Daily archives: 16/12/2016


Irish Times Favourite!

I had a fantastic early Christmas surprise when I found out that The Great Chocoplot had been chosen by The Irish Times to be one of their favourite children’s books of 2016!

Irish Times

I’m extremely flattered to be amongst some amazing books and very grateful to fellow author, Kieran Fanning (who wrote the brilliant The Black Lotus) for choosing my book as one of his selection.

Kieran's Review

I’m certainly feeling all Christmassy after reading those lovely words. Thank you Kieran.


Chocolate Crisis Hits the Czech Republic!!!

Yes, the Chocopocalypse has arrived in the Czech Republic. I should feel a little guilty about celebrating this – but I don’t!!! It’s brilliant news!!!

The Great Chocoplot – or as it is fantastically called, Velké Čokoládové Spiknuti – has been released there by Fragment / Albatros Media (with very grateful thanks to Elinor at Chicken House).

Lovely Czech Version Zelinka Wellinka

I love flicking through the pages trying to spot familiar words. My favourite, that I’ve spotted so far, is that Jelly’s nick name – Jelly Welly – has become Zelinka Wellinka! Love it!!!!

Good luck to Jelly and her family in their new home – I’m sure they’ll be warmly welcomed.


Reader Reviews

I’ve said before how much I LOVE reviews from children. I write children’s stories and it’s always lovely to get nice words said by anyone, but comments from the actual readers is what really matters. Even though I’ve been very lucky with the reviews I’ve had (so far!), I’ve learned to be prepared for some brutal honesty – which I love!!

I was asked to take part in a great scheme called Kids Read Write Review, where children are asked to read and comment on a collection of books. It is run by the incredibly enthusiastic Steph Roundsmith and I was delighted to get a load of reviews from a local school.

Great Reviews!

It was great fun reading these fantastic pieces of work. I’m very grateful to all the children for reading my book and then taking the time to write such fab reviews (luckily, they were all really lovely!). It’s great to get Amazon or Goodreads reviews (hint, hint!!) but these are the reviews that will mean the most.

Looking forward to being in the scheme next year and many thanks to Steph for getting me involved.