Dominic Barker: On tour with Scottish Book Trust

This month, we took the incredible Dominic Barker out on The Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour around the Western Isles. This week, Dominic joins us to talk about his tour, his two new best friends and the weather.

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It was grey. It was cold. It was no place for the faint-hearted. I was (and still am, at least the last time I checked) Dominic Barker and I want to tell you about my recent visit to the Western Isles as part of the Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour. I was accompanied by Chris and Michael, two strapping young men who laughed at danger and each other. Chris wore an all purpose blazer that could survive all weather conditions except rain, wind and cold. Unfortunately the weather forecast was rain, wind and cold. He  drove a van with an owl on it and ate fistfuls of Mint Imperials. Michael hailed from Canada or somewhere nearby and sported a woolly hat and carried a big green banner. The Western Isles had never seen anything like them. Nor, to be honest, had I.

 

We began on Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis where we met two hundred children, the head teacher with the most effective sssh in the world and a Talking Door with a moustache and an Italian accent. Later we met older children who were dumbstruck with awe by the event or bored stiff – we never found out. Instead we grabbed our green banner and fled to our owl-emblazoned van. “Step on it!” Chris ordered Michael. Michael stepped on it. Michael stalled the van. Three times. We broke the news to Michael that he would never make the grade as a getaway driver for bank robbers.

 

From the island of Lewis we went to the island of Harris which was surprisingly exactly the same island. It seemed that somebody had neglected to inform the Western Isles that the one basic non-negotiable requirement for having two islands is to have some sea in between them. But the Western Isles was having none of our bourgeois mainland namby-pampy rules. If it wanted one land mass to be two islands then that was what it was going to have and we could take our fancy geographical notions back to Edinburgh with us as far as it was concerned. We decided it would be churlish to argue and anyway we were all a long way from home and far too scared.

 

As we headed from Harris to the Uists and Benbecula the stories continued to flow from the children we met. Zombie Pirates in pyramids in the desert. Dragons facing extinction. Irish astronauts in Space ships driven by Japanese bears who communicated only with hand signals, a walking stick improvised from a stalactite. Alien werewolves. Mountains with hidden lakes of smoking acid. A squadron of vicious punctuation marks who flew in bins and attacked innocent fairies with sticky raccoons. Ideas poured from the children of the Western Isles faster than rain fell on Chris’s all-purpose blazer.

 

And in between the cascade of the children’s creation (allow me a little alliteration already!) we pursued sheep in search of an interview, watched Chris throw his clothes to one side and run like a wild man into the sea (and then sprint even faster out of it), suffered Michael giving us a lesson in basketball and then darts and finally in how to sneeze a lot.

 

And at last, in Barra, we finally glimpsed the sun - the only weather condition that did not cause Chris’ all-purpose blazer difficulty. And as it shone on Barra sound we saw the true magnificent beauty of the Western Isles and I was videoed reading out loud a bit from my book on the ferry and all the other passengers looked at me like I was bonkers. And then, too soon, our trip was over.

 

As we sailed out of Castlebay we reflected on what we’d learnt. Michael had learnt that there is a lot of cake on the Western Isles and that he was prepared to eat most of it. Chris had learnt that a chinchilla was not a giant lizard and the man who sold him the all-purpose blazer was a liar. I had learnt that there were no better men to travel with. And that some of the most imaginative storytellers in Scotland are the children who live hidden away on six isolated, beautiful islands.

 

For more information about Dominic Barker please visit his wonderful website http://www.dominicbarker.com

 

You can read Mike's version of events by checking out his blog!

Check out some of the amazing footage from the tour. It looks like everyone had a rather fantastic, but wet, time away. 

Other News:

 

This is the final weekend of the Wigtown Book Festival. Have a look at the programme to see some excellent names on the list and book your tickets now! Scottish Book Trust will be there on Friday with Cathy MacPhail and Gillian Philip for a Royal Mail shortlist event.    

 

 

There is still a week left for you to sign up for the Charlie Higson event which will be streamed live into your school, library or home for free. Sign up now! You can also catch Charlie Higson this weekend at the Bath Festival of Childrens' Literature! Order your tickets now!

 

Watch the trailer for Charlie's new book The Dead now!

 

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