Island of Dreams is an account of Dan Boothby’s time as an unpaid volunteer warden on Kyleakin Lighthouse Island, a former home of the famous writer Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water and other books. The lighthouse is no longer a lighthouse, and the island is barely an island – it serves as a foot… Read More
Author: John
The cover of my book, The Wreck of the Argyll, has a quote from the author and historian Allan Burnett: “An exciting and fast-paced spy thriller, The Wreck of the Argyll is my kind of story.” I’ve always been particularly pleased with that quote, for one reason above all others. Back in September 2014, I was… Read More
Railhead by Philip Reeve is the story of Zen Starling, thief and railhead – someone who loves the great locomotives that ride the rails between the worlds. It’s the far future, and humanity has spread out amongst the stars. Interstellar space travel is too difficult due to the vast distances involved, but for centuries there… Read More
At just after 0430 on the morning of the 28th of October, 1915, the Royal Navy armoured cruiser HMS Argyll ran aground on the treacherous reef by the Bell Rock Lighthouse and was wrecked. That was one hundred years ago today. The Argyll had been undergoing a refit at Plymouth and was on her way… Read More
I woke up this morning with the theme tune to Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face in my head, which as earworms go, is probably about as bad as it gets. This can only mean one thing – yesterday was the UKMG Extravaganza in Nottingham’s Central Library. Over thirty children’s authors were in one room for an afternoon… Read More
Back in June of this year, the nice folks at the Wigtown Book Festival invited me to come to their town and give a talk about my book, The Wreck of the Argyll. Now, I’m not at my most comfortable talking in front of an audience – anyone who was at the book launch will… Read More
Friday, 25th September, 2015, was the big day – the day my first novel, The Wreck of the Argyll, was launched. My partner Sandra and I made the 400-mile trip up from Leicester the previous day – we usually drive up to Dundee about once a year, but this year we’ve become a bit more… Read More
Pugs of the Frozen North is the third collaboration between writer Philip Reeve and illustrator Sarah McIntyre, after Oliver and the Seawigs (reviewed on this blog) and Cakes in Space (one of my top books of 2014) and it’s the best yet – assuming you like pugs. I think pugs are great, with their comical… Read More
In one week, my book, The Wreck of the Argyll, is being launched in Dundee. It’ll be the first time I’ve been back in Dundee since the prize ceremony back in March, when it was announced that I’d won the Great War Dundee Children’s Book Prize, and I’m really looking forward to catching up with everyone… Read More
The Wolf Wilder is the story of Feo – short for Feodora – who lives in the snowy woods of Tsarist Russia with her mother. Both of them are wolf wilders – people who take in wolves who have been adopted as pets by aristocrats then abandoned when it became clear that a wolf could… Read More