How a little story in my head became a BOOK!!!

Chocolate! Chuckles! Mystery! A lip-licking treat where reading meets chocolate (the perfect combo). What if chocolate vanished - forever? Wouldn't that be awful? Especially for Jelly and her family. They live in Chompton-on-de-Lyte, home of the famous Blocka Choca bars. If this disaster happens, it's not just people's taste buds that will suffer. It's local families and jobs. But Jelly is suspicious. Soon a trail of clues leads her to a posh chocolate shop nearby. The pompous owner, seems weirdly smug despite his failing business. Is the Chocopocalypse really coming - or is there a chocoplot afoot?

 “With an excellent cast of characters, laugh-out-loud moments, and witty and sharp observations, this is a great choice for fans of Dahl and Walliams.” – The Guardian, Best New Children’s Books.

"Inventive, original and genuinely funny" - Lovereading4kids

This story was written for my daughter as a Christmas present when she was 8 years old. I wanted to write a story that we could enjoy reading together, as a family. I tried to make it silly, and funny, and also wanted to make us think about how precious some things are - like chocolate.

A little while after Christmas, a publisher called Chicken House advertised for writers to send in their children's stories. They called it their ‘Open Coop’, a kind of 'open day' for writers. I sent this story to them. A few months later, I signed a book deal!

After lots of work (yes, work ... writing is work!) with the wonderful Chicken House team, where we developed the story, and tweaked it, and polished it until we could polish it no more. Chicken House worked with Steve Wells to produce an amazing cover and the fantastically talented Lalalimola produced the beautiful illustrations.

Eventually we ended up with a book ... an actual book! My daughter's present became real!!

Sometimes, magic does happen!

News of The Great Chocoplot and The Chocopocalypse is spreading out across the world.

Here are some of the countries where it has arrived or will be coming to very soon ...

It was also part of

The Reading Agency’s Recommended Reads for the Summer Reading Challenge 2016

and

it has been shortlisted in

the Stockton Children's Book of the Year Award,

the Lancashire Fantastic Book Awards and

the Cumbrian Primary School Book Award

but it has actually WON

the Worcestershire's Awesomest Book Award 2017!!!!!

How awesome is that?!

Chris has also been invited to talk about his book at The Roald Dahl Museum during the Easter Holidays as part of their Charlie and the Chocolate Factory celebrations.

A huge chocolatey honour indeed!!

Please consider using your local libraries and independant book shops. These are places that are very important and we are in danger of losing them. If you wanted to buy my book online in the UK, then a fantastic site is Hive.co.uk. Not only could you get yourself a bargain, but you'll also be helping local independant book shops too!

Thank you.

Huge thanks to the book shops that have been supportive of me and my silly story. I am particularly grateful to the lovely people from Waterstones Durham, Forum Kids Books, Blackwells Newcastle, Drake the Bookshop and Seven Stories.