The word “Christmas” is now in almost constant use round here; mince pies in the shops and decorations making their first appearance on high streets the length and breadth of the country, my thoughts have turned to Christmas preparations. Only two months to go…
And not only am I thinking of food and drink, presents and cards but also of school plays and all those little traditions that families make their own at this time of year. We love reading Christmas-y books to get us in the mood, and we have two to mention here that will get you in the spirit: Horrid Henry’s Christmas Play is now available as an early reader and is a hilarious eye-opening read about the school nativity. It’s perfect for keeping the little darlings quiet while you write lots of Christmas lists.
Our second recommendation is the perfect Christmas present for any Horrid Henry fan: Horrid Henry’s A-Z of Everything Horrid is brilliantly illustrated in full colour and has brilliant double page spreads of Tony Ross’ artwork, with Francesca Simon’s hilarious run down of everything you can think of in Horrid Henry’s world. Definitely one to keep them busy on Christmas morning.
If these two books aren’t enough to keep your clan quiet we have a special competition: you can win five sets of all 20 Horrid Henry story books by answering the following question in the comments:
What is Horrid Henry’s teacher called?
If you’re anything like me, then you’d have been watching the Eleventh Doctor’s second series finale with bated breath, and have been eagerly waiting the Christmas episode ever since. Well, the title of the Christmas special was finally revealed on Children in Need the other night – 
An author never knows where the creative pixie dust will fall. For me it was on a recent trip to England, Scotland and Ireland as part of a publicity tour for my publisher Pan Macmillan and my new novel The Sixth Man. I ventured to Harrogate for the Crime Writing Festival and stayed at the Old Swan. There, I seemed to be channeling Agatha Christie, or at least as much as an American writer can. I tried to mentally transport myself back to the time when Christie was making her indelible mark on the literary world. I would go back to my hotel room and the pages would fly out of me.
Awards evoke all kinds of different emotions and responses. Perhaps the stupidest and rudest comment I’ve ever heard was actress Honeysuckle Weeks trying to be funny at the ITV3 Book Awards last week, as she was about to announce the People’s Bestseller Dagger – won by – erm – me! “Awards are like haemorrhoids. Sooner or later everybody gets one.” Boy, did she know how to make someone feel good.
With 25 published novels and 10 film adaptations to his name, John Grisham’s impact on contemporary fiction cannot be underestimated. Rising to fame with his second published novel, The Firm, which spent 47 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, he has gone on to publish a stream of successful fiction and non fiction books that have sold over 250 million copies worldwide.
