During a visit to Guernsey for Children's Book Week, (October 2004), I visited 16 schools in five days!

Children like to meet authors. There are certain times in the year when schools are encouraged to invite an author to visit them. As World Book Day (March or April each year) and Children's Book Week (first week in October) draw near, I get phone calls and emails from schools asking me to come and spend a day with them. I really enjoy school visits, and it's great to be asked. *

My visit is very different from that of a fiction author or a poet. It's a lively fact-filled day in which everyone learns at least one thing they didn't know at the start of the day (and that goes for the teachers, too!).

A school visit is always a busy day. As well as giving talks, readings, and workshops, I sign autographs on little scraps of paper, in class books, but never on arms or clothes! I tuck into the teachers' biscuits and sweets in the staffroom (if they've left any, that is), and have become an 'expert' on school dinners, which are a lot better than when I was at school - honestly!