year!

A spectacular late 2024 beachcombing find: a stunning piece of turquoise seaglass.

I love how Y4 have named their glue sticks based on the books they’ve read this term - what a great idea! You can tell Malamander has been really enjoyed too 📖 @thomastaylor.bsky.social

Tiny Christmas tree spider. She brings good fortune, I believe, according to Slavic folklore. But either way, she’s welcome to stay.

A quick trip to Hastings on bookish business is also a reminder of how very Eerie-on-Sea it is.

Ah! I love a piece of sea-rolled wall, but sadly my lead researcher and I can’t quite manage it between us. #beachcombingfail

This time of year I read something to fit the season, and as it’s the 40th anniversary of the BBC tv adaptation of John Masefield’s ‘Box of Delights’, the choice is clear. But does anyone know who drew the charming illustrations in the first edition? Google is no help.

Why do I get the feeling I’m being watched?🤨

The sea this morning, and the clouds above it , and glimpses of the sky.

London❤️

I’m enjoying my copy of ‘The Gab’, especially as I find Jan Ormerod in it. An interview from ‘Carousel’, 2003. I remember Jan very fondly from my Cambridge days — a brilliant and remarkable illustrator, and an inspiration to me, just starting out. #thegab

Not a bad little sunset today. A solid 7 out of 10, I’d say.