• It looks like a nuclear bunker and is a pretty good example of 70’s brutalist architecture. They want to knock it down and build a new one. How long before a Save Rotherham Library group starts fighting aginst the bulldozers? However ugly a buiIding might be, there are always people who love it for resons no one else understands.

    Anyway, I had a lovely morning telling stories to incredibly polite yr 5 and 6 groups who were very complimentary about my artwork. One girl, from the wonderfully named Dalton Foljambe Primary School, looked at my sketch book and said that my sketches were as good as cartoons that you can download from the Internet – praise indeed! (The Foljambes seem to have been the big Rotherham family.)

    By the way, the Library/Theatre cafe does a great BLT.

    In the afternoon I was meant to have a school come to visit me, but with pouring rain, it was easier for me to visit them.

    KS2 were in their own building that looked as if it were a 70’s csi lab. The entrance and staircase were amazingly narrow. There must be a squeeze and a fight to get out to the play ground every day!

  • The great thing about book festivals is meeting up with old friends. I arrived in Rotherham this evening to find out the the cartoonist, John Byrne is staying in my hotel.
    I’ve not seen john since he visited my son’s school, probably about six years ago.
    Anyway, we had a nice evening, putting the world to rights and catching up on each other’ news.

  • I’m on my way to the Rotherham Children’s Book Festival. The trip begins along what I possibly the most beautiful stretch of railway track – Lydney to Gloucester along the banks of the River Severn. At this time of year, with the sun blazing down, it seems to be the esscence of England. I feel that at any moment the train could halt at Adlestrop and the steam would his from the engine. No such luck, just a two car, cross-country diesel.