Robin Stevens's Blog, page 56

On Friday, Jolly Foul Play had its second launch day, at Birmingham’s beautiful new Waterstones. The store were wonderful hosts – they set up a bunbreak for us, and lots of fans came along. It was wonderful to see you all, and great to know that I’ve got fans in the Midlands!

We held a cover-illustration competition, with detective notebooks as the prizes, and I was very impressed by the entries. It was very difficult to pick the winners – congratulations to everyone who entered, and especially to the winners, Lilly and Lydia!

Below are some pictures from the event – if you were there, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Bunbreak ready to go!

Detectives hard at work on their covers!

One of the winning entries – by Lilly

The other winner – by Lydia

Honourable mention – this incredible space adventure by Ben!

With the winners, Lydia and Lilly!

And finally, my bunbreak on the way home – thank you so much to Jamie at Birmingham Waterstones!

Next weekend I’m going to be visiting both Cambridge and Oxford, for sold-out events at their festivals. My next public signing will be at Waterstones Milton Keynes, on the 12th April at 4:30pm – and after that, I’ll be visiting Cambridge Waterstones on the 16th at 3. Please come see me, and help me continue Jolly Foul Play‘s wonderful first month!

A sticky toffee pudding bunbreak for Jolly FOul Play!

Jolly Foul Play is well and truly out in the world! I’ve been getting so many pictures of the book, and all of you reading it – I’m adding them all to my Jolly Foul Play Pinterest board as they come in, and it’s looking wonderful!

As part of launching the book, I’ve been eating a lot of bunbreak, and also doing lots of interviews. If you’d like to read about how I write my mysteries – or you’re wondering how to go about writing your own – I’ve written a blog for the Waterstones website about how to construct the perfect crime. I was also interviewed by Bernie Keith on BBC Radio Northampton yesterday about murder, mysteries and Jolly Foul Play – you can listen again here for the next month.

If you’d like to come to one of my Jolly Foul Play tour events, you’ve got lots of opportunities. The full list is here – next up is my Birmingham Waterstones launch, tomorrow at 4pm. It’s free, and there will be bunbreak and activity packs. And, of course, I’ll be signing all of my books!

It’s been a great first week of Jolly Foul Play. Thank you so much for being part of it – I really do feel lucky to have such wonderful fans.

On Saturday 26th March I launched my fourth book, Jolly Foul Play, in London’s Covent Garden Waterstones. I have to thank the resourcefulness of the Waterstones Trafalgar Square staff, who were so enthusiastic about the event that they did not let a flood in their basement stop it, and the generosity of the staff at Waterstones Covent Garden, who stepped in to host at two days’ notice.

The store was set out beautifully, with huge piles of all of my books. Seeing the four of them together as a series is still incredible to me – I can’t believe that I wrote all of them!

With my whole series!

We had a bunbreak set out, of course, with ginger beer and lemon shortbread biscuits that I baked myself.

I was overwhelmed by the wonderful fans who came along – some of you dressed for the occasion, and some even brought me presents! I enjoyed meeting each and every one of you, and I thought your questions and ideas were fantastic. I even met some girls whose whole class were writing a Murder Most Unladylike TV show!

Thank you so much for being there, if you were – and if you couldn’t be, I hope I’ll see you soon! Below are some pictures from the events. I had such a great time, and I can’t wait to do it all again in Birmingham this Friday!

With Sophie and Samira, who dressed in yellow for the book! You can see my flowers from Iris in the background.

With Maryam and Sophia, who are dressed as Deepdean girls!

With Ruben, blogger extraordinaire!

Some of the attendees at the 12pm event!

With Sophie, fan and blogger!

With Jasmine and Zara, who brought me a sweet bunbreak!

Hello detectives: I’ve got an important update about tomorrow’s London launch for Jolly Foul Play.

Unfortunately, Waterstones Trafalgar Square has had a flood, so the space in the basement we were going to have the event isn’t useable. Fortunately, the lovely Covent Garden branch of Waterstones has stepped up and offered their store as a replacement venue, so I’m very pleased to say that we WILL still be launching the book – but in Covent Garden, not Trafalgar Square!

It’ll be the same time (12pm and 3pm), and nothing else will have changed – I’ll be signing your books, and talking to you about Jolly Foul Play. And there will be biscuits!

Covent Garden Waterstones is on Garrick Street – it’s very easy to find, only five minutes from Trafalgar Square – and there will be staff on hand to direct you if you can’t find your way. The store phone number is 020 7836 6757 if you are really lost!

If you’re coming tomorrow, I can’t wait to see you there!

Today’s the day! The wait is over, and Jolly Foul Play is officially available in stores across the UK and Ireland. I went into four stores in London to see it this morning, and there it was – bright yellow and completely unmissable.

I can’t believe that I’m watching my fourth book publish today, and that I’m doing it as a full-time writer. The world has changed since Murder Most Unladylike published in June 2014. But all the same, the fear and excitement never goes away. I feel just as giddy and disbelieving as I did when I was a debut.

Jolly Foul Play‘s London launch is on Saturday at Waterstones Trafalgar Square (I have big plans for tomorrow that involve a lot of sugar, flour and lemons), but today I’m just enjoying the fact that my newest book is out in the world, and available to buy. Below are pictures from my mini-tour today – signed copies are in all of these shops now.

Happy hunting, Murder Most Unladylike fans!

Waterstones Piccadilly display

Waterstones Covent Garden display

Foyle’s Charing Cross Road

Waterstones Tottenham Court Road

And a very well deserved bunbreak!

Jolly Foul Play officially arrives in the world TOMORROW. I’ve got a long list of appearances lined up to celebrate its publication – for the latest, click here!

But I think it’s important to remember that Jolly Foul Play wouldn’t exist without all of you. My original contract was for three books, and I was only asked to write more (and more! and more!) because of the support and love you’ve shown for the Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries. You read the books, and it changed my life.

To celebrate that, I’m sharing a selection of the pictures I was sent over this World Book Week, of some of my readers dressed up as Daisy and Hazel. I think everyone looks amazing! If you’d like to add to this list, please do email me, or share your pictures in the comments below. Hooray for every single one of you!

Hazel Wong – picture by Julia D

Hazel Wong – photo by Steph G

Lily as Daisy Wells – photo by Sam C

Sophie as Hazel Wong (with added Goth Girl) – photo by Tania W

Wells and Wong at Prince Albert School

Wells and Wong at Wroxham School

Daisy Wells

Holly as Daisy – picture by Mark N

Hazel Wong – picture by John S

There are just two days to go before Jolly Foul Play‘s official release, on the 24th of March (Thursday). If you’ve preordered the book, it should be with you on Thursday or Friday, and if you’re looking for the book in a store, it should be everywhere from that day. It will be stocked in WH Smith and Asda, as well as Waterstones and independent bookstores, so it’ll be difficult to miss!

But there’s no official embargo on it, which means that stores can begin selling it before the 24th if their stock arrives, and I’m already seeing some incredible pictures of Murder Most Unladylike Mystery displays across the country.

Here’s Waterstones Salisbury …

Waterstones Cambridge …

… and Waterstones Nottingham.

And I know the list will grow throughout today and tomorrow!

If you’d like to follow all of the latest sightings of the book in the wild, I’ve created a new Pinterest board for Jolly Foul Play. And if you’d like to send more pictures to me, via Twitter, email or a comment here, I’ll add them to the set.

Good luck hunting down your copy – remember to have a bunbreak once you’ve found it!

Jolly Foul Play has had another lovely review this weeknd – this time from the Sunday Express. It was included in their Easter books round-up for 10-13 year olds (along with two of my very favourite new books, The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth and Defender of the Realm).

According to the Express, it’s ‘Another cracking mystery’ – I was so pleased with that quote that I bought myself an early Easter bunbreak!

You can see the full review below.

This weekend, Jolly Foul Play was reviewed in the Telegraph. I’m completely delighted – this is an incredible honour – and they’ve given it an amazing write-up.

From the (four star!) review: ‘Robin Stevens has cleverly created a crossbreed of the detective and boarding school genres … [Stevens creates] a credible portrait of a lost age, but also one in which she can allude to issues familiar to modern readers.’

You can read it in full below!

There are just FIVE DAYS LEFT until Jolly Foul Play is in stores in Britain and Ireland. It’s coming in paperback and ebook … and it will also be out as an audiobook download. The first three books in the series are read by the wonderful Gemma Chan, but for this book we have a new Hazel: Katie Leung, who played Cho Chang in the Harry Potter films, and also Hsui Tai in ITV’s Cat Among the Pigeons. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know how special this is: that character was one of the inspirations for Hazel when I was first writing Murder Most Unladylike. It feels like things have come full circle!

A few weeks ago I went to hear Katie recording Jolly Foul Play, and I was totally delighted. She makes a fantastic Hazel – I love her reading of the character, and I’m so grateful to her for her hard work on it. I know you’re going to be just as happy as I am!

Me and Katie in the Puffin recording studio!

And if you’re curious to know what she sounds like, you can now listen to a preview of Katie reading Jolly Foul Play in a beautiful book trailer. Puffin really have pulled out all the stops making it. The video really is the most perfect introduction to Jolly Foul Play! You can watch it below, or on Puffin’s YouTube channel here. Enjoy, and happy weekend! Roll on publication week!