Last weekend I went back to my old manor to the Greenwich Book Festival(well I hail from Woolwich, the rough side of town). I was a bit nervous because somehow I was billed as doing both Superbat and Spyder in one session! But it went really well and i had a great time! I even got on the official poster! Ok i was last and I think i only got on the because I've got a short name but hey!
As usual my blog is about two weeks out of date but last week i went to the high brow literature festival at Hay on Wye. I was the lowest brow thing there but it was really good fun!
On Wednesday i went up to Cambridge to the Read It First Award Ceremony, wearing the same outfit i always wear! Met some lovely people and loads of funny kids and OD'd on orange squash. I didn't win but it was great to be on the list as its chosen by actual kids!
It's been a busy time of late on the book front with trips to Cardiff Kids lit Fest and Oxford Bookfeast which were both great fun. Also been put on the shortlist for the Indie Bookshop Book Award which is a great honour! Have zero chance of winning obviously with the likes of Rob Biddulph, Judith Kerr and Julia Donaldson on there, but it's nice to be in the same company as them!
Very fiddly illustrations of cameras through the ages for the RMG Greenwich Seaside photography exhibition. Good job i'm a wobbly line drawing specialist! Here is a link to the exhibition
Just designed this book to celebrate the centenary of the RAF. it includes quite a few plane illustrations and it was a bit of a behemoth!
I am probably one of the world's slowest bloggers, usually taking two weeks to post news and I've done it again with this post about my lovely evening at the Waterstones Childrens Book Prize. It was a great night which went by in a flash. I didn't win anything except Britain's most popular bat based children's picture book (by default!). It was very exciting though and there was loads of people there (Waterstones Piccadilly). To cap it all off I met my comedy hero Michael Palin afterwards and made a right prat of myself!
Its been a week or two but I went out to two SE London schools on a snowy WBD. Goodrich and Harris Primary and read Spyder to 5 classes. It went well and was the first outing for my new SPYDER hoodie! Have a look here!
I was a bit nervous to be reading SPYDER in public for the first time at Discover Story Centre in Stratford and also to premiere my new Craft idea - making spiders ! But i needn't have worried... it went really well... the kids made some brilliant spiders and all seemed to have a good good time... it was chaos as usual... pipe cleaners everywhere!
Unbelievably SUPERBAT has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2018. I was told back in November and have had to keep it a secret until last week. I'm flabbergasted to be honest! Click here to visit the site. The prize giving event is on March 22nd. Blimey!
Just worked on the graphics for Channel 4's #Vote100 advert, featuring milestones of women's rights over the last century. You can watch it here.
My new book SPYDER, about a spy spider is out next month you can buy it here
Some more nice Bat News. Superbat has been shortlisted for The Read It Again book awards. “The Read it Again!” award, now in its thirteenth year, is for an outstanding debut children’s picture book first published between November 2016 and October 2017 where both words and pictures are the work of one individual. The prize is awarded by Cambridgeshire Library Service and voting takes place across schools from January to the end of March. Click here to see the shortlist
It was funny to see one of my old prop posters in an episode of BBC drama McMafia the other night!
It's a bit late I know but I won an award in November! The North Somerset Teachers Book Award. The other shortlisted people in my category were all proper big names and I think I only won because i was the only one to turn up in person! But hey, a win is a win and it was a lovely afternoon with lots of cake and i met some really nice people too! Here is a photo of me looking uncomfortable. http://www.northsomersetteachersbookaward.com/blog/?offset=1511471071818
I'm going back to my old sign writing roots at the moment doing a sign for Work editorial. I did the last one when they opened 11 years ago and it's still hanging but starting to look a little bit tired. So i've done a new one for them.
Superbat has been shortlisted for an award! http://www.northsomersetteachersbookaward.com/2017-award which is great! I was on the long list which was amazing and then they told me that i'd made the shortlist with a load of proper authors. The ceremony is in November in weston super Mare and there's going to be loads of cake!
It's been a busy few months for Superbat! He seems to be going down well which is nice. I've done a few events. In the summer I was miked up in the middle of Westfield which was a bit of an experience I can tell you. I'm not usually one for shopping centres and Westfield is like a shopping centre that's eaten another couple of shopping centres. Anyway i digress. on Saturday i was at Rye Books in Peckham for an event and it was great.
After I did the cover for Viva Lewes in august I had a few people asking for prints of one of the designs. So i got some made up. Email me at matt@hickindustries.com if you are interested in getting one!
When I'm working I listen to A LOT of radio and throughout the summer I love to listen to Test Match Special. On the first day of the third test against South Africa at The Oval Phil Tufnell was chosen to hand Toby Roland Jones his first England cap and in the TMS box they asked what he told the young man. Phil, in his own inimitable style just said 'What a wonderful day to be alive'. I don't know why but this tickled me and I made up a quick T Shirt design to commemorate it. It went down well (Even Phil loves them) and so we (Silverstick) made some up, with all proceeds going to Cancer Research!
