I’m honoured to be a part the National Literacy Trust‘s ‘Connecting Stories‘ campaign. This is a new programme to champion the joy of writing and reading for enjoyment with schools and communities in some of the most deprived areas of the country.

It was the livestream launch today for the communities that I will be involved in and it was a lot of fun connecting with homeschoolers from the Blackpool area. We had some great questions which allowed me to gibber away and hopefully explain why this is something so important to me.

There is plenty more happening – including a writing competition – so watch this space!

I am delighted that my new book series –

‘Shinoy and the Chaos Crew’

has been released.

There are 24 books in the series – seven of them written by the fabulous Zoë Clarke – and artwork by Amit Tayal, who has done a staggering job bringing all our craziness into life.

They have been written with young reluctant readers especially in mind, but hopefully will be enjoyed by all ages and abilities. I’ve tried to pack them with as much action, adventure and silliness that I can. They’ve been so much fun to write. More details and options to buy them are here.

Obviously … schools, teaching staff and their pupils have lots of more important things going on right now. I wish everyone strength in these coming weeks as schools only take in the children of critical workers, and carry out their lessons online. This is far from perfect, but the time will soon be here when teaching and learning can get back to normal. These books can wait until then.

Stay safe and keep using those fantastic imaginations!