Picture books at Edinburgh Festival

Saturday - day 6
Time for our lovely illustrators to show case their talent starting with Levi Pinfold and his Storybox event. Parents and children filled the space , sitting cushions and all happily drawing the Django to Levi's expert tuition. Drawing games followed along with Levi reading his story encouraging the children to spot where the Django was hiding. After a vote all decided that John wasn't to blame for the mischief making ....

Then it was Adam Stower's turn - also in the Storybox and again a lovely family audience. Adam used the Slam! Big Book and soon the kids were shouting out what they thought would be happening next. Silly Doggy! Made everyone laugh and then Adam drew their magical wish list for a pet which had a dolphin head, giraffe neck and six frog legs with high heels. As you do!

Levi was back in action that evening in a Book Trust Best New Illustrators panel with Viv Schwarz chaired by Teresa Flavin. He showed an early working of Black Dog which included his editor's notes which intrigued the audience. Lots of questions about his painting techniques and why he chose to work in tempera.

Once again lots of compliments from the audience in the signing tent about Templar books

Edinburgh - Day 2 - part 1

I'd bet my last, precious hardback edition of The 10PM Question that Templar author Kate De Goldi has travelled the furthest of any of the hundreds of authors appearing at the festival - further even than Shaun Tan! Having made the mammoth 27 hour journey from Wellington, New Zealand, Kate opened her festival programme with a lively panel discussion alongside author Saci Lloyd and chaired by Nikki Gamble. In front of an audience of around 100 teenagers, Kate told entertaining anecdotes about her Irish-Italian family, who 'talk a lot' and of how she is from a line of 'threes' - three sisters, three aunties, three great-aunts - the latter of which being her inspiration for the eccentric but lovable 'Aunties' who are the heart of the family in her novel. Most candid however, was her description of how she used her young son's anxieties and nightly questions as her inspiration for 12-year-old Frankie, who is at the centre of a chaotic but loving family impacted by mental illness, and the asker of the all-important 10 p.m. question of the title.

After Saci had shown some mind-boggling futuristic images to illustrate her action-packed dystopian novel, Momentum, a hush came over the audience as Kate read an extract from The 10 P.M. Question; it's obvious why Kate has had a successful radio show in New Zealand for the past few years - this blogger was so enthralled while listening to her read, she forgot to take photos for the blog! Frankie's worries, his big sister Gordana's biting sarcasm, the contentment of the family cat (the brilliantly named Fat Controller), even the 'rodent voices' of worry in Frankie's head, were all brought to life in Kate's musical Kiwi voice.

As the floor was opened up for questions, hands shot up, eager to know how Kate and Saci started as authors and whether they liked writing at school. Despite their novels being very different in theme, Kate and Saci discovered they had both been avid readers as children and shared a festive tradition of reading A Christmas Carol every year.

Moving next door to the signing tent, Kate and Saci were kept busy for half an hour by a huge line of young people wanting everything signed - books, leaflets, bags - some of the teens standing wide-eyed and mute in the presence of these two brilliant authors and some brave enough to ask more questions.

As Frankie and his best friend Gigs might have said, this was an event of 'bonga swetso' proportions (read the book to find out what that means!) and luckily for Edinburgh, there is still more to come from the fabulous Kate De Goldi...

Edinburgh - Day 1 - part 2

After a brief sejourn it was back to business for the Templar team at the Edinburgh book festival on Day One. We excitedly awaited the arrival (no pun intended) of Shaun Tan, the visionary creator of Tales from Outer Suburbia, Eric, The Bird King, The Lost Thing - the list goes on and on.

Now as you all know it's been a big year for Shaun (an Oscar, a Hugo, the ALMA ) so we are so delighted that he's flown over 20 hours to be with Templar at the Edinburgh book festival. Even more exciting was catching a glimpse of Neil Gaiman and Shan deep in conversation - now that's the meeting of two amazing creative brains! When we tweeted this sighting, the twitosphere responded excitedly about what sort of book the two could create! Oh well we can but dream!

Anyway, onto the main event - Shaun Tan's Masterclass. Over 150 people packed into the RBS Corner Theatre to hear about Shaun's inspiration, how he works and how he views his own work. We were treated to a clip from the Oscar winning animation The Lost Thing, as well as a storytelling by Shaun of his tale Eric. He even showed the audience some of his early childhood and student illustrations. It was a truly inspiring event and we all can't wait to hear Shaun talk again on Thursday.

After an hour of signing books with his trademark stamps, finger prints and drawings, we decamped to Centotre on George Street for some italian food - delicious scottish squid and more inspiring and bookish conversation.

The end to a perfect Edinburgh Book Festival day.

Templar in Old Reekie - the view from the Edinburgh Festival

The intrepid Templar 5 (pr guru Jayne Roscoe, editor supremo Emma Goldhawk, Ology mastermind Nghiem Ta, design and photographer extraordinaire Will Steele and bibliogeek Helen Boyle) have headed up to Old Reekie with a whole host of Templar authors and illustrators appearing at the Edinburgh Book festival.

Day 1 - Bombs, medals and stuffed rats
We sometimes wonder how Johnny O'Brien gets through airport security. At his packed schools' event on Tuesday morning, out the suitcase came a WW1 German pith helmet, medals, a telescope, a water pistol (which surely must look dodgy in the x-ray machine) a minature bomb and... a stuffed rat. Yes readers of a sensitive disposition - a stuffed rat!

It was somewhat of a homecoming for Johnny as he kicked off events' schedule for Templar Fiction at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival. Johnny Duddle had had the accolade of being Templar's first EdBookFest 2011 event when he donned piratical gear for a pirate crunching last Monday, but Johhny O'B heralded the start of some exciting events, talks and discussions from Templar fiction authors.

To whet the audiences’ appetite for adventure Johnny began by reading an extract from his first book in the Jack Christie Adventures series Day of Assassins. He plunged them straight into a battle scene where they have travelled back to World War 1, Jack finds himself on the front line with rifle in hand and comes into close contact with the opposition. As the children become immersed in the combat situation where Jack is being held at the mercy of a German soldiers bayonette, Johnny decides to leave the story there, quite literally, on a knife-edge!

The kids were hooked by Johnny's historical time-travel patter and eager to get their hands on the historical loot that had come out of the suitcase as it was handed round - well apart from the rat, who took pride of place on the stage's speeker. Amongst the audience for the event were even a group of children from Johnny's old school in Peebles. They had lots of questions for Johnny, including asking if he was the Johhny O'Brien who'd won a history award and whose name adorned a plaque in their school.

An hour passed in a flash and after the event a large signing queue quickly formed in the bookshop tent - we think they may have even sold out of Day of Assassins stock - hurrah!

The team and Johnny headed back to the authors' yurt for a well-earned cuppa tea, before Johnny jetted off back to his city day job.