DUCK, IT’S A GIANT FIREWORK! No, I said giant firework not giant duck. If it was a giant duck I would have been running around waving my arms in the air!!! So what was I doing? Was it some horrible science experiment gone horribly wrong? And how is Betty the cat? Well, if you would only stop asking questions for ten seconds I might have a chance to tell you the answers but first you’ve got to promise to …



Well, thanks for reading on. I was just telling you about THE GREAT PANJANDRUM. That’s the top secret name of a top secret weapon from 1944 that we recreated and set off to launch the brilliant brochure of the AWESOME Appledore Book Festival! If you’ve been on Mars for the past three years (or at least not reading the previous entries in my diary) you’ll not know that I am the Director of this fantastic festival in Devon, England. The tickets for this year are selling even faster than Horrible Science books and amongst the big names this year are Michael Morpurgo and Philip Reeve and Peter Lord (who is behind the Wallace and Grommit films) and even a certain Tony De Saulles who you might have heard of if you’ve ever giggled at one of our books. Also there are a lot of adult authors who I won’t bore you with unless you happen to be over 18 in which case you can find out for yourself by visiting appledorebookfestival.co.uk.

Oh yes, and I have been writing new books. For example I’ve written a Horrible Science Dinosaur Spotter’s Guide about what happens when Will D. Beest and Mickey the monkey go time travelling to watch the dinos and then there’s a Horrible Science Shark Spotter’s Guide in which you can find out what happens when Harvey Tucker from Killer Energy goes for a dip with a great white shark – or should that read goes for a RIP!



Then I’ve got some great shows coming up in the next few months – take a look at the Nick’s Diary section of this website for the latest. And this September there are some great new Horrible Science books out such as the brand-new Horrible Science Annual 2010 and this book – I think it’s brilliant but then I would – more interestingly Betty the cat thinks its brilliant too. She’s just read it and she’s doing fine thanks for asking. She just keeps wanting more and more food!



Oh yes, and one other IMPORTANT interesting and JOLLY GOOD bit of news is that this website is going to getting BIGGER and better. There are going to be loads of new downloads and experiments to try and new sections to explore and it’s all going to be happening this year. The only sad bit about all that is that this diary will go (BOO HOO, BLUBBER!) but it will be replaced by a new section called NICK’S NEWS in which you can catch up with everything I’ve been up to and see what I’m doing and what shows are coming up all in one go HORRAY!) Now that’s progress for you!

Until then, HAPPY READING and if your summer holiday involves time travel - don’t get eaten by the dinosaurs!