It's Christmas time again, and I thought you might like to see some Christmassy pictures, but these ones are a bit different. They're from Ethiopia.

Ethiopia was the first country in the world to become Christian, and for centuries Ethiopians have been have been painting beautiful pictures to illustrate Bible stories. The ones here are several hundred years old. They were painted by monks on vellum (made out of sheepskin).


In this picture, Joseph is asleep and dreaming of an angel, who is telling him that Mary his wife will have a baby, Jesus. I love the way the angel is surrounded by all those puffy clouds against the golden sky.

In the Ethiopian Christmas story, the baby was not born in a stable, but in a cave.Here's the baby Jesus, with Mary his mother, Joseph and the midwife, Salome. Salome has brought a goat as a present.

The Holy Family had to escape to Egypt after Jesus was born. The Ethiopians believe that they came to Ethiopia, so they've put African animals in this picture - an elephant, a monkey and a wild pig.

That's all for now, folks. Have a great Christmas! I'll try to do more blogs in the New Year, but I don't find it very easy getting the pictures straight. Oh well - practice makes perfect.

Summer 2009

Forget about writing and being an author, I'm just a mum this summer, and a new mother-in-law too. Both my sons are getting married, and believe me, wedding fever beats writing any time.

Here we are with our two boys. Angus is the one in the kilt looking nervous. He's about to get married. William's looking fine because he's the best man. David's the one in the beard and I'm the one in the silly hat.

This pic was taken at the wedding of Angus and Amynah on 25th July. William and Ashleigh are going to be married in September, in Canada, so I'm off to celebrate with them soon.

Here are the four of them. Don't they look gorgeous?

I'm not quite sure if I should post this last picture of the morning after the wedding, but hey, I might as well. I'm still in my pyjamas, I've just had my breakfast, but I have no idea why I'm clutching the telephone directory. I look quite mad, and I didn't even have more than a sip of champagne to drink!

Next blog entry will be a bit more sensible, I assure you...

I've just come back from Hong Kong

Phew! Back at home and out of breath after a hectic two weeks in Hong Kong. What a place!

High rise buildings so glitzy you need sunglasses on before you dare look at them, street markets so tempting that you stagger home with armfuls of goodies, and food so yummy that you just can't stop eating. Where the skyscrapers stop, the hills take over, steep, green, forest-clad hills, where you have to watch out for cobras (I didn't meet any of those) and wild boar (I did meet a big, ferocious one of those) and monkeys (I saw loads of those).

I've been at the Man Literary Festival, meeting some great kids, and we've been working together on reading and writing stories.

Here are a few pics of Hong Kong, just to prove that I'm not kidding and that I really did go there.

Ever seen a teddy bear made of flowers? Here's one, and it waves its arms too

And here's the old waterfront, with its tangle of boats and the shiny new city in the background.

So here's a big thank you to the people at the Hong Kong Man Literary festival who invited me, and the crowds of kids who came to hear me drone on about my books, and my sister Janet who is staying for a while in Hong Kong and looked after me.