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Virtual Event Slots Available up to Easter
Any schools reading my books in this period can have 30 mins of gibberish from me for just £50. We can talk about the END of chocolate if you like?
Please email: chriscallaghanauthor@gmail.com
But bring your own chocolate!
It’s the 7th July, meaning it is World Chocolate Day – but you knew that already.
So, click here to read a serious (ahem!) piece of investigative journalism I wrote for The Guardian a while back.
You’re welcome.
Hoping everyone has a very chocolatey Easter.
In these strange days, we are all staying at home to help our amazing NHS and protect our loved ones from harm. So enjoy some chocolate, maybe read a book and be kind to each other.
You could also join me on Easter Sunday at 6pm BST where I will be summoning up my inner Jackanory (ask the grown-ups!) and reading the first chapter of The Great Chocoplot. Thanks to my lovely publishers, Chicken House, for hosting me.
It goes ‘Live’ here from 6pm. Please excuse my rubbish attempts at ‘acting’!!
Personally, I think ‘The Great Chocoplot’ would make a perfect Christmas present. A book about chocolate! But then I would think that, wouldn’t I!
So, just a little reminder that it is available at all good bookstores and all the usual places online.
Please support your local book shops and libraries when choosing books.
Wishing you all a happy and chocolatey Christmas!
It was wonderful being asked to be part of The Northern Children’s Book Festival again. I had an amazing time visiting a number of schools in Gateshead and Durham. It’s always a joy to return back up North and spread my chocolatey panic with such engaging, enthusiastic and funny audiences. It was also a pleasure meeting our brilliant librarians again. I was well looked after by Maria, Chris (from Gateshead Libraries) and Julie (from Durham) and received warm welcomes in the schools.
The amount of work and effort that goes into this festival from librarians across the North East is staggering. Thanks also to Rachel and Catherine for inviting me. I had a choctastic time!
It is a thrill and an honour to be asked to come along to Seven Stories, The Nation Centre for Children’s Books, to help them celebrate our greatest storyteller, Roald Dahl‘s birthday.
Mr Dahl needs no introduction at all, as his stories have been loved by generations of readers. It will be wonderful to add my own chocolatey twist into the celebrations and talk about my own book, reveal some unusual chocolate facts and join my audience in writing their own chocolate story or create their own apocalyptic story plan.
I’ll be there on Saturday 14th September from 2pm at Seven Stories, 30 Lime Street, Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2PQ. Booking is required here. There is limited space, so get your tickets quick!
Why not call in and see the wonderful Sophie Anderson talking about her new book, The Girl Who Speaks Bear, too? It would be great to have a lovely audience of readers and chocoholics!! It’s going to be gloriumptious!
It was wonderful to be invited back to sign copies of ‘The Great Chocoplot’ in store at Waterstones Durham. It is one of my favourite bookshops in one of the most beautiful places around, where I also always get made to feel incredibly welcome.
I was even treated to a queue of keen and patient readers/chocoholics for an hour or so after first arriving. I try to arrive at these events nice and early to get set up and shake the nerves away, but I was greeted by a couple of young readers sitting on the floor, already a few pages into their new copies. What a thrill to see that!!
Thank you to everyone who came along – some travelling quite a distance! It was an honour and I always appreciate these special occasions of meeting my readers and scribbling in their copies. After a few fantastic hours, here’s a picture of me emerging into the strong sunlight, with a bag full of newly purchased books (Fiona is an unstoppable bookselling machine!). I especially like this man’s ‘who are you?’ expression to immediately burst my short-lived ‘famous author’ bubble!! Great day!
I had a great time at the recent Tees Valley Education Book Awards in Middlesbrough. It was an honour to be on a shortlist that included some of my favourite authors, who are also all fab people (yes, authors are people too!).
Catching up with Gabrielle Kent, Em Lynas and Dan Smith is always a pleasure, but it was a shame Sophie Anderson couldn’t make it (as she was adventuring in Canada!). I also got to meet Tom Palmer for the first time, which was brilliant.
It was a pleasure spending the morning in a local school and getting to meet lots of the keen readers involved in the process. An awards scheme like this is all about the readers – we just come along at the end and steal the glory! The teaching staff and all the pupils had put huge amounts of work into it and had obviously had fun. The awards ceremony itself was wonderful entertainment. A choir sang (thankfully not including the authors), awards were given out to the outstanding readers contributions and there was a quiz too! Although my book didn’t win (and you can see by the photo that I wasn’t upset by that!), I think the children chose very well as Tom’s Armistice Runner is an amazing book and a worthy winner.
Hugest of thanks to everyone involved, especially to Dan Mount, who came up with the idea and organised the event. Good luck with next year!
It’s been wonderful hearing of schools using my book as part of their lessons or topic work (although it is still just as wonderful hearing of children reading it purely for a giggle!). I’m often asked about school resources … so, I’m delighted to reveal that Educational Consultant supremo, Jane Considine and The Training Space have put together some amazing English Unit Plans for Year 4 around The Great Chocoplot.
And they are FREE!
Check them out and download here.
How amazing is that?!
Investigate Jane’s book The Write Stuff, which compliments and further explains the Units.
More resources to follow very soon.
A little while ago, my family and I made the huge move from Newcastle to London. It’s been stressful, if I’m honest, but our welcome has been wonderful. I’ve already had the pleasure of visiting a few schools in and around our capital and it’s been amazing.
The schools down here are MASSIVE!! Leading to extremely loud assemblies!
If you work in a school, or know of one in the London area (although I do travel too) and you’d like me to come along and share my silly chocolatey story, please get in touch with Authors Aloud – the lovely people who help me arrange visits.
I’d love to visit your school.