Football Detective

Ghana for the African Nations'

2012-02-01T17:31:00.002Z

I want Ghana to win the African Nation's Cup.

There's a young man I email in Ghana. He lives in a town called Tamale in the Northern Region.

I got to know him around the time I went to research my book, Off Side, which is about fair trade and young footballers being exploited.

I asked him if he was enjoying the African Nations' Cup.

He said that he and his family could neither watch it nor listen to it, because they don't have a TV, radio or electricity.

So my family sent his family this wind-up radio. I posted it today.

It should arrive in five to seven days, meaning he will have it in time for the semi-finals.

That's why I want Ghana to win.

Come on Ghana!

10 things Premier League Reading Stars could have done for me

2012-01-31T12:54:00.001Z

I've done a blog on the National Literacy Trust website - about the ten things Premier League Reading Stars could have done for me, age 10. Here's the link: PLRS blog.

It's a great scheme. Find out more at http://www.premierleaguereadingstars.com/.

The Danger Academy

2012-01-30T22:49:00.002Z

I have written a special story for the National Literacy Trust's reading scheme, Premier League Reading Stars.

It features Danny Harte from my Foul Play series. In this story, Danny investigates a suspicious football academy that is taking players from all over the UK - who then disappear...

Read The Danger Academy for free here. And feel free to pass it on.

When Theo met Camilla

2012-01-27T09:23:00.003Z

I had a brilliant time yesterday with Theo Walcott and HRH Duchess of Cornwall... Well, I was near them...

We were all at Arsenal's magnificent Emirates Stadium (my second visit this month: the first was to watch Leeds in the FA cup) to launch Premier League Reading Stars, the scheme that works with well-known footballers to encourage children to read for pleasure.

I've been involved with PLRS for nine years now, visiting libraries and schools taking part. This year I worked with top teacher, Diane Baker, to create the tactics book, a set of ten classroom activities. And with my wife, to choose some of the books, magazines, newspapers and websites that the scheme highlights.

PLRS is amazing. It's kind of what my mum did for me when I was 16. Nudging me towards becoming a more confident reader through my need to know more about football.

Everyone at the National Literacy Trust deserves great credit for the launch and the scheme.

And credit should go to Theo and the Duchess too. They weren't both there just to look pretty: they were both articulate and clearly passionate about reading.

And both very nice people, as I did speak to them both... briefly.

National Literacy Trust blog

2012-01-20T18:26:00.002Z

I've been doing a fortnightly blog for the National Literacy Trust about writing. You can read it here:

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/blog/4348_tom_palmers_writing_blog-how_i_write_how_you_write_part_two_spring_term

Am I enjoying a fantasy book?

2012-01-18T18:09:00.003Z

I do not read fantasy books. Books with goblins and nymphs and all that. They are not for me. I like books about reality, books about normal people.

So why am I enjoying the first Percy Jackson book? And why am I loving it?

If you've not read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief... it's about a boy who is struggling in school. He's been expelled from six in six years.

But it turns out Percy is no ordinary boy. As it says on the back of the book, he is half boy, half god.

Yes, that's where I switched off when told about it a few years ago.

But, here I am, reading it and loving it.

It's written in a normal first person fourteen-year-old boy's voice. Very convincing. He is confused about a lot of things - like a lot of fourteen year old boys (and forty-four year old men, frankly).

As his demigod-ness becomes clearer, a lot of strange (and fantasy-style) things happen to him.

But they're great things, not stupid.

I thought fantasy fiction was rubbish.

I was wrong.*

* I used to think that crime fiction was a waste of time, too. But now I write crime fiction for children.

Squad: White Fear

2012-01-17T17:42:00.001Z

I have - at last - finished the second book in the Squad series, White Fear.

I delivered it last night.

It is the story of an English youth football team that tour the world to play in tournaments. But, secretly, five of them are spies.

In White Fear they take on oil drillers and global warming deniers in the Arctic Circle. Before WW3 breaks out.

It's a nice feeling, finishing a book. Now, for a while, I can catch up with some other things, not obsess on how to cram writing hours into busy days.

However, it's not really over. In a couple of weeks I am expecting a strong edit from Puffin.

I've already had a couple of thoughts about what its weaknesses are...

From Burton Albion to the Emirates

2012-01-10T21:56:00.002Z

Yesterday I visited two new stadiums.

First, I joined some children in Burton on a trip to the Pirelli Stadium, Burton Albion's home ground.

We were there to research ideas for a story we are writing together.

It was wonderful. What a club! All the staff - including three really interesting (and interested) players - made it a joy.

There is a large well in the corner of the Pirelli Stadium. They draw water from the well to water the pitch. The pitch is built on the old Pirelli factory sports fields.

Interesting, eh?

I think so. That well is a gift for writing a mystery story.

Later in the day I found myself at the Emirates. I was there to watch the heroics of plucky Championship side, Leeds United, against the profligate millionnaires of Arsenal.

Without six first choice players, Leeds held on for 80 minutes, until an Arsenal striker scored a handy goal.

Well done to Arsenal for such a resounding victory against a team that cost one-hundredth of what their team cost.

Here I am at the Emirates. I'm not bitter.

Night Running

2012-01-01T21:03:00.001Z

I'm just back from my first night run, using the head torch I got for Christmas.

This is what Todmorden looks like from 1000 feet up.

I ran from a pub called the Shepherd's Rest up the hill to a small reservoir called Gaddings Dam.

Two and a half miles there and back. Not much. But it was slow going. I had to be sure to get my footfall right in the blackness. Also, I kept stopping to write notes.

To be honest, it wasn't as thrilling as I thought it'd be. But I think I need to build my confidence and do longer runs through the woods up there and round the larger reservoir. There are deer and all sorts up there.

I didn't feel in danger, running in the dark. But there was a strange sense that I shouldn't stop, that I should always be on the move.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T19:12:00.001Z

Happy New Year!

I hope you've had a good Christmas and are looking forward to 2012.

I am.

I have had a good year in 2011. This is a my favourite picture of 2011 that doesn't involve my family.

It is a small cairn I built on top of a mountain in the Arctic, when I was researching my book, Squad: White Fear in September. I built it for a friend of mine who had just lost his mum.

I have big plans for 2012.

They include author tours based around Fair Trade Fortnight (February/March), the launch of my new series (May), Euro 2012 (June) and the Olympic Football (August).

Also writing books about night running, spies, a haunted stadium, mermaids and... er... football.

I have dreams for Leeds United too, but after today's 4-1 reverse at Barnsley, I think I've got a better chance of winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Race Result

2011-12-28T21:43:00.001Z

I managed to get round the Hot Toddy course without my knee caving in, thrilled to do the six miles in under 48 minutes, four minutes faster than I did it last year. There is a picture of me struggling up one of the hills here.

Next year's target: 45'00.

Back to work tomorrow. Three weeks to finish Squad II: White Fear. Here is the cover for book one:

Hot Toddy 2011

2011-12-26T21:57:00.004Z

I'm doing the Hot Toddy road race tomorrow. Six miles round where I live. Hilly. I did it in 52 minutes two years ago. Was injured last year. I'm aiming for 48 minutes tomorrow.

http://www.todharriers.co.uk/hot_toddy.htm

I'll post about it tomorrow.

Then the night running begins, starting on 1st January...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

2011-12-19T21:26:00.002Z

This is Warland Reservoir, over Todmorden. If you ever do the Pennine Way you'll have to walk this way.

It's where I run. Once or twice a week. This is what it looked like yesterday. When I run up there I feel really happy.

I've got this idea for a book. A fell runner - a boy, age 15 - runs this way at night. He uses a head torch to light his way. And, one night, he sees something in the water...

I'm getting a head torch for Chirstmas. I can't wait to get to work. Research.

Anyway, this is my Christmas card to you.

Happy Christmas!

I hope you have a lovely time with your friends and family.

Stadiums or Stadia

2011-12-12T15:43:00.002Z

I've been working at a lot of football stadiums recently. Delivering Premier League Reading Stars training days.

What is it about going to work in a stadium?

Even if it's only in a room on the outside of the stadium without a view of the pitch. Even if it's only the training ground. Either way, it's thrilling.

I like being in football stadiums.

I have taken groups of children to stadiums too. It always grips the children. Just like it grips me.

Today it was QPR. Last week it was Wolves and Blackburn.

Stadiums I have worked in: Man C, Man U, Spurs, Newcastle, Norwich, Everton, QPR, Wolves, Blackburn, Bolton, West Ham, Cardiff, Hull, LEEDS UNITED, Leicester, Barnsley, Derby, Pompey, Forest, Charlton, Huddersfield, Sheff U, Carlisle, Preston, Scunthorpe, Crewe, Northampton, Plymouth, Bradford.

Sometimes I even get to sleep at stadiums. Tonight I will be getting my head down at Leicester's Walker Stadium. Last month I slept at Carrow Road. Both have Holiday Inn hotels attached. At Norwich you even get a sheet of paper telling you not to gesture or shout abuse out of the hotel window.

That cuts down on the evening's entertainment.

I am going to be writing a story about an abandonded stadium soon. A ghost story. A group of boys camp inside a football stadium. Then night falls... I would love to research it in a real abandoned stadium.

By the way, don't try that at home! It is illegal to enter abandonded stadiums and camp in them.

And that goes for the adults as well as the children.

Real Lives

2011-12-06T21:15:00.001Z

The Footballers' Battalion, WWI

I was at Wolves' Molineux stadium today, delivering a Premier League Reading Stars training day.

I was excited to read that the training was to take place in the Major Buckley Suite.

Major Frank Buckley (pictured in the team here) was a key figure in the WWI footballers' battalion, a whole battalion made up of footballers and football fans too.

The book I was working on earlier this year - and will be working on again in early 2012 - is about the battatlion and Buckley is a key character. As are Sid Wheelhouse and Fred Bullock (also on the picture). The book is called Over the Line.

All of my books to date have been made up. A boy who solves football crimes. A fictional Premier League football academy. A team who represent England at football, some of whom are spies.

But Over the Line is about real people and real events. A lot of it is fictionalised, but I try to keep it as close to what did - or would have - happened.

That's why it was so exciting finding the pictures and letters to do with Buckley at Wolves. And why - in the spring - it was striking to stand at Sid Wheelhouse's grave in France.

These events remind me that I must be careful because I am writing around real lives.

Using Euro 2012 to Promote Reading in Schools

2011-11-28T20:27:00.001Z

It's the draw for the Euro 2012 finals this week. On Friday 2nd December, to be precise. Then we will know who England will be pitched against in Poland and Ukraine.

The tournament takes place from 8th June to 1st July.

During the World Cup in 2010 I worked with the National Literacy Trust, using the tournament to promote reading in schools and libraries. We had over 100,000 downloads of our materials.

As a result, we are doing the same for Euro 2012. This is what we have planned.

By the way, it's all free.

(1) a free downloadable episodic story based around the tournament, written by me the evening before publication every week day of Euro 2012;

(2) a free daily writing exercise based on the events and controversies of the tournament;

(3) regular blog and tweeting of the best reading in all formats about Euro 2012;

(4) more free toolkits of ideas and activities to inspire reading and writing using football tournaments.

In addition, I will be on tour for ten weeks in May, June and July 2012, offering my Football Reading Game in schools. Schools can book me by emailing info@tompalmer.co.uk.

Finally, my new series, The Squad, launches kicks off just before the tournament. The first book - Black Op - is based at the Euro 2012 tournament in Poland.

This log sounds more like an advert. I'm sorry. But it's all good stuff and I wanted to give everyone a good early warning.

Premier League Reading Stars

2011-11-25T18:16:00.001Z

Man U's Cliff Training Ground

You end up in some right places in my line of work.

I spent most of the week touring schools in Pembrokeshire, the bit of Wales directly above Cornwall.

Lovely people, the Welsh.

I had a glorious time. The library put me up in a brilliant wooden chalet by the sea. After I'd worked in the (wonderful) schools, I went running on the coastal path and wrote 7000 words (in 3 days) of The Squad 2.

I missed home, yes... but I got a lot done.

Today - from the sublime to the whatever - I ended up at Man U.

Sometimes you have to compromise.

I was there to deliver the second of ten training days for libraries and schools who are running a Premier League Reading Stars scheme in 2012.

More info about PLRS, a scheme run by the National Literacy Trust, here: PLRS.

It was a great day. Just like the training day we did on Monday in Newcastle. The funny thing was the place was packed with Leeds fans.

Speaking of Leeds United, at one of the schools in Wales a teacher brought me a cup of tea in a Man United mug.

I declined, of course.

One of his lovely colleagues saw what had happened and went away to create this for me.

Like I said: lovely people, the Welsh.

Year Six Spy Ring

2011-11-17T22:18:00.001Z

I worked with my year six spy ring again today.

This is me and a teacher's attempt to work out ways we can get a class of children acting like spies, while also getting them into writing.

Today was about creating a narrative...

... and interpreting the raw material provided by a set of photos taken of a murder.

Part one. The children and I worked through a page from The Simpson's magazine (with the words whited out) to try and work out what was hapenning in the story. This went well. They were all familiar - and therefore comfortable - with The Simpsons and wanted to understand what Bart, Lisa and Santa's Little Helper were up to.

This was a warm up for the real spy work.

Part two. We gave the children six photos (see three of them above) of a scene involving four people.

1. A man and a woman have a drink together.
2. While the man is distracted, the woman slips a poison into his drink.
3. The man drinks.
4. The man collapses.
5. The man falls on the floor - dead.
6. The woman pours the remaining drink out of the glass.

The children had to work out the order of the pictures, working out the whats, whens and hows, then write a two-sentence narrative to explain what was going on. They wrote it in the form of a spy's report. Just the same as writing a story.

This worked well too. Linking the pictures and working out the questions arising gave them good idea of how I put my stories together - expect they did a better job than me.

Part three. This is unrelated to the story, but still about spying.

We took the children outside and they practiced 'live drops', where one person passes a bag or newspaper onto another person, swapping an identical item.

This, of course, is how spies around the world pass information to each other...

The plan is to do spy/writing exercises. To see what works. And what doesn't. Then to produce a toolkit of how to form your own Year Six Spy Ring.

England in Krakow

2011-11-16T20:46:00.001Z

I've been lucky.

In March I went to Krakow to research my forthcoming football spy book, Squad: Black Op.

The idea is that a group of five children - using the cover of being part of an England youth football team - are sent to spy on and stop a former KGB agent from attacking the England team.

In Krakow.

I chose Krakow as a guess. It might be the kind of place England would base themselves for EURO 2012, as it is quite near the border of the two host countries, Poland and Ukraine.

It has just been announced that England are basing themselves in...

... Krakow!

If you're heading to Poland for EURO 2012, I can recommend the city. It is beautiful and friendly.

Listen out for the trumpeter who plays every fifteen minutes from the church above. That trumpet call is central to the plot of my story - and has a great story of its own.

Squad: Black Op is out in May 2012, published by Puffin Books.

Federation of Children's Book Groups

2011-11-12T17:28:00.001Z

This is the Pick of the Year 2012 list published by the Federation of Children's Book Groups (FCBG).

I'm really pleased to say that my book - Own Goal - is on the Highly Recommended list. Things like that make me feel like I'm doing a decent job as a writer.

I'm also pleased because I think a lot of anything to do with the FCBG.

I've spent a lot of time doing events with the FCBG. All over the UK. Last week I was in Norfolk and Suffolk with teachers, librarians and booksellers from the FCBG.

In the spring I went to their conference and met other authors, parents and general childrens' book lovers too.

I learned loads just by talking to all these people about their passion for books and ways of encouraging children to read books.

Anthony Horowitz said 'The Federation of Children's Book Groups, has, in its own quiet, single-minded way, done more for reading than almost anyone else.' That's a hell of a recommendation.

If you want to know more about the FCBG: www.fcbg.org.uk

And the award: Red House Book Award

Playgrounds

2011-11-09T21:26:00.003Z

50 Cent's new book, Playground

I opened a playground in Aldborough, Norfolk, today.

In the past I have opened two school libraries, but never a playground.

The best bit about opening the playground was watching the children playing there. Before and after I opened it.

I love taking my daughter to playgrounds. She climbs, spins, swings, jumps and - sometimes - falls. I watch on, trying not to tell her to be careful too many times.

Conicidentally, I am reading a book called Playground. It's by 50 Cent. Yes him.

It's about a boy who commits an act of pretty unplesant violence in the playground. The story is told through a series of sessions he has with a counseller following the attack. Great start.

I'm not finished yet, but I am slowly forming an opinion on the book. And also on the issue of whether it is really good or annoying that celebrities in other fields write children's books.

More to follow...

Fairtrade Fortnight Events

2011-11-04T23:12:00.003Z

Me in Ghana, meeting school kids.
I taught them several Leeds United songs.

I am doing a fortnight of events to mark 2012's Fairtrade Fortnight.

The tour runs from 27th February to March 10th.

I'll be working with Divine Chocolate, who very kindly helped me visit Ghanaian cocoa bean farms in 2009.

The trip helped me to write my book, Off Side, which is about a Ghanaian boy called Kofi, who has a chance to play football in Europe and whose family runs a cocoa bean farm.

I'll be talking about my trip during the events and about how I have seen that our buying of fairtrade products makes a huge difference in farmers' lives. I'll also be handing out free Dubble Bars!

There is more information about the tour here. Please do get in touch if you want more information.

Rugby Union Six Nations 2012

2011-11-04T22:18:00.003Z

I'm planning to do more Rugby Reading Games in 2012.

I had a great time running the events during the Rugby World Cup, trying to encourage children to read through their love of Rugby Union.

The Six Nations takes place from February 4th to March 17th, so I'll be offering events then.

There is more information on my website here. You can also read quotes from the schools where I've run the game already.

These are the 2.3 metre high rugby posts that I use when I do the event.

Dyslexia Awareness Week

2011-11-01T17:07:00.000Z

I was in Edinburgh earlier this week, touring schools and libraries with the wonderful Barrington Stoke publishing house, who publish books that are accessible to dyslexic readers.

Barrington Stoke publish my book, Scrum!

I am really proud to be published by them, because I have met so many teachers and librarians and children who think the world of them and their books.

It's Dyslexia Awareness Week this week and - as if by magic - I got my first email from a reader telling me what they thought about Scrum!

Dear Tom
I have read up to page 15 of your book scrum and I am totally loving it right now. I got this book at 6.30 tonight and I've only put it down to email you.
S, age 9

Getting emails from readers is one of the best things about being a writer. To know that, at this moment, someone is sitting there, somewhere, reading one of my books and liking it, is a great feeling.

This week we are more aware than ever that some children struggle to read. But we should also be aware that, because of publishers like Barrington Stoke, if these children find the right books, they can start to build the confidence and ability to become readers.

There's a great round up of Barrington Stoke's latest books here, published by the Daily Telegraph today.

Dark Matter

2011-10-30T20:52:00.000Z

I've just got to say something about this book. Again.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver is an ourstanding book. The perfect novel to borrow or buy at Halloween. Or to complement the BBC's current Frozen Planet series.

It is the story of a group of young men who travel to Svalbard in the upper Arctic to carry out a survey. Into the Polar Night of twenty-four hours darkness. 1937.

If you want to know what the light - and darkness - is like in the upper Arctic, this is the book for you.

The characters, setting, historical period and plot blend together to create a superb read.

Dark Matter is also a ghost story. A chilling unnerving beautiful ghost story.

I've just read it for the second time - and, really, feel like reading it again right now.

(By the way: the paperback - just out - is white, not like this cover for the hardback.)

Fell Running

2011-10-29T22:01:00.004+01:00

I am really into my running at the moment.

I'm not claiming to be a good runner. I'm not. I'm a slow runner. But I love it all the same.

This is the gate I go through when I run on the fells.

It's a bit like one of those magic entrances in children's fiction. C S Lewis' wardrobe. Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole. Enid Blyton's tree.

When I am through that gate I feel free and happy and empty and absolutely knackered.

Fell running is about running in the hills. Sometimes on tracks. Sometimes through wild grass. Sometimes knee deep through mud and bog. For some people it is about speed. But not for me.

I've got this route I do. Up from the Shepherd's Rest pub above Todmorden, into the Pennines past Gaddings Dam, all the way round Warland Reservoir and back to the pub. Six miles exactly. An ascent of about 400 feet.

Today I did it for the first time under and hour. It felt good. Really good.

But I don't just do it to be faster. I like to see how the tops change as the seasons change. In January the paths became rivers of ice. In July they were hard-packed and dusty. One day a grassy area will be bouncy and easy going: the next it will suck your feet deep into the hillside. You get different birds (like curlews and geese) and animals (like deer) up there. Occassionally even humans.

Two days ago I miscalculated the light and had to walk the last two miles because it went very dark. It was so beautiful up there.

One day I'll enter a proper fell race. One day.

The Russians are coming

2011-10-28T21:41:00.001+01:00

I've been tracking who is reading my blog. You can find out how many people have been looking at it and where they're from.

This week so far:

207 from the UK
23 from Holland
21 from Ireland

and

48 from Russia

I understand the Ireland ones. I spent Monday to Wednesday there working with 500 kids. A lovely time. Such nice kids - and adults.

But Russia?

My book Dead Ball is about Danny Harte taking on a Russian billionnaire who is intent on murdering England footballers. I wrote a follow up story to that, where the billionnaire actually comes after me for writing that book. (You can read it all for free here.)

Recently two Russian boys - who I met in schools - asked me why I cast Russians as baddies. It was a good question. I said I'd cast baddies as English, Italian, South African, Ukrainian and others, but that Russians were sort of traditional baddies and all the Cold War history made for interesting stories.

They weren't impressed.

So I told them the real reason. I set my books in countries I want to visit. The baddies necessaily have to come from those countries. So, in fact, it is a compliment to Russians that I wrote about - and visited - their country.

They still weren't impressed.

So... in my next book everyone thinks the Russians are the baddies, whereas in fact it's the...

Family

2011-10-26T08:48:00.002+01:00

In the book I'm writing there are five children, all of them without parents. This makes it easier for me to have them travel around the world, putting their lives in danger, without having to say where they are to their mums and dads.

It's an easy device.

In the Foul Play series, my football detective, Danny Harte, had a very close relationship with his dad. He phoned home all the time. Part of his problem was trying to be a detective without lying to his dad about where he was.

That was not so easy. It was hard to write about a boy solving crimes across the world, who also had to stay in touch and not lie.

But family is really important to me. I've written books about parenthood (such as Four Fathers, published by Route). I wanted it there. Parent-child relationships are important in my Football Academy series too. Central to it.

That's why it's so odd that I am writing about five orphans now.

Except something is happening. They're starting to pine for family life. One of them has had contact from an uncle and is considering leaving the world of international espionage to go back to family life and love.

I've not planned it, but now all the children are wondering if they would be better off being loved in a family as opposed to than spying. But before they decice that they have to stop World War Three.

Snow Drops by A D Miller

2011-10-25T19:57:00.001+01:00

I'm reading this book. It is wonderful. There's a great plot, magnificent characters and an underlying sense of impending dooooooom.

But the best thing about Snow Drops is its sense of place.

It is set in Moscow and describes the streets, clubs, parks, underground and people of the city wonderfully. The author lived there for several years and it shows. He gets the place perfectly, without resorting to cliches.

Sense of place is important to me. I like to write books set abroad. I've set them in Moscow, Accra, Milan, Krakow and Tromso. I try to go to the places I write about. Writing about new places keeps my writing sharp. I hope.

Miller's book has helped remind me that I need to keep trying to do that. And to not let up.

County Meath Children's Book Festival

2011-10-25T19:41:00.003+01:00

Me and next to the pink palace feature in Ashbourne Library

I was in Ireland today, invited to take part in County Meath's Children's Book Festival. And it was fantastic.

I did my Football Reading Game in Navan and Ashbourne libraries. Both superb libraries with excellent staff.

But the hightlight was the children. They were happy, relaxed, confident and lovely. We talked about newspapers, magazines and books to do with football.

There were even Leeds fans, which is always good to see!

The Fesitval is an annual event that tries to reach most of the 100+ schools in the county.

Festival poster

On Deck

2011-10-24T22:46:00.002+01:00

I am at the point in the book I'm writing where Lily and Kester (my spy footballers) climb aboard the Norweigian coastal boat, the Hurtigruten, and head north to extreme peril.

This is me on the Hurtigruten. Not a great photo, but I took it at arm's length.

The trip on the Hurtigruten has given me so many ideas. When you've seen vast glaciers hanging over the fjords in a midnight half-light (and felt freaked out by it) it helps you describe a place and a feeling of fear. That's the plan, anyway.

I am really looking forward to these scenes. I want to push myself to get it right, to make the reader feel anxiety, awe and anger at what goes on in the story. It's a big thing to ask of myself. But I've got a half chance because of that trip.

Rugby World Cup tour - the end

2011-10-19T19:43:00.003+01:00

I finish my Rugby World Cup tour tomorrow.

And it's been a real joy.

I've talked to children from 31 schools (about 5000 kids in total) and at 5 literature festivals, using the interest in the Rugby World Cup to encourage children to share ideas about reading in newspapers, books, magazines and online.

From North Yorkshire to Devon and from west Wales to Norfolk.

You might be wondering what today's image is.

As I have gone from school to school, day on day, week on week, I have had to wear a freshly laundered England top for each event. So every night I have also had to wash my top in the nation's B&B sinks, then found creative ways to dry it. I am an expert now.

So thanks thanks to the lovely schools from up north to down south, to the librarians, the booksellers, the festival orgainsers and the teachers. Thanks too to Barrington Stoke, the wonderful publisher of Scrum! and thanks too to my England top.

Scrum! is available in shops now too. Good news.

Enough of rugby. Until the six nations tournament in February and March...

Writing about Norway

2011-10-18T22:23:00.002+01:00

I've started writing Squad 2. I'm not sure of the book's title yet, but it's the one set in Norway.

I went to Norway last month to research mountains, glaciers, ships and other Arctic things. It was wonderful. I made notes, interviewed people, took photos and worked out what the story could be about.

Now I am turning all that into a story.

The book starts with the five children of The Squad meeting the British Prime Minister. He needs their help. he knows that only these five children can stop WW3 breaking out.

I like to get my settings right. That is why I spend large proportions of my advances on researching the places where my stories take place. Already I feel like the trip to Norway is paying off. Not just descriptions of mountains and fjords and a sky that never quite went dark: but how those things made me feel.

Being alone on the deck of a ship at the top of the world at 2 a.m. in a weird half-light that made every mountain and town seem like a ghost of a mountain or a town, actually made me feel horribly lonely and uneasy, not exhilarated.

These are the things I want to capture in the book. Real feelings, not cliches.

However, the kids in Squad 2 will have more scope to feel lonely and uneasy in the Norwegian wild, as they wull be being chased by a crazed American who likes hunting people, amongst other things.

Tom Palmer disruption

2011-10-15T13:31:00.003+01:00

In one of the many schools I have been in in the last month, there was a list on the noticeboard.
It was a lovely school with great staff and kids, but this interpretation of my visit tickled me.

On the Road

2011-10-15T13:23:00.004+01:00

I have been working flat out for the past few weeks, pretty much every week day in a school and at least one day every weekend at a festival.

I've been doing the Rugby Reading Game mostly. To celebrate the Rugby Union World Cup. The idea is to encourage rugby-loving kids to read about the game in newspapers, magazines, online and in books.

This is the portable rugby posts that I take with me. Kids have to convert questions they get right in my quiz.

But all that's coming to an end now. England were out, now Wales are too.

I've really enjoyed it, though and still have a festival and a few schools next week.

Now it is back to football, my first love. The Football Reading Game will be on the road soon. Then maybe some more rugby in February and March 2012, for the Six Nations.

Social Notworking

2011-10-12T20:37:00.005+01:00

I've stopped doing Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.

With regret.

The reason is it was becoming unsafe to be on there. There are dark forces at work, mark my words.

So instead of microblogging I am going to blog here more often.

Sadly, no one will read it because most of the traffic to the blog comes from those three sources.

Here's a nice picture THAT I TOOK to illustrate my blog.

EURO 2012

2011-10-08T10:57:00.004+01:00

Forget the fact that Wayne Rooney got sent off and England only drew in Montenegro.

England have qualified for EURO 2012.

YES!

I am particularly pleased. My May 2012 book - Squad: Black Op - has England arriving in Poland for EURO 2012. If England had failed I would have had a monstrous rewrite on my hands.

Now I can can look forward to a busy May and June promoting reading and writing through football.

This is what I am planning:

* a tour of schools, libraries, festivals and bookshops to launch the Squad series - using my FOOTBALL READING GAME to get children talking about what they like to read, be it newspapers, magazines, books or websites. They'll also get to meet an author and hear lots of tips on how to write.

* a free daily story for classroom reading, written every day so it uses some of the real events happening in the tournament

* a free daily writing exercise based on what is happening in EURO 2012 for schools

* a free toolkit of activities, games, display ideas and more so that schools and libraries can use the tournament to engae children with reading and writing

The resources above will be availble from March 2012. I am taking bookings for May and June events in schools now. You can email info@tompalmer.co.uk for more information.

School Spy Ring

2011-10-05T20:59:00.002+01:00

I'm not going to tell you the name of the school, but somewhere in England a new spy ring has been born.

We launched it today.

The idea is that spies and writers are the same. Sort of.

I am working with twelve children and a teacher. Let's call the teacher Agent B.

We want to give the children a boost in their reading and writing before they go to high school next year. I am going to go into the school six times over the coming academic year. Agent B will be running sessions with the kids every other week in the meantime.

These are some of the things we did today:

* we explained the idea of a spy ring to the children - and they added their own ideas drawn from books, films and video games

* we all read and filled in a survey from a spy book, telling the children what kind of spying they are best suited for

* they created a cover identity - a false name and various details about a ficitonal life (this being exactly the same process that I use to create characters in my books) - we interrogated them all as their cover characters and they all passed with flying colours

* they read a text we had found in a spy book for kids about how to perform a 'dead drop' (i.e. places that I can leave future missions for them to do with Agent B)

* pretending we were doing a litter pick, we did a recce of the school grounds to find a perfect place for spy 'dead drops' - see above

* they helped me with ideas for the spy book I am writing at the moment (Squad, book 2) - and came up with some great ideas too! They will help me throughout the writing of the book.

The overall idea is to get them enjoying reading and writing through the excitement of spying. I will 'dead drop' missions for them every two weeks, giving them reading and writing exercises, but also practical exercises to do with observation and recording information.

There is another end to this. Term one is about training. Term two, preparing for a mission. Term three, the mission, where we go out and do a real observation at a famous site that I am not at liberty to inform you about. Not yet.

The day was very exciting. The kids wrote and read and talked and thought with 100% effort and pleasure. Myself and Agent B had a ball.

I can't wait to perform my first dead drop.

Arctic Adventure: Day One

2011-09-08T18:42:00.002+01:00

This is a blog of my trip to Tromso and Hammerfest a week ago. An entry a day, as I toured northern Norway to research settings and storylines for my next novel.

I have wanted to go to Tromso for years. It appeals to me because it's the most northern city in the world. It's almost at the top of Norway, with nothing but water and ice before you hit the North Pole.

For some reason that idea has obsessed me. To go somewhere like that. The only way that is going to happen is if I set a book there.

The story - probably called WHITE FEAR - is about five children who are trying to prevent WW3 breaking out. As the ice melts in the Arctic Circle, more oil, gas and other resources are made accessible - and several countries want to lay a claim. It could easily be a source of enormous tension within years.

That's the backdrop. The story will consist of the children listening in, following, chasing, being chased and - in the darkest scene - being hunted like animals across the mountains around Tromso.

That's why I went up to the mountains today. It was wonderful.

First, I took a cable car, then hiked into the mountains behind. I wasn't sure what I was looking for. That's part of the reason for going: to get ideas, to see what might work and what might not. It's the easiest and most exciting part of writing a book. Anything can happen.

I found:

* a mountain refuge hut - perfect for the children to hide in when hit by a blizzard and now I know exactly what they look like and how they could save the children's lives

* an Arctic hare the size of a goat - something for them to hunt, as they may be up there some time

* spectacular views of fjords, mountains, glaciers and how they made me feel - to help with the description

* a plane coming into the airport, so low that I was above it and could see the pilot's face - ideas for a military or search flight in the story

* the cable car itself and how it rocked in the wind - that just has to be involved, the peril will be fantastic, hanging on a wire in a metal box in a howling gale

But, more than anything, it was the feel of a place that I was after. How it felt to be up there for four hours seeing no other person. The power of the wind and how it pushed me around. The rocks underfoot. Then the bare soil stripped of life, except for a few dead roots. The feelings of loneliness, paranoia, excitement and heightened alertness.

I like setting books in new and distant places. I have set books in Ghana and Moscow in the past and like to think I caught the feel of the places. I went to Ghana and Moscow too. They're both such different places to England and they would have been weaker books had I not visited them. I got details I could include, but, equally importantly, I left things out that I might have included. Errors. Cliches. Inaccuracies.

That's why I went to Tromso.

Tomorrow, I'm going to all the museums in Tromso, devoted to explorers like Nansen and Amundsen. I want to work in an exploration dimension to the book, but I'm not sure what. The museums will help me.

Then, that evening, I will head off on a boat to the very northern tip of Norway.

RUGBY WORLD CUP BOOK REVIEWS # 6

2011-09-06T09:53:00.004+01:00

Engage is about Matt Hampson, an emerging rugby union player in 2005.

Hampson was in the Leicester Tigers first team squad and was playing regularly for England U21s, but in March 2005 he had an accident in training when a scrum collapsed. He broke his neck and was paralysed from the neck down.

The book is a collaboration between Hampson and the much-respected sports writer, Paul Kimmage.

Engage tells you about Hampson's life in rugby, the day of the accident and since the accident, giving you an insight into what it was like physically and mentally for Hampson to go through and come to terms with such a terrible event.

It is a distressing read in a lot of ways. You get to understand how Hampson feels, but also how his mum and dad are coping with it. This is tough to read. When you see the player through the eyes of the people he loves and who love him, the story becomes much more poignant.

But, as well as a harrowing read, it is an uplifting read. Hampson is a strong man. He learns to cope with what is happening to him. He draws inspiration from people he meets along the way. He grows.

This is as much a book about rugby as his accident. You get to see what rugby players are like on the pitch, in the dressing room and out and about. I found that fascinating. You meet some huge names from the game.

For me, Engage is like a novel. There is a form of novel in Germany called the Bildungsroman. It is about how a young person grows from being a young man into becoming an adult and how they meet people along the way that help them to develop into what they are going to become.

Engage does that. Hampson has ongoing relationships with people from England legend Martin Johnson, to other patients in Stoke Mandeville Hospital and his parents. They all grow and change together in this compelling story.

It also reads like a novel in that it is so well written. None of that heavy biography style that so often makes amazing lives seem tedious. This is sharp, lively and - at times - a bit experimental. There are dream scenes, courtroom dialogue and other devices used, for instance.

I may have made Engage sound a bit fancy. It's not. It's blunt and tough and deeply moving.

Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson was published by Simon & Schuster in August 2011.

RUGBY WORLD CUP BOOK REVIEWS # 5

2011-09-03T19:34:00.002+01:00

Two more books to review in the run up to the Rugby World Cup.

Just out is Lawrence Dallaglio's World Cup Rugby Tales (Simon & Schuster).

The book is full of Rugby World Cup stories that Dallaglio has gathered, after deciding to ask dozens of players what their favourite World Cup story or experience was on or off the pitch.

It is a great way of telling the story of the tournament through the eyes of the game's greats. Such as Jonathan Davies, Michael Lynagh, Will Caling, Gavin Hastings and many more. You get the great games, the famous moments, plus antics off the pitch.

It's funny, informative and - if you want an even better reason to buy this book than to be entertained - all the sales will help raise money for a charity Dallaglio supports that looks out for physically disadvantaged children: Wooden Spoon.

Another book is Rugby Union: the Men Who Make the Game by Ian Smith (Book Guild). It is an excellent set of chapters about great rugby players at club and country level. Subject players include Toby Flood, Nick Easter, Steve Borthwick and there's a foreword by Rob Andrew, no less.

I like the way this book is written. You get career highlights about the players chosen, but also you find out more about them personally. Books like this can be dull and two dimensional, but this is nothing lie that.

RUGBY WORLD CUP MAGAZINES

2011-09-03T13:22:00.003+01:00

There are some great Rugby Union magazines about. The two main ones that I could find on the news stands are Rugby World and The Rugby Paper.
They are very different, but both excellent in their own right.

Rugby World (September 2011, £4.10) is your classic glossy, thick, well-put-together monthly. Like FourFourTwo or Runners' World in other sports. It is ful of well-written articles and interviews and indteresting features. This World Cup special features interviews with Ben Foden and an excellent pullout about England's pool in the World Cup.

The Rugby Paper (£1.50) is more like a newspaper. In fact, that's what it is. It has match reports from England down to some of the lower leagues. Very up-to-the-minute opinion pieces by writers like Jeff Probyn, Peter Jackson and Matt Emery. All about rugby with no other sports to get in the way. This is edition (August 28th 2011) has a pull out guide to the Aviva Premiership too. It made me wonder why there wasn't something like this for football.

The third featured here is Sir Clive Woodward's Guide to the World Cup (£2.95). This is an interesting combination of a basic run down of all the teams and the players likely to grab the headlines, plus three or four essays by Sir Clive about captaincy, motivation and sports psychology. I found it really interesting and can see why he is in demand as a speaker across business as well as sport. A good price for a glossy magazine.

In the next week you'll be able to pick up the October 2011 RUGBY WORLD and this week's THE RUGBY PAPER, as well as the THE RUGBY PAPER'S Essential World Cup Guide, so, if you're skint, stay out of newsagents.

RUGBY WORLD CUP BOOK REVIEWS # 4

2011-09-01T12:40:00.007+01:00

Scott Quinnell's book - The Hardest Test - is my favourite rugby book.

What I love about it is that it is a short, but jam-packed, story about a rugby player's career. From being a youth player to Welsh international and British Lion.

In clear, readable prose you find out what that felt like for Quinnell.

But there is another dimension to the story. The player's battle with dyslexia.

That is what I enjoyed most. Quinnellis very honest about how he struggled at school and what impact that had on his life and how he felt about himself.

I have read a lot of sport players' books and a lot of them are just a list of great games a player has played in and his opinions on people he had met in the sport. The Hardest Test is different because you find more out about the man. That's down to his honesty.

When I was writing one of my Football Academy books - Reading the Game - I found this book very useful. It helped me understand how a boy at school who was struggling with reading might feel. And how he might try to conceal his problems with other behaviour. I work in a lot of schools and I meet a lot of boys who struggle with reading in the same way. I always tell them about this book.

The Hardest Test by Scott Quinnell is £1.99 and published by Accent Press.

RUGBY WORLD CUP BOOK REVIEW # 3

2011-08-29T09:38:00.004+01:00

This book is brilliant for rugby union lovers.

Football has always been a big part of my life. Like millions of us, I can mark my life's history by what was happening in the world of football. In fact, if I want to remember a year, that's often what I resort to.

I remember that my mum died in 1992 when Leeds United had just become champions.

I know Leeds lost 5-1 to Portsmouth the day after my daughter was born.

The day I met my wife Leeds won 3-1 at Liverpool.

It was the photos in this book that made me realise rugby may have a similar role to play. Sometimes when you look at an image it takes you back. This book did that.

Bill Beaumont shaking hands with JPR Williams was the main one. As soon as I saw it, there I was in my grandad's flat in North Yorkshire, watching the Five Nations. We watched loads of live sport together. But he died twenty years ago and I forget him for weeks at a time. This book brought him back.

The face of Gareth Edwards lining up to play England in that amazing Welsh team.

Oh yes, and Martin Johnson lifting the Webb Ellis trophy. I watched that with my daughter - aged two weeks - on my knee. She was born a month early and only opened her eyes for twenty minutes each day for the first month. She opened her eyes for that.

But the pictures throughout this book are amazing. A huge amount of research and thought has been put into the pictures. And it pays off.

The text is good too. It focuses on key players and the last six decades, with particular emphasis on the changes in the game around professionalism. I learned a lot about rugby union that I never knew. On a par with Geoffrey Moorhouse's magnificent history of Rugby League.

I can't think of a better Christmas present than this book for a rugby union fan - apart from their team winning the World Cup.

International Rugby Union by Peter Bills is published by Carlton and its list price is £25, but I expect it'll be in bookshop and online offers in September.

WORLD CUP RUGBY BOOK REVIEWS 2: Rugby Stories for Children

2011-08-27T13:57:00.007+01:00

There are three rugby stories for children that I can find - and I am the only one in the world who has read all three. Probably. The main reason for that is that I wrote the one called Scrum! and it is not out for another month, so no-one has read it yet.

I read The Rugby Zombies by Dan Anthony (Pont £5.99) after I saw a copy in Swansea Library. It's about a boy called Arwel and his two friends, who, daring each other in the woods, come across a group of zombies of former rugby players. There is horror (in the woods), sport (on the pitch) and friendship (on the back streets of the town where the boys live). It's got a bit of everything, including it's a nice short- to medium-length.

The Rugby Zombies is published by an independent publisher in Wales, but would be great for all fans of rugby, including rugby league.

It is a long time since I read The Flea Thing by Brian Falkner (Walker Books, £5.99). It was a library book, so I don't have it any more. But I can remember thinking it was really good. This is what I remember.

It's about a boy who has extraordinary pace on the rugby field. When he gets the ball he can really fly down the wing and he goes from being an ordinary player to a child star in a professional team. But it also about the boy and his dad and his friends and who they relate to each other as he becomes successsful.

It is set in new Zealand and is - if I remember right - about Rugby League, not Union. Either way, it's excellent. Welll written. Great story. Thoroughly recommended.

My book is called Scrum! (Barrington Stoke £5.99). It is about Rugby League and Union.

Steven Webb is a Rugby League player who lives in northern England with his mum. His dad, who lives nearby, has always wanted him to play Rugby League. But his mum meets a new man and moves Steven to Northamptonshire, where they only play Union.

Steven now has three dilemmas: Rugby League or Union, Dad or Step Dad, north v south.

RUGBY WORLD CUP book review # 1

2011-08-26T15:13:00.003+01:00

This is the first of a series of rugby book reviews in the run-up to Rugby World Cup 2011, which runs from 9th September to 23rd October.

The Official Guide to RWC 2011 is very good. It's just what you need on the table by your armchair as you settle down to watch 48 games of rugby union over 45 days.

Like most official guides it contains the following sections, written in clear and concise English:

* a bit about New Zealand (in case you can actually afford to go an see the tournament)

* the road to the World Cup - how teams qualified

* a run down on all the teams, in pool order
(pools are the groups the teams are in during the early stages of the tournament)

* some great rugby world cup moments

* the possible star players

* a double page spread on each of the six tournaments since the first in 1987

* some frankly fascinating stats and facts for you to run through during the ad breaks, as the whole tournament is on ITV

That's what's in it. But what is it like?

It's not long-winded, but it has lots of interesting information.

The mix of text and pictures is well done and looks exciting.

It can be read as a need-to-know reference book or as a linear read.

It includes some unforgettable moments, including Mandela handing the Springbok captain the trophy in 1995 and Johhny Wilkinson's 2003 drop goal.

And... and it has a score chart to fill in!

That's it. It's very good. Full stop.

The Official Guide to the 2011 Rugby World Cup is published by Carlton Books.

Adults should read Mal Peet

2011-08-17T14:42:00.003+01:00

I read Anthony Clavane's Guardian Top Ten of Football Fiction this morning.

He includes A Kestel for a Knave, Goalkeepers are Different, Football Factory and others. Even the mighty
B S Johnson. Some great books.

But let's be honest: there's not a lot of decent football fiction around now - and there never has been.

That's why Anthony's list is a bit thin. If he had to do a second XI list, he'd be struggling.

The Damned United is the only stand out well-known novel about the beautiful game in recent years.

Or is it?

Now, don't get me wrong. I like Anthony. We're friends. We share a lot: football team (Leeds United), literary agent, a love of Tony Harrison's poems. His book - Promised Land - is a good read.

But what about children's books? Or Young Adult fiction?

This is not me trying to get my books in Anthony's list. His is clearly a list for adults. And I'm not the one to say mine would even get on a kids' top ten. There are plenty of great writers in the genre.

But I think Mal Peet's three football books - Keeper, Penalty and Exposure - are better than all the books on Anthony's list.

They are beautifully written, complex, and deeply moving. They include themes such as deforestation, ghosts, magic and celebrity meglomanic. And they are about football.

But not football in the sense of just kicking a ball around. They are about how players cope with fame, about what journalists have to do to get a story, about how some players can be very vulnerable and how fans fit into the picture. They chart the human condition superbly.

I think it is to do with classification. If a book is called a children's book or a Young Adult book, most adults would not consider it.

If you know an adult football fan, get them Keeper or Exposure. Football fiction at its best.

Anthony Clavane's list of ten great football fictions

THE FOOTBALL CLUB, THE AUTHOR & THE LIBRARY

2011-08-16T15:54:00.006+01:00

I am working with Wrexham Football Club in the autumn on a scheme that will reach 360 chldren from 12 schools.

I have worked on sports literacy schemes for over a decade, most notbaly on the Premier League Reading Stars scheme for the last eight years. I also have a lot of free resources about football and literacy available on my website.

But Wrexham is new for me. It's a term-long scheme that will reach each of the children seven times.

Here is what we're going to do.

ONE

Over two days in September, each school will come to Wrexham's Racecourse Ground. They will spend a half day at the stadium, enjoying three sessions:

* taking part in my Football Reading Game, a literacy quiz that features a penalty shoot out
* a training session with Wrexham FC coaches
* a tour of the Racecourse Ground and talk about its history

The children will come in on buses, all covered by the project.

TWO

I have devised a five-part course of sessions the children can do back at their schools in October and November. The five sessions are:

* reading football in newspapers and writing their own articles
* looking at biograhies of football players and creating their own of their favourite player
* a reading group looking at one of my books, or one of the free stories I have on my website
* a trip to Wrexham Library to meet librarians and do the Football Reading Library Treasure Hunt (coaches paid for by the scheme)
* creating posters and activities to encourage the children taking part to enthuse other children at the school to read and write about football

THREE

A session for all twelve schools with a panel of football reading experts, including:

* a Wrexham AFC player
* a well known Wrexham related journalist
* a football story author (me again)

We are doing this because we want to find ways of encouraging football fans to become excited about reading around the game. Also, with the hope that they become more involved with their local club in a place that is dangerously close to Manchester and Liverpool; and at a time that Wrexham FC is in a perilous state.

The money for the scheme has come from a bid Wrexham FC applied for to run educational schemes.

All the free resourcues mentioned above can be found on my website.

Family Reading at its Best

2011-08-16T12:23:00.006+01:00

I had a message from a football fan called Austin this week.

He'd read my blog about using football to encourage children to read.

This is what three generations of his family do every week.

(The photo is not of Austin, but one I took off the internet.)

"Every Saturday morning I sit down with my son and we read the football section in the newspaper. We then attempt to predict the results of the weekend's games in the Premier League. A correct score is worth 5 points, a correct result 3 points.

"Grandad sends us his predictions as well.

"We put £1 in the pot each week. (I put my son's in.) And we keep a spreadsheet of the results and points.

"The winner is the one with the most points at the end of the season."

I thought it sounded brilliant, so I wanted to share it.

For your information: Austin's son is in the lead so far.

FOOTBALL READING # 10

2011-08-14T13:49:00.002+01:00

This is the tenth and final blog about using the excitement around the new football season to encourage children to read.

The last tip is to start watching the new weekly show: THE FOOTBALL READING SHOW.

The first one is a bit shaky, but in future weeks I'll take you on a tour of reading in bookshops, libraries and football stadia, as well as introducing you to footballers, authors and lots of readers.

Thanks for reading these blogs and for the nice responses.

HOW TO GET FAMILIES INTO A BOOKSHOP

2011-08-13T15:09:00.004+01:00

I did an event with Waterstone's in Altrincham today: to mark the start of the new Premier League football season.

We wanted to get football-loving families into the bookshop to see all the fantastic football books for kids - and adults.

We set up a goal outside the bookshop, to the left of the front door. Then we put an eager bookseller in goal.

Then we invited passing children to take five penalties. The child who scored most in one hour won a football trophy. In fact, it was two children, as we had under-ten and ten-plus categories.

There was a queue of families for the whole hour.

When the kids had taken penalties, I handed out promotional red and yellow cards and told the about my books. Meanwhile two members of staff told families about the other sports books available in store.

Most of the families went into the bookshop and lots of them bought copies of my book.

Including books sold because of the in-store and window displays, the event led to sales of at least 30 books. The signed copies I left will probably sell well too.

Thanks to Altrincham Waterstone's for a great morning.

While there I made a film about football books in the shop. If it's a decent quality it'll be on YouTube soon.

FOOTBALL READING # 9

2011-08-12T16:14:00.004+01:00

This is the ninth in a series of ten blogs about things you can do with children, both to celebrate the new football season and to encourage them to read for pleasure and meaning.

It's the first day of the Premier League. Now, at last, all football is back in our hearts, on our screens and in the newspapers.

Saturday newspapers are the best. They might not have match reports in, but they will have:

* match previews for all the games

* predictions for the season that could be way off the mark or spot on

* news about players agitating to leave football clubs

* true transfer stories - Fabregas, for instance

* columns by ex-footballers

* lists

* charts

* photos

* and lots of lies

If you can afford to go out and buy two or three newspapers and leave them around the house, they'll be a great way of getting children into reading before the big kick off.

If not, try your library, where most have free newspapers for all to read.

Or, go online, where you can read most newspapers articles and speculation for free.

Have a good day and a great season. I hope your team does well... unless you're playing Leeds United, in which case - no offence - but I hope you lose.

FOOTBALL READING # 8

2011-08-12T15:56:00.004+01:00

This is the eighth of ten blogs about finding ways to encourage children to read, using the power of football. All to celebrate the new football season. Hurray!

We all do it.

Who do you think is going to win the match today?

Who's going to score for this team or that team?

Which Premier League manager is going to get sacked first?

Children enjoy doing it as much as adults. Predictions! And that makes it a powerful tool to encourage them to read more.

Here's how?

Why not make a list of ten things you and a child would like to predict - such as the results or scores or matches, goalscorers, attendances, sending offs? Decide together what you are going to predict. Every correct prediction gains the person who made it one point.

Then suggest that everyone taking part has a look on the internet or in newspapers to help them make their choices.

Reading about the game can help hugely. You can find out the form of the teams in question, who is injured and other factors.

The BBC football website is good for this. They do a preview on each game, helping you work out who is playing and who is not and what teams' recent form is.

Also, club websites can be helpful to give you an idea of which team is feeling the more confident.

Maybe offer a prize or incentive if your child beats you. maybe involve other family members, friends or children.

Worth a try.

Rugby World Cup

2011-08-12T15:12:00.004+01:00

There is less than a month to go until the Rugby World Cup kicks off. And I, like millions, am really looking forward to it.

I watched the 2003 final in the attic of our house, with my daughter on my knee. She was two weeks old and weighed less than a rugby ball at the time. I can't remember how I celebrated that winning kick, but I imagine I was quite restrained.

I am even more excited about the 2011 World Cup because I'm going to be doing a lot of work to use the interest in rugby to promote reading to young people across the UK.

This is what's going on:

* I have written a toolkit of rugby related literacy ideas for the National Literacy Trust. It is free. Available here.

* I will be surveying books, magazines, newspapers and websites for the best rugby reading from now until the end of the tournament, tweeting about everything I find at @worldcupreader. Please follow me if you're interested.

* I am touring schools and book festivals to play my Rugby Reading Game (rugby reading quiz followed by a goal kicking competition) in September and October. Most events re in schools, but the public events include:

Bath Children Book Festival - 24 september

Ilkley Literature Festival - 2 October

Beverley Literature Fesitval - 8 October

Manchester Literature Festival - 16 October

* and, my new rugby book Scrum! - details here - is out in October, published by Barrington Stoke.

If anyone has anything else going on based on reading and writing about the world cup, please let me know.

FOOTBALL READING # 7

2011-08-11T18:45:00.004+01:00

This is the seventh in a series of ten blogs about using a child's love of football to encourage them to enjoy reading more.

Some children prefer to play football than read books.

Let's face it.

In fact, when I was a child - and some - I played football for about ten to fifteen hours a week. More in the holidays. Much more time than I spent reading.

Children play football because they like it and because they want to get better at it.

Today's blog is to do with books about how to play football.

I go into a lot of libraries. I must have visited at least 500 in the UK to speak about my books. Maybe more. In every one I get some football books off the shelves to show to the children I speak to. Biographies. Fiction. Histories. And... books on how to play.

Most libraries have at least three, often ten or more, of these books. They can be found in the children's sport section. They are simple and clear with lots of images of:

* how to be a better player

* how to be fit for football

* tactics on defending, attacking, etc.

* how to do tricks

The books are often full of exercises and drills that could help a child to vastly improve their skills.

So why not get one of the books out and go to do some of the drills with your child - and their friends? It could be a good way of imporving their football skills.

Then give them the book that evening to see if they want to read some more tips about what you could do the next day.

There are some great books. Usbourne do some great ones in particular.

Good luck.

FOOTBALL READING # 6

2011-08-10T13:19:00.004+01:00

TWITTER PLAYERS

This is the sixth in a series of ten blogs about using the new football season to encourage your children to read.

Twitter is a great way to read about football.

Yes, each chunk of reading is under 140 characters long, but Twitter often spurs you on to read articles or more Tweets.

Today's idea is to encourage your children to follow footballers on Twitter. Do any of their favourite team's players Tweet?

You can find out intersting things like:

* big football stories before they make it into the mainstream media

* what the player things about transfer rumours

* how they feel before the game - and after

* what they are interested in: what newspapers and books they read, what bands they like

* arguments they are having with journalists

* and a lot more

You can follow Tweeting Players at http://www.twitter.com/ or via smart phone devices.

Bear in mind that some footballers swear and say controversial things that you might not want younger (or even older) children to read about. To solve this you could choose footballers who are cleaner - or edit out any of the more risque tweets.

Here are some players you can follow:

@rioferdy5 - Rio Ferdinand - lots of great stuff about being a player and family life, with occassional olitical remarks, largely clean

@WayneRooney - passionate remarks, occassionally includes something you'd not want kids to read, but worth editing

@JackWilshire - clean remarks about the football world

@RobbieSavage8 - edgy stuff with occassional rewtweets of abuse he's had, so watch it

You can search for more players online, narrowing to players from your favourite team.

With thanks to @DanFreedman99 for advice in putting this list together. Dan writes the Jamie Johnson football books, that are hugely popular with children. If you follow him on Twitter too, you can see a list of several players he recommends if you look back a couple of days on his Twitter feed.

This might be something that won't last forever, so have a go. Many football teams are banning their players from Tweeting. I am a Leeds fan and used to follow seven or eight Leeds players. Now that's gone, because they have been banned. One of our players - Davide Somma - tweeted about his serious injury before the club had released the information, so all the players were stopped.

It's a shame I was enjoying it.

FOOTBALL READING # 5

2011-08-07T20:59:00.002+01:00

This is the fifth in a series of ten blogs about using the new football season to inspire children to read more for pleasure.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

This week is one of the best weeks in the year for reading about football in the newspapers.

These are some of the things you can expect to read about in the next six days:

* outrageous transfer speculation about major players going to major clubs

* players making ridiculous claims about how well they are going to do this season

* players doing 'exclusive' interviews to try and get a move from one club to another

* a manager of a high-profile club resigning 48 hours before the season starts

* so-called experts making predictions about who is going to win what and who is going to get relegated (worth keeping these to see how they do)

* and, unless I am very much mistaken, on Thursday there will be a loud howl for Fabio Capello to be sacked.

This is just the start. There will also be pull outs and previews in most of the papers, including lists and statistics and all sorts of other nonsense.

EXPENSIVE

Newspapers are not free, though. You might not be able to afford to buy a newspaper every day. So here are some tips on reading newspapers for free.

1. go to the public library, where they are free

2. get the Metro newspaper or other free papers (if you have them in your area)

3. read newspapers online - most are free (if you have internet access... and if not, they have that at the library too)

4. find one on a train or a bus that someone has left behind

5. stand in a supermaket for an hour, reading all the papers

I hope you have a good time reading the papers.

FOOTBALL READING #4

2011-08-07T18:11:00.004+01:00

This is the fourth in a set of ten tips on how to encourage children to get into reading through their love of football - to celebrate the new season.

Fantasy Football could be the way to get your children into reading more about football. It might encourage them to read more in newspapers and online in particular.

If you don't know what it is, Fantasy Football is a game you can play in newspapers and on some websites, where you pick a team using all the players in the Premier League.

Then, as the season unfolds, you gain or lose points from your players' performances: how many goals they score, or their team concedes; if they set up a goal or get sent off.

You can transfer players throughout the season.

Most people play it in leagues, pitting their football expertise against friends and workmates.

So why not do it with your kids? Or even with their friends and other parents?

It's fun and it makes Match of the Day more interesting.

The reading bit is... to make sure you know who the best players are to sign for your team or to make sure you know who is injured or on international duty, you need to read match previews and reports in the newspapers or online.

If you don't read up on it, you lose.

That's the idea.

You can set up a league on various websites. The most popular are the Daily Telegraph and the Sun, but there are several more to choose from.

To read the newspapers, if you can;t afford to buy a paper every day, try the newspapers websites, like the Mirror. Or go to the library where you can read newspapers for free.

And if you win a national competition, you can win LOTS of money. But you probably won't...

FOOTBALL READING # 3

2011-08-06T14:19:00.003+01:00

This is the third of ten blogs about using the excitement around the forthcoming football season to encourage children to read about the game in books, newpapers, online and - today - in magazines.

One per day in the run up to the Premier League kick off.

If you're going to pay the £2.50 to £4.50 the football magazines cost, today might be the best day to do it.

As you can see, they are full of previews about the season. In fact, a lot of them have free wall charts and supplements, so you will get better value for money.

These are the main magazines available in the UK:

Match - a great mixture of pictures and short text, largely about the Premier League. Great for reluctant readers.

Match of the Day - a lot like Match, but even more popular with children. Great content for reluctant readers.

Kick - as above, but more posters than text.

FourFourTwo - glossy football magazine aimed at teenagers and adults. Great articles and fancy photography.

World Soccer - about football across the world. Not good for a struggling reader. Quite political. Brilliant for authors writing about the game.

WSC - stands for When Saturday Comes is like Private Eye for football fans. Really good and interesting. Again not one for reluctant readers or under 13s.

The above are all available in most newsagents and WMSmiths.

You can also get club magazines about some of the biggeer teams like Liverpool, Chelsea and Leeds.

And don't forget match day programmes, available if you're attending a game. They cost between £1 and £4.

Also, fanzines, written by fans for fans can be bought around the grounds and in city centres. But beware some fanzines if you're giving them to your kids and you want to protect them from swearing and malice.

Happy reading!

FOOTBALL READING # 2

2011-08-04T10:06:00.002+01:00

This is the second of ten blogs about reading football - one a day in the run up to the launch of the 2011-2012 Premier League football season.

The idea is to use these ideas to encourage children to get into reading through football.

One of the best ways of getitng your children into reading is by reading to them. Or with them.

I read with my daughter now, although she usually prefers to read to herself.

But sometimes it is still nice for us to read together. And the run up to the football season is a good time to do this, because there is a common goal (excuse the pun): your excitement about the coming football.

Can you find a book in the public library, a book shop, WHSmith or even one from home that you could read together?

Maybe a short novel by someone like me or Helena Pielichaty or David Bedford. We all write books that you could read for quarter of an hour each night for a week. (There is a longer list of authors you could try on the previous blog post.)

Maybe a biography of a favourite player.

A football fact book or quiz book.

One of the many football poem collections.

It is a nice habit to get into, especially easy if you are lucky (or unlucky) enough to have a bit less work on in the summer and bed times are a little later.

The National Literacy Trust have done lots of research (www.literacytrust.org.uk) that proves reading with your child even after the age they can read for themselves is likely to make them do better at school, enjoy reading more, be happier and be closer to their parents.

Borrow or buy a book now and read it in the run up to the football season.

FOOTBALL READING # 1

2011-08-04T09:48:00.003+01:00

This is the first of ten short blogs - one a day - in the run up to the Premier League football season that kicks off on Saturday 13th August.

Each blog will focus on something you can with your children to get you all into reading through football.

DAY ONE

Over the next ten days I'll be talking about great football reading in magazines, online, books and in newspapers. Stuff that will get you in the mood for the football season - and that will get you in the mood for reading all year round too.

There is one place you can get access to all the above kinds of reading. For free.

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY!

Here's a list of the football reading you can find in the library:

* biographies of players (Biography)

* access to thousands of football websites: from BBC Sport to your favourite team (Online)

* books on how to play football (Sport, or Junior Sport)

* adult football stories, like The Damned United and Football Factory (Fiction)

* free newspapers - national and local (usually in the Reference section)

* books about football teams and history (Sport)

* magazines - some libraries have copies of Match, Match of the Day and FourFourTwo

* football stories by authors like Helena Pielichaty, Dan Freedman, Bali Rai, Narinder Dhami, Michael Coleman, David Bedford, Alan Gibbons, Mal Peet, and, er... TOM PALMER (in Children's Fiction)

I do loads of football reading in the library and it costs me nothing.

If you need advice in the library ask a librarian. They want to help. Tell them I sent you!

Part two of this blog will be posted tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Reading Comedians

2011-07-13T22:25:00.003+01:00

I've noticed something about children's reading habits that I'd not spotted before.

When I go into schools I ask kids what they like to read. In the last five years I've had at least 50,000 responses from the 300,000 kids I've spoken to.

The big names are always the same:

Jacqueline Wilson

Michael Morpurgo

Roald Dahl

But - in the last year - there is a genre being mentioned more and more by year sevens and eights.

Comedians' autobiographies.

It started with the odd mention of Harry Hill, then Michael McIntyre (left).

I was at Noadswood School in Hythe, Southampton earlier this week. I asked the kids about it.

Out of 210 kids, at least 50 had read comedians' autobigraphies.

I asked them for a list of names of comedians' books they'd read. Here it is:

Harry Hill

Michal McIntyre

Ricky Gervais

Alan Carr

Russell Brand

Lee Evans

Jeremy Clarkson (!)

Ant & Dec

Peter Kay

Al Murray

So what are we going to do about it? We've used football to promote reading. How about comedians? Using their books and their appeal to enthuse more young readers.

Would the comedians want to help us? Of course they would.

One boy at Hythe suggested the comedian might like to do sketches around reading. Great idea.

One issue could be that comedians talk and write about stuff that some people might not want year sevens and eights to be aware of. But, let's face it, they are more aware of most of that stuff than adults are, so we need to get round that.

I'll have a word with the inspired staff at the National Literacy Trust. See what we can do...

We need more literary festivals

2011-07-11T20:32:00.005+01:00

I was at Noadswood High School in Hampshire today.

Day one of the Wessex Schools Literary Festival, four schools working together to bring authors to meet children.

They are hosting author events with Ali Sparkes, Chris Bradford, Andy Mulligan and many more. All listed in a festival programme.

There is a festival read: I am Number Four.

Also: quizzes, a book v film debate, book crossing and other projects.

They have attracted support from Costa, Asda, Waterstone's and the local council. And many others.

I think this is a great scheme. To attract big name authors to come to four schools that are very close together is a great achievement.

The idea of a festival is powerful. It appeals to everyone. Publishers. Booksellers. Authors. Libraries. Readers. The media.

I think this is because when you focus a lot of activity in one place in a short period of time it creates a buzz in among all the players listed above.

When I worked at Bradford Library, putting on author events, I found it much easier to attract authors to the Bradford Book Festival that we created than for regular events during the year.

There is sometimes cynicism that there are too many literature festivals. I disagree. I think there need to be more.

I am a Dad Writer

2011-06-16T18:30:00.002+01:00

I am normally described as a football writer. That's because I write books about football. But books about football are about more than football.

Take Mal Peet. His amazing football book Keeper is about rain forests, magic and ghosts amongst other things.

Take Dan Freedman. His football books are about relationships with girls, relationships with parents, etc.

Take Helena Pielichaty. Her football stories are about healthy eating, bullying, perceptions of foreigners and a hundred other things. As well as football.

Take Bali Rai, Michael Coleman, Alan Gibbons and a dozen others. We have our own obsessions that we pursue in our books just as much as we pursue football.

If you want to know what my biggest obsession is, it could well be dads. Being a dad. Being a son of dads.

I am a Dad writer as well as a football writer.

I had three dads.

I was adopted. My next mum and dad split up when I was four. Then, the dad who brought me up died when I was 21. That has made me think a lot about fatherhood. That all came to a head when I became a dad seven years ago. What sort of a dad should I be? Number one, two or three?

That was the time I started writing for children too.

My first book - Foul Play - is about a boy who solves football crimes. Spy and detective kids in books often have dead parents. It helps free them up to detect and spy. But I wanted Danny to have a dad he was really close to.

In Foul Play (and the other four books in the series) Danny reads crime books to his dad, who is blind. That's why Danny is so good at being a detective. He is empowered by the books he reads to his dad. They are close and Danny has to work within his dad's boundaries to solve the football crimes he solves.

In the Football Academy series I have thirteen boys, all with different dad relationships:

Boys United has a dad who backs his son all the way, but picks him up when he makes mistakes.

Striking Out has a dad that wants his son to give up football and concentrate on his schooling.

The Real Thing has a Polish boy and his dad, struggling with the bullying that the boy gets because of his accent and background.

Reading the Game is about a boy whose dad left when he was a baby and he's never seen him and he's not sure how to grow up.

Free Kick is about a boy whose dad wants him to be a chip off the old block, but the boy doesn't want that.

Captain Fantastic is about a boy who has a secret: his dad is in prison.

I am a football writer. But I am a dad writer too.

On Monday a lad came up to me at a school in Hull. He said his dad was in prison. He said he'd read Captain Fantastic. He said he liked it.

Summer Reading Challenge 2011

2011-06-02T20:54:00.004+01:00

The Summer Reading Challenge is about to launch for 2011.

This year the theme is Circus Stars.

My daughter has already spent ages on the website making her personalised character and watching author videos.

I love the Summer Reading Challenge. It gets children into libraries. It reminds me that going to libraries changed my life in several ways.

Here's how:

One: when I got interested in reading about football, they had books about how to play, histories of teams, biographies of players and stories that my mum borrowed for me.

Two: when I was a more confident reader, they were there with books on all the things I wanted to find out about, like Hitler, body language, Dadaism, world religions, European travel, the pyramids, etc, etc, etc.

Three: when my dad was dying and I needed somewhere to go and clear my head away from home, I went to the library. It was my escape.

Four: when I was there one day I found, by chance, a rack of university prospectuses and one course about Modern European Literature that inspired me to take A levels and dream of doing a degree, aged 23, which I did.

Five: when I needed to study in Leeds - even though my degree was in Reading, 200 miles away - because my mum was dying and I had to be near her, I was able to get all the books I needed for the course in Lededs reference library.

Six: when I started writing I needed facts and ideas to write about. I got them at the library.

Seven: when we wanted to get our daughter into books and she wanted to read dozens of books a month, we went to the library.

I could go on.

Getting children into libraries to do the Summer Reading Challenge will create the opportunities for them that libraries created for me.

Check out the website at http://www.circus-stars.org.uk/. There's even a video of me filmed by my daughter, talking about what she likes to read.

2011-06-02T20:52:00.000+01:00

Writing for boys - with the P.E. department

2011-05-21T12:45:00.002+01:00

I joined in a great event yesterday at Ellis Guildford School in Nottingham. The idea was to blend a P.E. lesson with writing activities.

It lasted one hour. The boys were put in teams of five. The P.E. teacher did two ten-minute activities. I did two ten-minute exercises. After each activity the teams were awarded points, which accumulated during the session.

It looked something like this:

1: The teams had to bowl a cricket ball at a set of stumps. Each time they hit the stumps they were given a letter from a football team's name. The first team to guess the team won.

2: I challenged the kids to make up a story by (a) basing a baddie on someone they hated from sport and (b) asking the following questions: who is the baddie, what did they do, where, when, how did they do it and why did they do it. They then 'told' their story and were awarded points by me and the teacher.

3: Relay races. Points awarded for placing.

4: The groups read a one-page cricket mystery I have written. They had to guess who had stolen the Ashes trophy as a team and write an ending. They were then awarded points.

The whole hour was frantic, competitive and often confusing. But it worked. The children carried through the adrenaline of the sports activities into the writing. And that was the idea. To give them a deep motivation to write.

The prize for the winners was a book and a £10 WHSmith voucher each. We had a good budget. But, to be honest, they'd have done it without a there being a prize at all.

A Question of Sport

2011-05-19T21:55:00.004+01:00

I went to a great event tonight at Heathfield Primary School in Nottingham. I thought I'd share it.

The idea was to recreate the Question of Sport TV show in the classroom. For families.

There were nine men there. Dads, step-dads and grandads. each headed up a team of their kids in a pub quiz style event.

That was what impressed me so much. Getting dads to come to after-school events is not always easy.

The head teacher and another senior teacher led a series of rounds around general knowledge, what happened next and a session where I asked questions about my books. The families accumulated points for getting questions right.

It worked really well. We talked about sport and reading for an hour-and-a-half. Kids working with adults.

Family events like this work so well because they take the idea of talking about reading home with them. And everbody knows that strong readers are mostly inspired by their home experience.

If you want to do a Question of Sport event, here are some ideas:

* invite parents, especially dads, to a sports pub quiz style event

* do it like a pub quiz - and serve beer (to the adults!)

* the picture board round: show pictures of sports people from the cover of their biographies (concealing their names on the cover) - ask them who it is

* what happened next: show sports incidents selected from YouTube, stopping them before a key moment; then ask the audience to guess what happens next

* show sports newspaper headlines with words blacked out - and ask the families to guess the missing words

* read a section from some sports autobiographies and ask the audience to guess who it is by

* add a general knowedge round

* invite an author to come and add to the quiz activity

These are just a few ideas. It worked really well at Heathfield.

Getting past page 100

2011-05-17T21:16:00.004+01:00

The article on the BBC website about boys struggling to get past page 100 in a book brought back a lot of memories for me.

In a survey of 500 teachers, 70% said boys struggled to reach page 100.

I got into reading aged 18. I was unemployed. Mid 1980s. I would sit in the front room at home trying to read.

I had this trick to help me. Every 10 pages I would cheer under my breath. If I made it to page 100 I would feel elated. This was even the case with books I loved. The cheering helped me motivate myself. It gave me stamina.

The article mentions 'stamina'. That is spot on for me. Having the stamina to get to page 100. When I do school events, I say that to the children. I didn't have the stamina. I compare it to footballers, who need to build up their stamina at the beginning of the season. They have to try to get match fit, but that the rewards are great. Just like with reading.

If I didn't make it to page 100 - and I didn't often early on - I would feel like I had failed. Failed to finish a book. I never tried to read a book over 150 pages. Not until I was 20. It was too much. Too much of a chance of failing.

Take a look at some of the booklists on http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/ : lots of short books that might not make boys feel like failures.

Engage with some of their projects: projects that give boys new ways to maintain their stamina.

Lobby important people about the work the National Literacy Trust do.

I ought to admit that I still cheer myself when I'm reading. Even though I'm 43. When I hit page 100 in a book. That's why the story hit home for me.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13393321

Postcards

2011-05-09T21:25:00.006+01:00

National Literacy Trust

2011-05-03T19:26:00.004+01:00

I am doing a new blog for the National Literacy Trust.

The plan is for me to blog once a week as I write my Squad series for Puffin.

Each week I will write about a different aspect of writing that I've been challenged by that week.

In addition there will be an exercise for school classes to do, if they want.

NLT blog

Please let me know what you think of it - and where I could take it.

Football Writers

2011-04-29T14:38:00.003+01:00

I have been working with a group of children called the Football Writers since September. They go to Ghyllgrove Junior School in Basildon.

All year - supported by their amazing teacher, Mrs Baker (left) - they have been working on a trailer for my new book, Own Goal.

This is it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJmgBfbdwlY

I am absolutely thrilled with it. I hope you like it too.

They started by reading the book. Then they storyboarded it. Then they looked at other trailers for books.

Once they had shared the jobs of actors, directors, designers, etc., they set to work.

I am really proud of what they achieved. We took them to a cinema in Basildon and screened it there, so they could see it on a big screen.

Choosing Chocolate

2011-04-21T12:01:00.002+01:00

When I was researching Off Side, I went to visit a fair trade community in Ghana. Part of the story was about a boy whose family were being cheated and not paid a fair rate for their cocoa beans.

One day I found myself in a school deep inside Ghana. The kids there asked me to sing some English football songs. I gave them a bit of Marching On Together and some other numbers. They wanted to know about England, about my books, about football and about my daughter,

The school had been paid for by a dividend that Divine chocolate pay the farmers to help them build schools and medical facilities. They had decent houses too. Thanks to being paid fairtrade prices.

The dividend Divine pays them means that Divine and other fairtrade chocolate costs us a few pence more. It doesn't make that much diference to most of us. But it does to them.

Please - if you're buying Easter eggs, etc. this week - consider buying Fair Trade. You'll be changing lives. I've seen it in action.

Easter

2011-04-13T20:52:00.003+01:00

This Easter I will be at home for 14 out of 15 days. I go away a lot, so it's going to be great.

I have some plans of things to do with my daughter. She wants to play pitch and putt, football and go cycling. We'll do that.

A few nights ago she asked me what I used to play at with my friends when I was a kid. I said football. But then I remembered.

My friend and I used to build forts out of blocks of wood, set at either end of the room. We used to fill them with plastic soldiers. Then we'd throw balls at each others forts - to destroy them. The skill was to build a solid fort.

My daughter liked the sound of it. So I have bought some soldiers: £3.29 for 30. I can't wait.

Big and Clever by Dan Tunstall

2011-04-10T20:50:00.004+01:00

Big and Clever is the story of a boy who is drawn into a new world of excitement and trouble by a friend at school. The boy - Tom - is at a new school and knows no-one. He feels like he doesn't fit in. Then he gets the chance to have a new identity. As a football hooligan. It is a chance he takes. This is a story about identity, fighting and drinking, but most of all, about choosing between the safe and steady comforts of life AND the excitement and danger of figthing at the football. What I love about this book is it is accurate. I used to know a lot of lads like the ones in this book and Dan Tunstall gets it spot on. That is so necessary in a book like this - and for the readers it is aimed at. The story starts with Tom as a nice son, a loving boyfriend and doing well at school. It ends in extreme - and not at all attractive - violence, at which point Tom has to choose one or other path. I have not been gripped by a books since reading iBoy by Kevin Brooks last year. In fact, the books have a lot in common. It is an outstanding book. On a par with Keeper by Mal Peet as one of the great football novels for kids. Big and Clever is published by inde press, Five Leaves of Nottingham.

Dads

2011-04-07T20:10:00.002+01:00

I had a great chat with a couple of year eight girls today about dads. They told me how their dads embarrass them. Singing in front of their friends. Showing extreme affection in public. Treating them like they were seven. My daughter is seven. Soon she will be embarrassed by me, maybe. I am trying to learn things so that that won't happen... as much as it could. They did a story plan about an embarrassing dad. I tried to get them to see their story from their dad's point of view. It was all very embarrassing.

Nottingham

2011-04-07T20:07:00.003+01:00

I have been in Nottingham most of this week, working with Den Corrall of Quadrant C! We've been working with year sevens - on reading and writing. And it's been great. There's a real love of football here. But also a passion for stories - reading them and writing them. I want to say thanks to Nottingham. I'm glad to be coming back next week and in May. I'd also like to apologise that Leeds beat Forest 4-1 on Saturday... but no-one would believe me, so I won't. Thanks also to Den. We have discussed a lot of things to do with football and fatherhood this week. Two of my favourite subjects.

Fell Running

2011-04-07T18:54:00.002+01:00

I have been running on the fells in Yorkshire for a few months now. It looks like I've got past the stage where my ankles get injured every other week. So it's time to sign up for a fell race. But fell races are not easy. Fell runners are usually very light. Not fifteen-and-a-half stone like me. So here's my plan. I am going to enter a fell race this summer, around my birthday. I am going to run three times a week, at least once of those in the hills, hopefully two. I am going to get my weight down to fourteen stone. I will do this by not eating three bars of choc/cakes/servings of library biscuits a day. And by running. Let's see how long this lasts...

Poland

2011-03-31T09:15:00.006+01:00

I was in Poland earlier this week researching my new series - the Squad - which is out in May 2012.

The story is set in Poland and Ukraine and is about terrorists, spies, Russians and football. And gas pipelines. It is set just before the EURO 2012 football tournment, which takes place in both countries.

I needed to go to Krakow to find settings for city centre chases, cathedral spying, football training and other things.

There are two football stadia just outside the town. The larger one worked out best as a setting. A stadium. A training pitch (where my characters will train). A mysterious wood right next to it.

Perfect.

***

I won't pretend the trip was a great success. I got a lot of what I needed. But, in the end, I just wanted to get home and be with my family. I'm away a lot in schools all over the UK and, because I could and had no commitments, I cut the trip short.

I'm not the great adventurer I thought I was.

Arts Cuts

2011-03-30T15:34:00.003+01:00

I was very sorry to hear today that the publisher Route has lost its Arts Council funding. Also, NAWE. Along with Puffin, both Route and NAWE have had more to do with helping me make a living as a writer than any others. Route published most of my first stories and worked with me on the book I edited and co-wrote, Four Fathers. That gave me the confidence to believe I could be a writer - and the oppotunities to write and perform. To learn. But the greater thing Route did was edit both my writing and how I saw myself as a writer. Ian Daley read my stuff and talked to me about it. Many times. He made me think about what sort of a writer I was and helped me work out where I was going. Without Ian Daley - and a funded Route - I would not have become a full time author. NAWE intervened around the same time. They had a course called Making a Living as an Author in Schools. That's what I wanted to do. So that I could buy myself the time to write. The course was outstanding. There were seminars, a mentor and a work placement in a school. It worked wonderfully. It gave me confidence. And - with the chance to develop ideas with the teacher during the placement - I worked up the Football Reading Game. I have done that activity over 2000 times now. Earning 60% of my income over the last eight years doing it. The rest of the time I write. I hope both Route and NAWE find a way through this. They are both fantastic organisations. **** It was good to hear that some of the other Arts Organisations I have worked with have got their funding. The Reading Agency, Booktrust and the brilliant Comma Press.

Characters

2011-03-17T19:06:00.002Z

I'm planning my new series for Puffin, The Squad. It is about spies and football and comes out in May 2012. I've got the plot sorted. I was working on characters today.

I need a sort of a master spy. He's going to be called Jim. He is based on two Jim/James I know. Clear-minded. Fair. Kind. Ready to tell you the truth, even if it's not so nice to hear.

I like basing my characters on real people. It helps me make them more real.

I'm also working on a spy called Lily. She's based on someone else. As is Marcella. But I'd best keep their real identities secret... for now.

I have a week to sort out the characters and plot in full, then I'm off to Ukraine and Poland in a hire car to find some settings. Woods full of wolves. Gas pipelines. Football stadia.

I can't wait.

Scrum

2011-03-11T11:01:00.003Z

The cover for Scrum is done!

I am really excited.

The book is about a boy who plays rugby league in the north (urged on by his dad), but has to move south when his mum remarries and can only play rugby union (urged on by his step dad).

North versus south.

League versus union.

Dad versus step dad.

And it's out to mark the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup, which starts in September.

Thanks to Barrington Stoke for doing such a great job with it - and for asking me to do it in the first place.

Own Goal trailer

2011-03-11T08:26:00.003Z

I was at Charlton Athletic FC yesterday with Ghyllgrove Junior School.

We were making a trailer for my forthcoming book, Own Goal. Filming scenes in corridors, under stands, on staircases. Chases. Protests. Keepy-uppies.

This is 'Danny Harte' surveying the pitch.

Own Goal is about an Italian football club owner who is using his TV channels to hypnotise poeple into supporting his team. Danny realises no-one is supporting their home teams any more, so he is forced to investigate.

The children of Ghyllgrove Junior have planned, written and performed the trailer. And I am HUGELY grateful to them.

I Fell for the Fells

2011-03-06T20:48:00.002Z

If you read this blog a bit, you'll know I have been running for nearly a year and a half.

(No wonder I'm tired.)

I was running in a very few road and trail races, but now I am aiming for my first fell race on 2nd May. It's in Mytholmroyd, where Ted Hughes came from.

Seven miles across the fells, going up (then down) 1100 feet.

I've been training a bit. This is a pic of where I go, near Todmorden, where I live.

I want you to know that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE RUNNING ON THE FELLS. It makes me so happy. On Saturday I ran round a half empty reservoir just off the Pennine way, through an abandoned farm house, over the moors. It was sunny and foggy and raining and cold and warm. It was amazing.

Fell runners are normally lithe and weigh under eleven stone. I am fifteen stone. I will come in the last 10% of runners - and only if I train hard.

But I love it!

Big Week

2011-03-06T20:42:00.002Z

This week could be one of the great weeks. Or not.

I often read tweets and blogs about authors having things they'd love to tell us about, but can't. Things like book prizes they know they've won. Film opportunities that might be happening. Books they might - or might not - get deals for.

This week I have two things like that. And I'd love to tell you about it... but I can't.

As well as that, this week I am going with my favourite class in Basildon to make a film trailer for my next book (Own Goal, due out in May).

We are doing it at Charlton Athletic's ground. I am really excited about it. The Basildon children have helped make my working year even more fun than it normally is. I am with them on Wednesday and Thursday.

2011-03-03T20:53:00.003Z

I had a great day at Canon Lee School in York today, talking with Helena Pielichaty. Elina, George and Billy were kind enough to take some pics. And here they are with some idiot in a white tee shirt.

Thank you all for a great day. To Miss York too.

World Book Day 2011

2011-03-02T22:46:00.003Z

Thursday 3rd March is World Book Day: the day that hundreds - probably thousands - of authors go into schools to talk about reading and books and to encourage children to do the same.

Author visits have a massive impact.

When I go into schools I always ask the children who their favourite authors are and sometimes they tell me that they met Jacqueline Wilson or Cathy Cassidy or Craig Bradley and that they LOVED-meeting-them-and-ever-since-they've-read-all-their-books-and-all-the-books-those-authors-said-that-they-liked.

They also say that meeting an author has made them want to be an author and they've started writing a book themselves.

It definitely works.

Today I was in Abbotswood Junior School in Hampshire. I had a wonderful day. The highlight was being told that a boy who was not at all into reading had been read one of my books and had surprised everyone by reading another, then asking his parents to get him the rest of the series. And that he has started saying he likes books.

This meant the world to me.

Yes, I get paid to write my books. But hearing something like that makes me feel like I am doing the right thing.

Just like the hundreds of other authors who will be out there on World Book Day.

2011-02-24T19:01:00.001Z

Delville Wood, Northern France, where the Footballers' Battalion fought in 1916.

WWI research trip

2011-02-24T18:51:00.003Z

I'm just back from France. I was there to do some research on a book I am writing with George Myerson about the Footballers' Battalion in WWI.

I had never been to that part of France. I've passed through it on trains to Paris, but never stopped. I'm glad I did this time. Not just for the book, but for my understanding a bit more about WWI.

The thing that struck me most was, yes, that millions of men hurling millions of bombs at each other for years in the mud is about as dark a passage in the history of mankind there could be. But that the thousands of cemetries and monuments, all perfectly looked after 100 years on, represent the best side of mankind: that the French and others keep the hundreds of thousands of graves in such perfect condition.

This is the monument recently put up to remember the Footballers' Battalion.

KitKat Balls

2011-02-21T17:28:00.002Z

Did you know you could get KitKat Balls?

They are amazing. I'm hooked.

Rugby at Carrow Road

2011-02-04T20:54:00.003Z

I'm in Norwich. I'm staying in a hotel that is part of Norwich City's stadium. And I'm watching the rugby. Wales v England.

Tomorrow I am doing some work with Norfolk Libraries. I have worked in Norfolk for a few years, helping with their Canaries Reading Stars scheme. I love it that they keep having me back. They are passionate about books and passionate about football. Like me.

It's a big day for libraries tomorrow. There are events all over the UK to help stop libraries being shut down. Authors and readers and librarians and lots of others will be doing things to get libraries in the headlines. If you have a chance, please go to a library and support them.

On the trains from London today - and later, after the match, I was/will be editing Over the Line, my WWI book. It's going well...

Gwalchmai

2011-01-31T18:02:00.002Z

Here's a nice pic of the children at Ysgol y Ffridd in Gwalchmai on Anglesey.

I had a great time with them this afternoon and they asked if I'd put them on the blog. So here they are!

Most of them are Liverpool fans, so they weren't so happy about Torres. But they still got stuck into the Football Reading Game. Kieran won and Kes performed well in goal.

The best bit for me was the questions they asked. They came up with some great questions. They were a thoughtful bunch.

Thanks to all of you!

Anglesey

2011-01-30T20:55:00.002Z

I've never been to Anglesey before. But here I am. And so far it's been lovely. A lift from the station. A nice hotel. A meal.

As well as working in six schools (helping to encourage the children to enjoy reading and libraries) over the next two days, I have two other targets.

One:
Finish the first draft of Over the Line, my WW1 novel. I managed 1500 words on the bus replacement service and train. More tonight. Then I will have a 35,000 word first draft that has more holes in it than a Tottenham's defence earlier today. It will need a lot of work, but I do feel good to have the first draft down.

Two:
Run. I am going for a run tomorrow late afternoon. I am right on the Menai Straights here and there's apparently a coastal path. I am doing a race in Wigan in 20 days. A very challenging mudbath of a 10K race. I did it last year in 60.20:00. This year I reckon I can do it in under 50.00:00 because I've been doing a lot more hills - and mud - recently.

Over the Line

2011-01-27T19:02:00.003Z

I'm still writing Over the Line, my book about footballers in World War One. I'm up to 32,000 words. 6,000 to go. In the first draft.

I have been reading exclusively about WW1 for four months. I have been watching films, visiting museums. I have been dreaming it. It's been intense. But I am nearly there.

But is it any good?

It's hard to say. I have never written about the past before. My wife and agent and co-author like the first 8,000 words. No one has read the rest.

I am going to France soon - with my family - to see remaining/reconstructed trenches, cemetries and museums about the war. I want to get it right. I think it is going to be a great trip. I think going to places where something happened gives you a better sense of what they meant. I will see things that I could not imagine. That's the reason I go to places if I'm writing about them.

Saying that, I'm not going to 1916, am I?

Have you been to the Imperial War Museum? It's amazing. There is a mocked up trench there.

Here's a picture:

Leeds v Scunthorpe

2011-01-15T23:25:00.004Z

I took my daughter to the football today.

This is her and her good friend, Isaac.

And Lucas the Lion (he's the one wearing the Leeds top).

Also pictured is Teddy.

Leeds won 4-0. A good day.

War

2011-01-12T19:51:00.002Z

I did an event in Wakefield today. In a school.

I was there because a lad called Charlie had written to me saying he liked my books. So I dropped in on my way down to London, where I am now. Charlie is a Leeds fan. He'd been to the Arsenal game at the weekend.

I also met a lad called Matthew.

I was telling the kids about the book I'm writing about footballers in WW1. He was really interested and produced loads of his war books that he keeps at school, plus a picture of his great Grandad who was a desert rat. One of his books is a photo book about WW1. Just the kind of book I was looking for myself.

And he leant me it. How kind is that?

So here I am in a London hotel leafing through it. And it's great.

Thanks Matthew.

2011-01-07T14:30:00.000Z

Sometimes I don’t think a book I am writing is going to be a real published book until someone else says what they think of it. I work on my own, developing a story; and, half the time, think it is a load of rubbish and that no-one is going to want to read it.

I’ve been writing a book about WW1. It is a bit different to what I normally do. And it has been challenging. Because it is set in a real time with real people, I have to make sure I get my facts right.

In the Foul Play series, I want it be like the real football world, but I don’t need to stick to what happened on, say, 31 March 1914. In this new book I do.

Maybe I’m no good at that. Maybe I’m kidding myself.

So, this lunchtime, I was sat with a much-respected author, his agent and my agent in a relatively posh restaurant and they tell us they love the book we are writing together, they think it’s going to be really good.

So now I feel better. I suppose it's about confidence.

2011 - the plan

2011-01-03T09:53:00.002Z

I've just turned down the chance of a winter walk with the poet, Craig Bradley. (Also known as www.thatpoetrybloke.com.)

I would love to go for a walk with him, but this week I need to get writing. I have two months to get the first draft of Over the Line written and that includes two days at the Imperial War Museum later this week and if I don't prepare for that it'll be a waste of time going.

2011 is going to be like that. I feel like this is the year that could make or break my career. I have to write three books. If they are not 100% as good as I can make them, maybe my career as a writer will start to wane. Then I have to worry about my mortgage and the overdraft.

I'm not complaining. I love my job. I write. I go into four schools a week - or more. I'm lucky I am published at all.

But it's not ideal for friendships. Never being at home. Always worrying about time.

Craig reads this blog. He understands. He does the same as I do. In fact, he has a great children's novel out in the spring. Beautifully written.

I'm sorry Craig.

Shola Scores

2011-01-03T09:47:00.002Z

I've got two photos of footballers holding one of my books. This is Shola Ameobi reading Reading the Game.

It's a rare day one of the two scores a goal, but seeing as Shola scored Newcastle's winner at Wigan yesterday, I thought I'd post it. Again.

The other one - for your info - is Yossi Benayoun. But I can't use that one so much now, as he's moved to Chelsea and the picture I have has him in a Liverpool top.

Go Shola!

Fell Running

2010-12-30T14:38:00.002Z

I've had such a buzz out of running on the hills in the last three months. I love it. It's hard, especially uphill. But, once you're up there on the flat, you feel like you're flying. I like it in the mist best. Shapes looming out at you.

I want to 2011 to be the year I took part in fell races. I will need to train for months to make sure I'm not just walking most of it, arriving at the finish line when everyone else has driven home. But I'll get there. There's a fell race in May round here. That'll be my target.

I'm really missing it now. I've had this stupid calf strain for two-and-a-half weeks and it's still not 100%. But I reeeeeeeeeeeally want to go up on the fells on New Year's Day.

So... I'm going for a quick three-miler now. Nice and slow. If I come home unscathed, I'll go on the tops on 1st January.