Why so long, Nick? Why no entry in your diary for eight months and what is that small, furry creature doing sitting on top of the manuscript of your latest book?

Aha – so many questions and no answers. I’m not even going to tell you the cat’s name unless you promise to read on …

Oh-all right then – you twisted my arm. The cat’s name is Betty and she now shares my big haunted house in Devon. Betty is normally a good well-behaved cat but then she wakes up and demands that I run outside and let her chase me around the garden. Which I do – much to the delight of the neighbours. She also has a number of horrible habits such as munching flies and drinking from toilets but I expect you’d prefer not to read about that kind of thing.

So what about me – what have I been up to these long, silent months?

Well, it’s funny you asked because I was just about to tell you!

For one thing I’ve been writing Horrible Science books – just look at all those lovely books in the Library section of this website – you click on the egg-timer on the home page. In particular, I’ve written a big gory book about the body entitled The Horrible Science of YOU and Wasted World – all about toxic trash and cruel climate change. And write now, er right now I’m working on a book about how to spot dinosaurs (it’s easy with a pair of time-travel specs).

And then there’s events. Here’s a Learning Support Centre I opened in Barnstaple back in March.

It’s set to be a great place to encourage kids to enjoy reading. In my speech I said that the Centre was like a space capsule that could free young minds and take them to a new world of learning and I hope it does!

And “Hi-ya!” to all of you who came to my shows in Tavistock and Shrewsbury this year (especially if you weren’t the ones throwing rotten turnips at the end. Oh yes, and “Hi-ya!” too if you saw me at the Edinbugh Festival this summer – great wasn’t it? Well, maybe “great” isn’t the word – I think G-R-E-E-A-T! sounds a bit more like it! Here’s me at the Festival …

And the weird looking picture below is a thermal image (that’s me on the right). Basically it’s showing the heat from my body as red or orange – so you can see I was chilling out just then!

And talking about Festivals – my own Book Festival at Appledore is going from strength to strength – although it’s hard work. At the bottom of the page you can see the launch of our brochure in April and that really is a knight in armour on a horse rescuing a damsel in distress from a dragon!

The Appledore Book Festival is due to start on 27 September and I’m actually doing a talk in it on … Vikings – but I’ll tell you more about that next time. So what now?

Well, I’m going to do some more writing … just as soon as I’ve chased Betty around the garden! See-ya!

Ps Don’t forget to e-mail me. I’m getting some great e-mails right now!