A random rhinoceros

Lunchtime went to look at children's books. Imagine my horror after writing a book about a dapper skeleton all year to see a new, prizewinning book about a dapper skeleton detective called Skullduggery Pleasant. Bastards. Bastards. Had a look at it, and it seemed excellent. Fortunately the similarities are superficial, but still galling.

Bought James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl which I read for the first time this evening. Lovely stuff. This on the first page made me laugh out loud.

"Then one day, James's mother and father went to London to do some shopping, and there a terrible thing happened. Both of them suddenly got eaten up (in full daylight, mind you, and on a crowded street) by an enormous angry rhinoceros which had escaped from London Zoo.... Their troubles were all over in a jiffy. They were dead and gone in 35 seconds flat."

Masterful.

And also I bought Michael Rosen's Sad book which, like the Dahl, is illustrated by Quinten Blake, which is quietly wonderful. A book about sadness, with very little text and lots of pictures, inspired by the sadness of losing his son. Just fab. And the end is satisfying, yet unresolved just like sadness itself.

Otherwise did some more hogsite work, and had a fairly chilled day. Had a conversation with The Gnome this evening, as there are going to more redundancies at my old agency and he may be one of them. It is all so stressful and horrid. Made me feel very grateful, that I have nothing to do with that nest of earwigs any more.

Below the cover of Michael Rosen's Sad Book.