Ian Whybrow

Up betimes and off to Berkshire – Bracknell to be precise – to talk to Sandy Lane Primary School and to celebrate the official opening of the county’s ( and the world’s) first Mobile Library to be entirely decorated with Harry and dinosaurs.

I leave home at 6.30 and head for the M25 – and blow me if I don’t arrive in Bracknell at 8.00 am. This is a world record. My reward for this early arrival is to be invited to talk to the nursery children. Three year olds at this time of the day are unpredicatable – but we get through it without anybody needing the loo , thanks to a few laughs about Wobble who can only say yellow, and some robot action – marching, saluting, blasting, etc – as a prelude to a reading of Harry and the Robots. Emerge unscathed.

Speak to most of the school (7-11 year olds) about what I do. Adrian arrives at 10.30 from Cambridge and we face the entire school – 4 to 6 year-olds included. We give them the lowdown about the way we work on books, read a couple of stories and have a conversation with the children various Harry matters. Then off to explore the bookbus, face the cameras, celebrate the launch of this magnificent vehicle (Loud cheers for Peter of Peter’s Booksellers and Penny Dimmack the Services Support Manager in these regions, who sweated blood to get this up and running and delivered on time from Arbroath) and sign for three quarters of an hour. I have a fumbling bash with my digital recording device. Must send the results to Mark Blevis to see whether he can make anything interesting out of a strange and rambling set of soundbites.