Blogging debut

Gosh - ok - my first entry on the UBG blog - and my first entry on any blog ever.

I'm just taking a break from working on the revised edition of the Ultimate Book Guide for 8-12 year-olds, which is going to include lots of new titles that have been published since 2004 when the first edition came out.

I'm immersed in the moment in Allan Ahlberg's 'Boyhood of Burglar Bill' which is totally fantastic. It's autobiographical, and about how as a small boy Allan and his friends get a football team together for the Coronation Cup. Now, I couldn't be less interested in football, but his writing is so compelling that I'm busy agonising over every twist in the team's fortunes. It's the first time in a while that I've persuaded myself to read something other than the totally addictive Cathy Cassidy. (Apart from the Icelandic detective story that I've just read for my book group, but I won't even get into that.)

Now I'm going to try to post this...