And the winner is . . .



Q: What could be more exciting than The Mystery of the Whistling Caves being nominated for a Holyer an Gof* award?

A: The Mystery of the Whistling Caves winning a Holyer an Gof award!

Insert small victory dance here!

My very first book award! Or rather, our award, as it's for everyone who has made Adventure Island happen, and not just for me!

The award ceremony was held at Waterstones book shop in Truro, Cornwall on Thursday evening. I put my party frock on, went along and had a lovely time - it was fascinating to hear the awards for the Cornish language books being made in Cornish, and a

great honour to win the Young Adult book category (by which I think they really meant older children's books, to distinguish from the picture book category). I was presented with a beautiful certificate - and I just noticed on the award website that I get to donate £50 to a Cornish charity of my choice - I'll enjoy finding out about some charities and picking one.

Soon to appear in a frame on my office wall!

The window display of Waterstones, Truro

The award also  gave me the perfect excuse to visit my sister and husband who live near Penzance. It's a long way from Cambridge so we don't go that often. My son Will came along too. The sun was shining (a real bonus this summer!) and we had a wonderful day walking on the coast path between Sennen and Lands End, and on the beach at Sennen, before going into Truro for the awards. Thank you to J and P for a fabulous day and for being the Adventure Island support team for the evening!

Lands End (zoom in to see a very special place name on the sign!)

Inspirational Cornwall!

 The  long  train journey was great for getting lots of work done on the next Adventure Island book too - especially after being inspired by a short but sweet dose of that wonderful Cornish sea and landscape.
If you don't live in Cornwall, you may not have heard of the Holyer an Gof awards. This is from their website . . .


The annual Holyer an Gof Awards were instigated in 1996 and are so named in memory of Redruth Publisher and Cornish Bard Leonard Truran (above), whose bardic name was Holyer an Gof - Follower of The Smith.  
Established and organised  by members of Gorsedh Kernow to raise the standard and profile of publishing in Cornwall, they are an award for Publishers, given for books written in the Cornish Language or with a Cornish theme.