Part 2
Day two in York got off to a frantic start. There was a hotel breakfast to enjoy, or maybe not if you ask for the vegetarian option and the sausages are still frozen when they arrive… Luckily there was tea and pastries so all was not lost.
After breakfast was a complicated hotel room scene of me going ‘I need that for the school visit this morning so let’s make a pile by the window, I don’t need that until the award ceremony this afternoon so it can go on the bed, I don’t need this at all anymore it can go by the door to go in the car, actually no, can I have that back, wait… do I have all the props for the school visit, do I need a coat, maybe we should start again…?’ and generally triple-checking everything in a haze of public-speaking fuelled anxiety.
We arrived at fabulous Vale of York school and were met by their wonderful school librarian, Susie, and superstar student helper, Jacob. We got everything set up and started the presentation to a brilliant group of creative readers. They joined in, asked me loads of tricky questions, told me about their own stories and creative projects, we unwound so much ‘spidersilk’ that we ran out of space in the library, it was brilliant and I had a great time. I think the students did too!
Next we drove to St Peter’s and sorely wished we’d washed the car. We live down a long, pothole- riddled, overgrown lane in Devon and we don’t even notice the mud on the car anymore. Until we park in front of this beautiful building!
We had a lovely authors’ lunch in the library, then headed into a hall full of incredible artwork by the students. One student had a whole sketchbook for Stitchwort, it was beautiful! There was a cake, sculptures, drawings, paintings, fan- fiction, manga, scripts, reviews; the school staff had to drag the authors away because we wanted to see everything!
In the hall we each had a lovely, handwritten card welcoming us to the York Book Awards, chocolates with each of our book covers printed on, and a York Ghost! I had to be a well-behaved adult and not immediately open my ghost. (That lasted until we got back in the car, I’d opened my ghost before we’d pulled out of the parking space)
We each had to do another talk, I was even more nervous in the hall than in the library, so I can only hope it was coherent! Luckily I went first, so everyone will have immediately forgotten mine. Julian Sedgwick and Chie Kutsuwada told some wonderful ghost stories, with a live drawalong, and Tom Palmer had a real WW2 artefact with him, which helped him to connect to the past while writing The Angel of Grasmere.
Next were awards to the students for their exceptional artwork, and then the book award! After a tense few minutes of anticipation Tom Palmer won with The Angel of Grasmere!
We then had a mad signing session with all of the excited students. Chie drew bunnies, I drew spiders, we took some photos together and it was time for the long drive back to Devon, with my two York Ghosts (and my lovely family!)
I had a wonderful few days, York was beautiful and the YBA were brilliant. We all thought the event was incredibly well organised and everyone involved had added so many thoughtful and personal touches. We were all blown away by the amazing staff and students, and I hope I can visit York again soon!
If you’d like to know more about Julian Sedgwick go here; Home | Julian Sedgwick
Chie Kutsuwada is here; Chie Kutsuwada Manga | illustration
Tom Palmer’s website is; Tom Palmer | Children’s Author
And the annual York Book Awards are here; In the Media – York Book Award
Some excellent York Folklore by Icy Sedgwick; Devils, Cats, Tiny Streets & Witches: York Folklore At Its Best – Icy Sedgwick
Came home to this idiot…
I have a Ko-fi page, where you can ‘buy me a coffee’, should you ever wish to. Although I don’t actually like coffee, I like tea or hot chocolate. And cake. There’s a few free downloads available on Ko-fi, and I will try to remember to post more on it!