Station Zero

Isn't it typical? You wait eighteen months for the return of book festivals and the premiere of exciting new musical comedies what you half wrote, and then they both come along at once! On Saturday, Sarah McIntyre and I were invited to the Barnes Children's Book Festival, in south-west London. It's always a lovely event, and it was great to see it up and running again - the audience masked, and none of the usual marquees on Barnes Green, but otherwise feeling pretty much like normal. Sarah and I were both feeling a bit out of practise, but it all came back to us and, with some help from the audience, we told the story of Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit, and then helped criminal mastermind guinea pigs Neville and Beyoncé steal Michael Morpurgo's golden crown (he never attends a book festival without it).  We also each did a solo session: Sarah's Grumpycorn picture book event turned into a dinosaur event, and I talked about Mortal Engines, Railhead , and Utterly Dark ....

"I know they say 'God is an Englishman' - but I never thought He'd be quite this English..." Last summer, in the gap between Lockdowns, Brian Mitchell and I finally sat down and wrote Lord God , a musical comedy we'd been talking about doing ever since we finished The Ministry of Biscuits, twenty years ago. And on June 10th this year it will have its premiere at Brighton Open Air Theatre , with a tour to follow as soon as things settle down a bit and venues become available again. Poster by Sarah McIntyre When the Lord God is persuaded by His retainer and chief-cook-and-bottle-washer Gabriel to take an incognito holiday to a Devonshire seaside hotel (largely to get Him out from under His angels’ feet), He looks forward to a fortnight of u ninterrupted tennis, billiards, tea on the terrace and the latest Agatha Christie. But the presence of campaigning atheist Professor ‘Minty’ Tweddle and her fiance, notoriously hard-to-please theatre critic Rex Addis...