Station Zero

Another post dredged up from the wreck of my old blog. All the links have broken, and the format is messed up, but I’m leaving it here anyway, for old time’s sake. Behind the Sword in the Stone - The Premiere In the ancient oak woods on the Glendalough Estate in County Wicklow stands this mysterious mossy pillar. At first glance it might be mistaken for an old gate-post, but in fact it's a bit of movie archaeology. For these are the woods where, back in 1980, John Boorman shot his movie  Excalibur , and this relic is the concrete stabiliser from inside the artificial boulder in which Excalibur itself was stuck. There's a slot in the top into which the sword would have fitted, and the two bolts on the side would have been tightened up to make sure that no one but King Arthur (Nigel Terry) could draw it from the stone... a trick that would appeal to my own Myrddin, in  Here Lies Arthur. I was in Ireland last week for the premiere of  Behind the Sword in the Stone , a docume...

  Today, with a small but impressive drum-roll, and a barely audible fanfare from teeny tiny trumpets, we announce the launch of the THIRD Adventuremice book, Mice on the Ice . This time there’s a festive feel in the air: the sea around the Mouse Islands has frozen over and the mice are all getting excited fro their annual Frost Fair. But when the ship that’s sailed to the mainland to nab some festive goodies gets stuck in the ice, it’s up to the Adventuremice team to save the day. As usual with Reeve & McIntyre productions, the story was devised by both of us amid much giggling, then I wrote the words (with some help from Sarah), and we did the roughs together. Then Sarah spent MONTHS AND MONTHS drawing and painting the final artwork. I think she’s outdone herself this time - the chilly backgrounds make the interiors feel even cosier, and the colours really zing against the whites and greys of the ice. All the images are original watercolours, and if you’d like to buy one yo...

Jonny Hibbs as Sir Ruan, testing out the Globe’s projection facilities… …and waiting for the lights to go down. Last Thursday our film Gwenevere had its first proper showing on the big screen, courtesy of the Chagford Film Festival. I wasn’t sure what it would look like or how it would go down, but all was well: Sarah Reeve’s photography looked gorgeous, and there were laughs and gasps in all the right places from a packed audience at the Globe Inn.  Some of the packed audience - Maria Loftus, Stuart Pyle, and Sarah McIntyre We weren’t able to reassemble the whole cast and crew, but about half the team were present. Here’s Alan Lee, Rosanna Lambert, Arran Hawkins, Laura Frances Martin, Sasha Innes, Sarah Reeve, me, Stuart Pyle, Tessa Arrowsmith-Brown, Sarah McIntyre, and Steve Arrowsmith-Brown. Local hero Alan Lee got a definite murmur of approval for his brief cameo as a shepherd. And I was glad Elizabeth-Jane Baldry of the Chagford Filmmaking Group was able to come: she was very...