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Brian's Live poetry and percussion show
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Southwell Poetry Festival
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I was invited to take part in the Southwell Poetry Festival in Nottinghamshire in July. The event was held in Southwell Minster for around 300 children, their teachers, parents and several of the clergy. Wonderful acoustics in the church and a magnificent venue. I think that this photograph shows me looking something like a hellfire preacher!

A few days later I was at Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset helping to launch a poetry book put together by Karen Donaldson, head of english at Bovington Middle School. Earlier in the day BBC South had covered the event and as well as some wonderful poetry by children at the school, the book also featured poetry from guest writers such as Terry Pratchett, Alaistair Campbell and Pie Corbett. It can be bought from www.lulu.com and soon www.amazon.co.uk

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Another very busy term that saw me invited back to Porters Grange Primary in Southend.

On this occasion we took a trip out to Southend seafront  on a very blustery day where we used what we saw and heard as inspiration for class poems and then individual poems. I was really impressed by all that the children had noticed on their visit, proving again that some of the best writing comes from direct experience. I shall be returning to Southend to set up a permanent writers’ trail along the seafront.



The sun is sparling on the wave-crashing sea.

Stones smelling of the wet seaweed.

The hungry wind blowing us along

like balloons free of their strings.

Sand, dazzling sand, silent with terror

as the monstrous waves fall like thunder.

I see the colour changing skies above my head

and hear the rattling of stones

being scattered away.

Again the wind is a haunting ghost

whining in my ear.

I remember the same place at night

with the laser lights following me,

a world away from this blustery day.

I was also delighted to be invited to Millbrook Primary School in Telford where the headteacher, Martyn Lightwood asked me to 'open' their reading wall.

As you'll see from the photographs, this is a unique project to which all the children in the school, and all the adults, have contributed illustrations of their favourite book characters. Someone had drawn me on the wall and I was able to add a personal message.

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The first at Halsford Park, East Grinstead
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Brian was delighted to be asked to open two school libraries in the Spring term. The first at Halsford Park, East Grinstead, and the second at Upminster Junior School in Essex.  Both schools made him very welcome and he discovered a host of really clever young writers at both venues. The photograph featured here was taken by Tim Woodford at Upminister Junior School.
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Brian in the library at Northgate High School
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Brian in the library at Northgate High SchoolDereham where he ran a gifted and talented session for writers from Northgate School and their feeder schools.

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Fir Tree Junior School in Wallingford, oxford
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Had a great time visiting Fir Tree Junior School in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. The Headteacher, Lee Ryman, the staff and children all gave me a warm welcome. The children had explored my website and already knew a lot about my work prior to my arrival. So thanks a lot everyone, it was a memorable visit, made even better by the fact that my friend, the poet James Carter lives just up the road from this school and we were able to meet afterwards and talk music.

This term has been particularly enjoyable with 3 days at another of my favourite schools - the Junior department of Nottingham Girls High School, where I ran able writers' groups, another session at the London Collegiate School in Edgeware where there are always some wonderful young writers to meet and be amazed by.

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I first visited Guernsey schools in 1989 and for some reason they keep inviting me back!

This year was my 26th trip and I spent two whole weeks there in February. It was the coldest weather I’d ever known  and a freezing wind criss-crossed the island for most of the second week. Still, the welcome in schools was as warm as ever and it was great to meet up with friends again. A visit to Notre Dame school was a particular highlight as we worked on performance poetry and some of the children brought their poems to life at the end of the day in a very entertaining presentation. Wrote a poem while on the island in response to a story told to me by Danielle Cassal, headteacher at La Hougette school. The story was about someone trying to take a lobster on a flight and I now have a poem called ‘You cannot take a lobster through security.’ Daft eh!

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Northern Ireland
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My last visit to Northern Ireland was in 2005 and it was good to return again this year.

Over in Strabane where I was giving an after school performance in the library, I arrived to find in huge letters on the library windows:
MOSES IS RAPPING AT THE LIBRARY.

So I gave them the alternative 3Rs show - rhyme, rhythm and rap. Enjoyable session with some very appreciative parents.

Next day it was libraries in Belfast and Bangor. Superbly refurbished library in Bangor with every facility on offer although the performance area was a little echoey and I was worried that my drumming into the mic might send everyone home with a headache!

Thanks to Pauline and Valerie for driving me around. 

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Herefordshire
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As always, it was a real pleasure to return to Herefordshire for the annual Childrens’ Book Festival. Rosemarie Fleming and her team at the Schools Library Service have run this festival for many years and it’s a real privilege to be invited back each year. The morning sessions were in the Town Hall which is a great venue followed by an excellent lunch and afternoon sessions in Eardisley and Ross-on-Wye. Was able to take a trip to one of my favourite places on the planet - the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye where there are 35 book shops! Managed to visit four or five before they closed, including the amazing Cinema book shop.

Another reason why I enjoy the festival is that I get to stay in what is to me one of the best small hotels in the country - the Somerville Hotel in Hereford. It’s an AA five star hotel that certainly deserves every one of its stars . Thanks Rosie and Bill, and I look forward to staying again when I’m at the Ledbury Festival in July.

Good to meet up with Sapphire at the festival. Sapphire is Herefordshire’s Young Poet Laureate and she opened the Thursday session at the Town Hall with some of her poems. I was particularly impressed with her poem 'Spring’ featured on the Your Poems

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Norfolk Children's Book Centre:
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During the Summer, Brian and his family visited the Norfolk Children's Book Centre where he was invited to add a message to the 'Wall of Fame', joining other authors such as Michael Morpurgo, Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson, who had all left their own messages when visiting the shop.



The book shop is quite unique as it is in the middle of the countryside, just off the Cromer to Norwich Road. It looks as if there can't possibly be a book shop in that location but there is, and what's more it stocks over 60,000 children's books. Marilyn, the owner, and the shop staff welcome everyone with tea and coffee, and after you've shifted a couple of cats from the settee, it's great to grab a book or two from the shelves and just sit and read. Do visit, if you're in the area.

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Coast to coast tour of Ireland:
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Brian toured Ireland in October at the invitation of Childrens Books Ireland. Library events took place in Dublin, Mullingar, Galway and County Clare. Photos are from a session at Ennistymon library in Co Clare. Thanks Caitriona.

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Brian's first children's novel is published NOW!! by Legend.
The book is called 'Python'

'Daniel is scared of two things - the three metre long python that his dad keeps in their loft and the Kelly Horton gang.

He has nightmares that the snake escapes from the loft, wraps itself round him and starts to squeeze. Kelly Horton and her gang give him nightmares of a different kind.

Usually they'd bash boys and then let them go but now they've discovered a new way to terrify them. And when Kelly learns about the sanke in Daniel's loft she demands to see the creature.

Meanwhile there's a hunt for the ghost of a Second World War German pilot in the old air raid tunnels beneath the town where Kelly and Daniel are suddenly together and in great danger.'

Orders for 'Python' (£6.99 plus £1 p & p) should be emailed to Brian Moses - see contacts page