Station Zero

  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...

Back in the Lockdowns my long-time collaborator and current lodger/studio mate Sarah McIntyre started painting pictures of nautical mice heading off aboard sailing ships and seaplanes for adventures on the High Seas. She turned them into prints and cards, but we always knew they’d have to have some stories of their own some day, and we’re happy to announce our new ADVENTUREMICE series, which we’re working on with editor Liz Cross and designer Ness Wood for David Fickling Books (who also publish my Utterly Dark novels). The first two books will be launched next spring, and you can read more details (and see more pictures) over on Sarah’s blog .

Here’s a link to In the Bleak Midwinter , a short story set in the world of Mortal Engines and featuring Shrike and young Hester. I wrote about ten years ago, and it was my first collaboration with Sarah McIntyre, who did the illustrations - we were still trying to work out how we were going to work together in those days. My version vanished when my old website went down,  there’s still a copy on Sarah’s website .  And here’s a Christmas story we wrote about our Roly Poly Flying Pony, Kevin . Like the Mortal Engines one, it’s a good few years old, and we drag it out every December and dust the cobwebs off it, but it may be new to some of you.  Happy Christmas!

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 man...

When Kevin arrived in the beautiful old city of Norwich, he was expecting to be met by Dan and Leanne Fridd, the owners of Bookbugs and Dragon Tales . But to his surprise, an actual bookbug and an actual dragon were waiting for him. “Hello!” said the Bookbug. “I’m Leanne and this is Dan.” “Hello!” said Kevin. “I was sort of expecting you to be human beings.” “We are!” said the Bookbug. “But we were put under a spell by a Wicked IT Consultant.” “Oh, do they do spells now?” asked Kevin. “This one does - she used to be a Wicked Witch, but there’s not much money in that these days, so she took a training course. Anyway, she turned me into a bookbug and Dan into a dragon.” “So we thought the only thing for it was to open a bookshop,” said the dragon. “Luckily,” the bookbug went on, “a Good Dog-Groomer was able to cast a counter-spell…” “She used to be a good fairy,” explained the dragon, “but she took a training course,” “She couldn’t undo the IT Consultant’s curse completely, but we ca...

The author Holly Bourne has come up with a neat way for authors to support indie bookshops this Christmas , in a year when those shops have been forced to shut for months on end and even more business than usual has been going to the online giants. Holly is encouraging authors and illustrators to supply free, signed bookplates to any customers who purchase one of their books from an independent bookshop. If you check the #SignForOurBookshops hashtag on Twitter you'll find a lot of big names have already pledged their support, so if you're planning to give books as presents, or just buy a big old stack of them for yourself, this is a nice way to personalise them. Naturally Sarah McIntyre and I wanted to get involved, so Sarah has designed 100 exclusive Reeve&McIntyre bookplates. They feature Kevin, the roly-poly hero of The Legend of Kevin, Kevin's Great Escape and Kevin and the Biscuit Bandit, but all our characters share the same universe so they'll look just fi...