News, just in from the HMRC on the CTF transfer consultation. The government has come up with a grubby little compromise only allowing transfers from CTFs to JISAs, but also made provisions for intervention at a later date. My reading of this is: it’s just too complicated to do the right thing so we’ll intervene now to get some cheap headlines but intervene later on…
It’s our third and final day of The Savages tour across Angus with The Scottish Book Trust. Together with the road crew, namely Beth and Antonia, we’ve staged events at six schools to 355 pupils. I’d love to share rock and roll tales of excess but this is a literary venture. The edgiest thing we did involved buying hot water bottles to get us through…
There are many rewards that come from talking about books and writing in schools. For the author, it’s a break from the typeface and the chance to fire up young writers to reach for their pens. There’s also a downside, and that becomes apparent when the photographer from a local newspaper is sent along to cover the event. Now, the photographers are always lovely. It’s…
Two weeks ago, I travelled to Lagos, Nigeria, where I had been invited to take part in a literary festival. For security reasons, due to the risk of robbery and kidnap, I was met by an armed guard. Yesterday, arriving at Edinburgh Airport for a three day author tour of schools across Angus, I came through the Arrivals door to be greeted by two short…
In December 2013 The Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour will take to the icy roads of Angus with the brilliant teen author Matt Whyman. High School pupils the length and breadth of Angus will be sinking their teeth into the deliciously macabre world of Matt’s books as he leads them through the darkly comic and twisted paths of his new book The Savages and serves…
How would you like to win a set of 6 Gruffalo cuddly toys including the Gruffalo himself as well as other popular characters from the story; the mouse, the squirrel, the owl, the fox and the snake. Here at Scottish Friendly we’re always interested to hear money saving tips from our customers and we’re very big on savings and investments for families. So we would…
The final day of this tour of the Western Isles took us to Barra, and the sun returned, having not been seen since Monday. Barra is a gorgeous little island and the people really friendly. I’ve been delighted to be able to come to the Western Isles thanks to the organisation of Scottish Book Trust and the generous sponsorship of Scottish Friendly, so I’d like…
Day Four! The weather has really closed in on us now, but still there is no denying the beauty of these islands, even in the wet. And there is no denying also the friendliness of everyone we meet here – including complete strangers – last night a family passing by stopped to ask if we needed directions coming off the ferry, and invited us to…
Day Three of the Scottish Friendly/Scottish Book Trust tour saw us well fed and rested after a lovely dinner last night, at which we met Kathleen Milne, head of library services for the Western Isles. We chatted about all sorts of things and it was interesting to hear about the role of mobile library services on the Isles; as important if not more so than…
Day Two of this tour of the Western Isles of Scotland took us to our most northerly points – the villages of Back and Tolsta, where Team Scottish Book Trust/Sedgwick descended on their respective primary schools. These were smaller events than yesterday in terms of the number of children at each school (though not as small as some of the ones to come later in…
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