Kevin vs the Unicorns

I’ve been so busy trying to point people in the direction of Utterly Dark recently that I’ve forgotten to mention I have ANOTHER book out: Kevin vs the Unicorns. It’s my eighth book with co-writer/illustrator Sarah McIntyre and our fourth story about Kevin, the Roly Poly Flying Pony, and the various goofballs he encounters in the town of Bumbleford.

Kevin vs the Unicorns sees Kevin and his friends Max and Daisy discovering the existence of a Magical Pony Club, consisting of snooty unicorns and their even snootier riders. Goaded into entering their steeplechase, Kevin looks set to be humiliated… But, as so often in Bumbleford, SHENANIGANS are afoot, in the form of a cunning attempt to steal the club’s valuable Periwinkle Cup. Can Kevin save the day?

Well, he probably can, but the RPFP books are more about how the day is saved, and what stupid jokes we can cram in along the way. I think the stories have been getting funnier, from the quite gentle humour of The Legend of Kevin to the manic guinea pig car chase hi-Jinks of Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit, and I think Kevin vs the Unicorns is the funniest so far. Much giggling was had while we wrote and illustrated it, anyway - we amuse ourselves, if no one else.

Needless to say, none of it would have been possible without the team at Oxford University Press - here’s designer Holly Fulbrook, editor Clare Whitston (now freelance, if you're in need of top-notch editing skills), and our tireless publicist Liz Scott - it’s been a pleasure to work with them all.

And we’ve taken the liberty of dedicating this book to all the booksellers, without whom all this book-writing and publishing lark would be pretty pointless. It’s been great over the past couple of years to see lots of new, independent bookshops opening in the small towns near me - and then not so great to see them all forced to close for months on end because of the pandemic. Watching the ingenious ways they’ve navigated these choppy waters is what led us to do the #ReeveAndMcIntyreBigUpBookshops virtual tour, and it’s also inspired the banner Neville and Beyoncé are holding aloft on the imprint page. If you're buying Kevin vs the Unicorns* and you have the option, please buy from your nearest indie. (There's a handy list here.)

*Other books are available.

Sarah has a whole load of Kevin related activities on her website, including a classroom pack developed with teacher Claire Williams for anyone wanting to use the book in schools.

There's also this IMPRESSIVE CERTIFICATE which you can print out and award yourself when you've won a race, read a book, put the bins out, or whatever. Impress your friends by framing it for the wall of your office or toilet!

We hope you enjoy Kevin vs the Unicorns. News about the next Reeve & McIntyre project will be coming soon...

Thunder City

This September Scholastic will be publishing my new novel set in the world of Mortal Engines . Here’s the cover, created (like all the others in the series) by Ian McQue . The rule I set for myself when I was writing this one was that it shouldn’t feature any of the people or places from previous Mortal Engines books. So Thunder Cit y takes place just over a century before the original book, when the town-eat-town world of Traction Cities is slightly less ruthless than it will become later, and none of the characters from the original quartet has even been born yet. (I suppose Mr Shrike must be bimbling about somewhere, but he’s still just yer basic implacable killing machine at this point so there’s not much point in paying him a visit). So hopefully this new take will be accessible to people who’ve never read Mortal Engines , and hopefully people who have read it will enjoy an adventure set in the same world. My pen and ink drawing of the Traction City of Thorbury, after...

Lord of the Rings 7: Minas Tirith

'This is not a work which many adults will read through more than once,' claimed the historical novelist Alfred Duggan, reviewing The Lord of the Rings when it was published. But I've read it through LOADS of times and now I'm blogging my latest re-read, so what did he know? And so we come to Minas Tirith, Tower of Guard, citadel of Gondor, seven tiers of fancy white fortifications built against a buttress of Mount Mindolluin, with the Tower of Ecthelion rising a thousand feet above the plain. It seems to me the template on which a whole genre of knock-off fantasy cities has been based - I guess Robert E Howard and people wrote about such places before Tolkien, and perhaps there were cities of equal grandeur on Barsoom, but when concept art threads on Instagram throw up unlikely gold and marble castles built on mountaintops and over waterfalls they always look distinctly Minas Tirithy to me. I'm wondering now if London in Mortal Engines was subconsciously echoin...

Merlin (1998)

I remember Merlin being shown on TV as a two-part mini-series over a bank holiday weekend. The version I found on YouTube is a single three hour movie, but I think it might work better in two chunks, as originally broadcast. It still works pretty well, though. Director Steve Barron is completely infatuated with video editing tricks and slightly primitive CGI effects that I’m sure were state-of-the-art when it was made, but he uses them quite inventively, and there are some very enjoyable performances. Since First Knight was such a washout, I guess this is the definitive ‘90s Arthurian film. Like Excalibur , the definitive ‘80s Arthurian film, it tries to tell the entirety of the Arthur story, but since it’s main focus is Merlin it covers a lot more too, and Arthur himself ends up being a bit of a side-character, with the rise and fall of Camelot packed into the second half. At first glance, Merlin seems to be aligning itself with what I’m coming to think of as the Low Arthurian tradi...

Kate Gilderdale said…

I just wanted to say that the Kevin books have helped us through this pandemic. My grandchildren love them and so do I. We live in Canada but I was born in the UK and the humour, sweetness and wonderfully eccentric characters are such a welcome diversion from the gloom and doom of our world. I can't wait to get Kevin Vs the Unicorns when it is available here.

1 November 2021 at 12:07

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