February 04, 2017

Garden Party Gorgeousness!

What a brilliant series of events we had! I hope that everyone who came along to the garden parties to celebrate the launch of Alice-Miranda Holds the Key enjoyed them as much as I did. It was an absolute treat to visit Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra. The sometimes unpredictable Australian summer weather was very kind to us and all the fabulous fans (and their parents and grandparents AND pets) who came along, made the events so special. Even a very nasty bout of food poisoning the night before our Melbourne Garden Party couldn’t keep me away! Thank goodness for publicists armed with Lucozade and electrolytes :).

There was loads of Alice-Miranda inspired craft (the flower crowns were adorable!), book signings, hilarious readers’ theatre with ‘woofs’, ‘baas’, ‘hee-haws’ and some seriously impressive Caprice ‘foot stomping’ and Myrtle Parker snootiness. I loved seeing the gorgeous garden party outfits (and hats!). Not to mention the most amazing Alice-Miranda cakes in every location! They were all different and delicious.

I was especially delighted that we were able to raise almost $2,000 for the Dymocks Children’s Charities. I’m very proud to be an author ambassador for the DCC and applaud the work they do getting books into the hands of kids who need them most. Access to books is vital if we want children to become readers – and it’s a really important indicator of success at school too. I think the gift of stories is so special – all children deserve to have windows to other worlds and opportunities to fire their imaginations.

I also want to make a special mention of the team at Penguin Random House who put the events together and the good people at Child Magazine for their support too. Don’t forget you still have until the 28th February to get your entry into the fabulous writing competition to win your way into the next Alice-Miranda book! Check out all the details on the blog. There’s one person in particular who did so much work – my publicist, Zoe, who I know many of you got to meet. She truly is a star and I want to say a special thank you to her for everything!