A Week Off

I've been doing a lot of events since Foul Play came out. About five days a week for six months. From tomorrow I'm on holiday. At home. But not working.

I'm going to fix all the things in the house that are broken. I'm going to read lots of books. (I'm reading a book about American murder detectives. It's a true account of a year with them. It's really good.) But, best of all, I'm going to spend loads of time with my wife and daughter.

Tomorrow we're going to see an Egyptian mummy in a museum. That's down to a book too. In the latest Jake Cake book I read to my daughter, Jake made friends with a mummy in a museum. So we're off to do the same. Have you read Jake Cake by Michael Broad? They're brilliant.

Today I talked to schools in Hattersley, near Manchester. They were great. Half Man City fans: hlaf Man U fans.

And tomorrow I'm off to Leeds v Leyton Orient. Please let us win...

BBC4 Film

I did a day's filming with BBC4 yesterday. For a documentary called Why Reading Matters. The best bit was doing the Football Reading Game with 13 children in Sowerby Bridge, Calderdale.

In the morning they filmed me in the cafe where I sometimes write: The Bear in Todmorden. They had me walking up and down the canal near where I live too. It was interesting, seeing how they put a film together. I reckon it takes two hours to get five minutes worth of stuff they can show on TV. The problem in Todmorden was the lorries that kept thundering past the cafe window. But in the end we got it done.

I'm reading book two of HIVE by Mark Walden now: The Overlord Protocol. Very good stuff. After that I'm going to read Mal Peet's Exposure, a football version of Othello. If you've not read Keeper by Mal Peet, I'd recommend it. The best football novel ever written, along with The Damned United, which is for adults.

I'm also reading Jake Cake with my daughter. If you like school stories that go a bit mad - then it's one for you.