Throughout March and April I was busy presenting Blue John at libraries, schools and bookshops.

At Buxton library I dressed up as Blue John and librarian Angela Wilkinson dressed as the Queen of Darkness, and we had much fun helping children to make Blue John models, sparkly stalactites and glittering jewels. To find more ways of using Blue John in the classroom see my Blue John page.

The competition to win a signed copy of Blue John was closed on Easter Sunday, when my web wizard drew correct entries from the following entrants out of his hat. They are: Barbara Selley, Hilary Jackson, Jax Blunt and Heather Savage. Congratulations!

The BIG NEWS for 2017 is the longed-for new publication of an old favourite – Blue John.

Many, many people have asked if this popular book will ever come back into print, and I’m thrilled to tell you that Barrington Stoke have published it in a beautiful Little Gem pocket size story book format that is just right for small hands.

This wonderful publisher also published Joe and the Dragonosaurus last year. The font size and illustrations make these books also dyslexia-friendly, so every child can enjoy them.

I live very close to the Derbyshire village of Castleton, famous for its caverns and the lovely Blue John stone which is unique to the area.

My story is a made-up tale about how a child called Blue John was created out of ice and fire and kept in a cool dark cavern for hundreds of years, until one day…

To read more about the book and how I came to write the original story, click here.

Blue John is dedicated to Jane Nissen, who was my editor for many years including the time when the first edition of Blue John was published.

News just in: Joe and the Dragonosaurus has been included in the Reading Agency’s 2017 Summer Reading Challenge!

In the past twelve months several of my books have been given new covers, which is a great treat.

They are: Dear Nobody, Classic Fairy Tales and Street Child.

Dear Nobody, a novel for young adults, won the Carnegie medal. Classic Fairy Tales, beautifully illustrated by Jane Ray, was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway award, and Street Child is a Collins Modern Classic.

Watch out for more new jackets this year!

One of the highlights of last year, and in fact of my writing career, was when the Barnardo Society celebrated its 150 years’ anniversary in a special event which was held at St Paul’s Cathedral.

It was a beautiful evening of music, poetry, anecdotes and readings, and the whole event began and ended with candlelit readings from Street Child and Far from Home.

I’m sure you can imagine how moved I was when Thomas Barnardo walked up the aisle, hand in hand with Jim Jarvis! Here I am with Kevin and Linda Crossley-Holland and composer Cecilia McDowall (Kevin and Cecilia contributed a glorious choral song ‘As Each Leaf Dances’ to the evening) and also with Alan Pilgrim, who became a ‘Barnardo boy’ 85 years ago.

Two more events that I was delighted to participate in were both connected with the Sheffield Off the Shelf Literature Festival in October, where I co-judged both the Sheffield Authors Short Story competition and the Novel Slam.

In both events the standard was very high and the performances excellent. Congratulations to winners Sarah Peacock and Delaina Haslam.

Update and apology 13 February:

The original version of this article, and therefore the version that was included in my email newsletter, named the wrong person as winner of the novel slam. This has now been corrected, and I have also named all the other people present on the photo. My sincere apologies!

Another of the year’s highlights was a visit to Deal Parochial School to see their production of Far From Home, the companion book to Street Child. In the previous year the school had performed Street Child, and I was so impressed by the DVD that had been sent to me that I was very keen to see this new production. I wasn’t disappointed.

I’ve attended many school productions and have always been impressed and excited by how children and their teachers bring my story and characters to life, but I have to say that this musical dramatisation of Far From Home was outstanding. Thank you to Joy Spencer and John Wakeman, who wrote the script and music, and to all the other people involved, especially those wonderful actors!

The photos show me with the entire cast and The Dearies (Samuel Gough and Zed Place).

Street Child continues to inspire many children, and in the past month I’ve had tweets from many schools including, most recently, Sedgefield Primary, Alston Primary, Havelock Primary, Appleton Primary… to mention just four of many!

Teachers and readers have also tweeted enthusiastically recently about Abela, The Company of Ghosts, Children of Winter and Far From Home.

The letters keep coming in too, and they’re always a joy to read. Thank you to year 6 of Broomfield School in Northallerton for choosing to name itself after me! Also to Greystone School in Antrim, Ashlands School in Ilkley for their beautifully written and illustrated letters, Northallerton School, William Levick School in Dronfield Woodhouse, Loreto High School in Chorlton, Chillingham Road Primary School in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Bowden Primary in Altrincham, Nicole from Hendon, Ella Durbajlo from Hampshire, Leicester Grammar Junior, and children from Nancy Reuben in Hendon for particularly interesting and well-written letters.

Grace Beales of Wyle Valley C of E school in Warminster wrote to me about Spellhorn, asking some interesting questions, including: What is the Old Woman’s name? Is she the same person as Flight? I wonder if you know the answers. She also asked if I knew anyone who is blind. Well, it was thanks to blind and partially sighted children Holly DeArden, Richard Gaynor, David Hathaway and Richard Starling that I came to write Spellhorn, all those years ago.

For my star letter this time I have chosen a whole school, William Levick Primary school, who have been reading Valentine’s Day. I picked out one of their letters, and it’s from Nikijas. It wins for his school a copy of Blue John.

And the answer to your question, Nikijas, is yes, I hope so! I’m working on one right now.

I hope you’re having a really good reading year. Here are a couple of recommendations of the best books I’ve read so far this year:

Adult fiction: His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.
Children’s: The Girl in Between by Sarah Carroll.

Happy reading!