Three things I'm REALLY excited about in 2015 and we're only 10 days in…

RHCBA_logo1. Last month I told you about the competition to win free tickets to the amazing Red House Children’s Book Award ceremony which is going to be held in London on the South Bank at the Royal Festival Hall at the end of the Imagine Festival on the 21st February. I wanted to show you the video I made about it but it was so new it wasn’t up on You Tube yet – but it is now – do click on the link HERE. It’d be so brilliant if a GHB reader won and I got to say hello 🙂

2. Are you taking part in Read For My School? I just know I would have loved taking part in this when I was at school. Once I’d caught the reading bug l read everything I could and this would have perfect. Did you take part in it last year?about us

th3. I know lots of you, like me, love all sorts of animals. But the book I’ve been working on recently called The Runaways (it’s at proof reading stage now The_Runawaysand not out for a few more months) is about an elephant who gets sent to work on a farm in WWI. During my research I got to meet lots of elephants and to worry about them a lot too. But also uplifted and given hope by the many stories of human kindness and elephant awesomeness. One of the places I was really impressed by (I didn’t go there – just saw them on You Tube) were the animal sanctuaries for old circus and zoo elephants. I was also reading about Anne the circus elephant now all alone at Longleat. I wanted her to have a companion like the elephants at the sanctuaries. I started a petition via Change.org – even though I soon found out there had been lots of petitions for Anne before. I wrote to Longleat but didn’t get a reply and I wrote to the Bom Free Foundation. A couple of days ago we had a letter from the Bom Free Foundation to say they were hoping to create the first European elephant sanctuary for ex-captive zoo and circus elephants in lovely warm Tuscany and I think that’s a very good idea indeed 🙂 More details about it HERE.

What’s been good for you so far in 2015?

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