Still, the last day of the tour felt like a significant something - and, in addition, I was in a whole new place where it wasn’t raining, which was an extra joy.

In the morning, Liz Scott & I set off from an extremely wet Leamington Spa, where the station either retains some lovely old features, or has some very nice replicas:

We were bound for Bramhall in Cheshire, and we changed trains en route at…

…where my husband grew up (so I had to take the picture, to prove I’d at least stood on the station platform there). When we arrived at Bramhall, we were greeted by a sight that hasn’t been a large feature of this tour: blue sky. I’ve become so used to torrential downpours that it actually felt odd (in a nice way) to stroll into Bramhall with dry feet & no need for windscreen wipers on my specs.

Our destination was the famous independent bookshop Simply Books, which is run by Sue Steele & Andrew Cant – both hugely energetic & expert booksellers.

Sue & Andrew gave me a very warm welcome – it’s a gorgeous shop, & even has a small cafe inside, where Liz & I had a fab lunch. After that I couldn’t resist browsing…

…could you in this place? It’s my idea of heaven. And I bought a bag of books to take home to my daughters (I could easily have bought far more, but sadly there’s a limit to what I can lug onto the train), including this from Gecko Press:

…and its sister volume H.O.U.S.E., which I reckon are going to be huge hits back home.

After lunch, Andrew drove Liz & me to Wilmslow High School, where a group of 6th formers and keen Year 9s stayed after school to hear me talk about VIII. It was a great session – many thanks to history teacher Helen Birchill & to all the students, a few of whom are picture with me here:

(l-r) Molly, Max, Holly, Alex, me, Anna

Then it was off to my hotel for a couple of hours’ rest before the grand finale of the tour that evening: an event at Simply Books itself.

One of the displays at Simply Books for my event

Sue & Andrew are famous for hosting an extraordinary number & variety of fantastic events, as well as book groups, activity sessions for children and even, now, screenings of films. Their guest book is full of messages and pictures from the most illustrious authors and artists – it was with a rather nervous hand that I added my own and managed to burble on so much that I hardly had room to sign my name. Anyone who’s had trouble shutting me up in conversation will find this very easy to believe.

The evening was a delight. The shop was full & the audience so encouraging & warm that I felt buoyed up by a swell of Tudor-based enthusiasm. I met some wonderful women (Andrew was the only man present!) including a postgraduate history student who kindly offered help with particular areas of research for my new books about Mary I & Elizabeth I, which is marvellous (thank you so much, Sophie!).

Then it was off for a lovely dinner with Sue, Andrew & Liz at an Italian restaurant opposite the shop.

So, now, I am homeward bound. And, thanks to Sue & Andrew, I am the proud owner of a fine new vessel for my all-important coffee in the mornings…

What a fantastic way to bring the curtain down on the VIII tour. Slumped in this train seat is one exhausted but very happy author. Huge thanks to Templar Books & Philippa Perry for all the mind-bogglingly tricky, Krypton-factor-like puzzle-solving work that went into putting this tour together, and to Jayne Roscoe, Helen Boyle, Jessica Dean and Liz Scott who looked after me so expertly on the road.

Thanks, too, to all you kind souls who’ve read and commented on my blog diary along the way. It has meant a lot to me to have your company.

My contact at Arnold Lodge is Angela Smith, who taught me (at a different school) for A level English many moons ago – and fortunately, as I discovered this morning, we both have happy memories of the experience! Miss Smith (as she was to me then) helped me grow to love George Eliot’s Middlemarch (I was daunted at the beginning, but by the time Miss Smith had finished with me, I adored it). Now the Arnold Lodge pupils are lucky enough to have her as their teacher.

Today I spoke about VIII to the Year 6, 7 & 8 pupils – and a fantastic, friendly & enthusiastic bunch they were too, with some brilliant questions up their burgundy sleeves. They were kind enough to present me with a beautiful bouquet afterwards (thank you, Angela!) and many queued up for book-signing too.

The hall I spoke in, according to a plaque on the wall, had been opened in 1972 by an MP called Margaret Thatcher...

My gorgeous flowers!

Thank you, Arnold Lodge!

Now, as I write, I am busy preparing for this evening’s event. It’s a public event organised by the independent bookshop Warwick Books, which has been a fantastic cheerleader for VIII right from the beginning, when the hardback was published last autumn, and even chose it as their Book of the Year for 2011, which was a huge honour. I don’t know the owners – Keith & Frances Smith – so I am looking forward very much to meeting them tonight, and thanking them in person for all their support & enthusiasm.

Another author is speaking at the event tonight as well as me: Nicola Shulman, whose book about Thomas Wyatt, Graven With Diamonds, I have been reading (& hugely enjoying) during this tour. Warwick Books’ window currently has a lovely display of both our books (plus my sister Helen’s book She Wolves – can you spot it?)…

…and I am looking forward to meeting Nicola very much. Also present tonight will be Prof. Eric Ives, who lives in Warwick & will introduce the proceedings. Prof. Ives is the country’s leading academic authority on Anne Boleyn (see his excellent book, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn), and has also written a fantastic (and deliciously controversial) book on Lady Jane Grey. I am a huge admirer of his, and will feel very honoured to have the chance to meet him. As for speaking in front of such august and erudite guests as Prof. Ives & Ms. Shulman – well, gulp… I must admit to a few butterflies…

The event tonight is going to take place in the most wonderful venue: the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick. Although the original buildings date back much further, in 1571 they were acquired by Elizabeth I’s favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. He established a ‘hospital’ there for aged or injured soldiers and their wives, and it is still, today, a retirement home for ex-servicemen. The hall is available for public hire, and that’s where I’ll be speaking tonight.

I imagine that I’ll return home rather late – so I am intending just to add a few pictures before I post this blog.

…And here they are:

I arrived at Lord Leycester Hospital, & this was the handle on the big gate that I turned to get in:

Here’s the gate from the other side, once I was in:

I saw the Bear and Ragged Staff, Robert Dudley’s emblem:

And wonderful bears and a porcupine on this building, which I think is the Master’s Lodge:

Here (below) is the beautiful Great Hall, all set up ready for the event. The Master very kindly came and set up the computer equipment for my presentation himself. He was wonderfully welcoming & chatty, and remarked that he’d just been looking through the visitors’ book (which goes back hundreds of years) and found Oscar Wilde’s signature! (Dickens’ and Darwin’s signatures are there, he said, but he hadn’t realised Wilde’s was too.) He also told me that James I dined in this very hall & they still have the chair he sat in…

Here’s one of the hall’s windows – I love the higgledy-piggledy lattice:

And here – left to right – are Prof. Eric Ives, Nicola Shulman, Brother Peter (resident of the Hospital), and me before the event began:

It was a fantastic evening. It was such an honour to meet Prof. Ives, and he was a skilful & hugely generous chairman. I was so pleased to meet Nicola, too, and her talk was fascinating. To top it all, the audience were lovely and included three of my teachers from 6th form days. How nice it was to see them! Keith & Frances of Warwick Books couldn’t have been nicer, and – supported by staff from Warwick Library – they had arranged the event perfectly; I can’t thank them enough. They told me that since publication of VIII, they’ve sold about 200 copies, which makes it the highest-selling book ever for them! What stunning news… I am gobsmacked & over the moon all at once.

I’ll finish with some more photos from Lord Leycester:

Heartfelt thanks to the Master for letting us into this fabulous place & to Keith & Frances for arranging for it to be tonight’s venue!

Oxford CBG lemon drizzle cake

Somehow I had managed not to eat it overnight, but what a treat I had in store. It was a triumph of lemon & drizzle. So much for indoors. Outdoors, the drizzle was rather less lovely. It was more than drizzle, for a start – it was torrential rain. Rain so torrential that many roads were flooded and poor Fay Sinai from the Oxford CBG, who had kindly volunteered to pick us up (that’s Liz Scott & me) & take us to the first event of the day, spent, overall, over 2 hours in the car from 7.30a.m. in flood- & accident-related traffic jams just to get us there, never mind back again… (Thank you Fay for your cheerful fortitude!)

However, get there we did, and our first stop was at Wood Green School in Witney, where librarians Val Donaghue & Judith Bovington had made a fab display (thank you both!)…

…and had brought together an audience made up of their own Year 8s, along with visiting groups of Year 6s from two local junior schools, Blake School and Madley Brook School. Together they made a lovely hall-full & were a fantastic audience.

After the talk, there was time for signing books and chatting with some of the students one-to-one – my favourite bit! – including Sophie, Georgie & Rubie from Wood Green:

(l-r) Sophie, me, Georgie & Rubie

Then Liz, Fay & I had a quick coffee & chat with Val & Judith – who had organised the visit so brilliantly, & hadn’t even turned a hair when, due to the road problems, we’d turned up at the school with just one minute to go before the talk was due to start… We found all the IT ready set up – perfect!

And after that it was off to another school in Witney, The Henry Box School. Founded in 1660, Henry Box is situated right next to Witney’s St Mary’s Church…

St. Mary's Church, Witney

…which has (I could see as I peered over the wall) some fabulous ancient-looking gargoyles, & stone angels bearing shields. I would have loved to get a chance to peek inside. No time for that, however – it was straight into the school… which has, I discovered, some very lovely old buildings of its own…

There I met librarian Nicola Patrick, who had been wonderfully active in spreading the word about the event. The talk itself – to a mixed group of Year 7s and Year 9s – took place in the lecture theatre:

And all went swimmingly except that we couldn’t get the book’s trailer to play. So if you’re a Henry Box student reading this and you haven’t seen the trailer yet, please have a look on the home page of this website – you’ll find it there!

After the talk, for anyone who wanted a book signed or just wanted to chat, there was a drop-in session in the library. It was great to meet some pupils and to have a chance to talk more with Nicola and towithLynne Cooper, who was visiting from Burford School.

Then Moira da Costa from the Oxford CBG kindly took Liz & me to the station in Oxford, where we caught a train to Leamington Spa. We had been so well looked after, both by the Oxford CBG, and by the librarians of the schools we visited during our Oxford-&-area stay, Christine, Val, Judith & Nicola. Huge thanks to all!

Next events: tomorrow in Leamington & Warwick… And the Warwick one is a public event at which I’ll be speaking alongside Nicola Shulman, author of Graven With Diamonds. I have been reading the book in snatches all tour & loving it. It’s erudite, insightful & hugely entertaining. I will enjoy my task for the rest of today, which is finishing the book. Yum yum!

It struck me that in Monopoly, once you’ve got wads of cash, it’s supremely easy to make more. But if you’re bumping along the bottom (as I was), mortgaging things to pay the rent & permanently scraping around just to survive, there’s simply no way you can lift yourself up & improve your situation… As in Monopoly, so in life: a profoundly unequal system. Socio-economic & political lessons from a board game! My innocent children don’t realise this… ah, what it is not yet to have developed an adult’s jaundiced eye. Now, anyone for Cluedo?

While we rummage around in the toy cupboard, let me tell you about today. I am back on the road again. At 8.30 this morning I left my house (my 5-year-old saying, “Goodbye Mummy – for ever!” – a week is a looong time at that age) and at 11a.m. or so I arrived at John Mason School in Abingdon. And, astonishingly, it was sunny! At the school I was met by Liz Scott, my trusty helper for the week, plus John Mason’s librarian, Christine Barker, and Moira da Costa from the Oxford branch of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. I realise that if you’ve read all of last week’s posts on this blog, you might have become overwhelmed or bored (or both!) by the superlatives I’ve been using for the librarians I’ve met on my travels and for the Federation members too. For the sake of you, the reader, I will try to keep my adjectives under control this week. But the quality of the people I’m meeting doesn’t alter: Christine & Moira were both completely fab.

And as for the biscuits Christine had on offer to go with our pre-talk coffee, well…

Om nom nom, as they say...

My talk took place in the gym, where the whole of Year 9 gallantly agreed to sit on the floor:

(In truth they had no choice, but they were jolly uncomplaining, I thought.) They were a splendid audience & I was only sorry that we ran out of time & so couldn’t have questions at the end. If any John Mason student is reading this & has a question – do email me! (You can send me an email through the ‘Contact’ section of this website.)

Then it was on to our Oxford hotel, the best of the tour so far. There were free biscuits in the room! (They lasted about 5 minutes.) My bed is a whole 3 pillows wide! (I can turn a full 360 degrees in my sleep & not fall out.) And, like Henry VIII crossing the Fleet River in London via an elevated gallery leading from one part of his palace to another, you can make your way from the main bit of the hotel to the Leisure Club without going outside! Just down the corridor from my room & round a few corners, there’s a gym with running machines (I generously left them free for other guests), a swimming pool (didn’t bring my cozzie), & a therapy room where you can have a massage. This I did book myself into, on account of being about an inch shorter than I used to be before all that lugging of luggage up and down station steps last week. Of course, if I were really organised, like Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks, I would combat spine-squishing by having my own set of ankle whatnots so I could hang upside down in my hotel room of an evening while dictating a message to Diane… (and if you’re wondering what that looks like, click here).

My precious inch of extra height regained, I made my way this evening to a meeting of the Oxford CBG. It was held at Moira’s beautiful house in Boars Hill, a village just outside the city. The Oxford group, as it turns out, are expert cooks as well as book buffs: a delicious supper was put together with contributions from various members, & we ate in Moira’s conservatory. Then we moved to the sitting room for the talk. Here’s Moira introducing me:

Moira da Costa introducing me at the Oxford FCBG event

It was such an enjoyable evening. I couldn’t have been given a warmer welcome, and both over supper and after the talk I had a chance to chat with some of the group’s members – Moira, Fay, Erica, Mary, Ophelia, Becca & Gaynor, amongst others – which was delightful. The event was very kindly supported by Mostly Books, of Stert Street, Abingdon, who have a blog here on which they’ve asked all sorts of authors the same 5 questions. I was asked the same 5, and my answers will, I think, be posted soon!

Thank you so much to everyone who was there this evening!

And now I must turn in. It’ll be an early start tomorrow…

Three talks were on the schedule for Friday. The first two took place at Chantry High School in Ipswich, where I met another librarian who’s a whirlwind of energy, enthusiasm & expertise, Sandra Johnson. Sandra, assisted by her colleague Louise, had prepared brilliantly and everything was set up waiting for my arrival. I spoke in the library, which is stuffed full of tempting stock (later Sandra gave me a tour of the manga section, as I know nothing about manga, but I love Japanese animation films & am keen to learn…).

At Chantry I spoke to two groups – the first a mix of Year 8s and 10s, the second a group of Year 9s, and they were both brilliant audiences.

Me with some of the wonderful Year 8s

Then, after lunch with Sandra, she kindly drove us (that’s me & my trusty supporter Liz Scott) to St Albans RC High School where I was due to be interviewed down the phone line by Radio Suffolk. Finding a quiet spot to take the call was tricky during the lunch hour, but School Manager Alison Turner kindly gave up her office for quarter of an hour for the purpose. Apart from the fact that, in answer to the first question, my command of grammar failed me utterly (Interviewer: “How’s it going?” Me: “It’s going lovely!”) I did manage (I think) to hold a sensible conversation about VIII. But I must admit, by this stage in the week, my brain felt as if it was dribbling out of my ears.

Then it was into the hall to talk to around 170 students (some visiting from another high school) – my final gig of the week.

It was another fab audience – thanks everyone! And thanks, too, to librarian Amanda Park, who’d organised everything we needed, & who gave us such a warm welcome. Big thanks also to Ipswich CBG’s superstar Jayne Gould, who kindly came along to lend her support.

The talk went really well – it was a hall full of focussed & enthusiastic students, yay! By the end my last drop of energy was spent & I really needed to be scraped off the floor, dumped in a wheelbarrow & wheeled home. Given that South West trains curiously don’t offer that service, however, there was nothing for it but to go to the station to start the journey back home to Bristol.

Four hours later, the sight of my home front door was a lovely one…

Now there’ll be a brief break in this diary, as I’m home for the weekend. I think I could do with lying on a sofa for the duration, but I have a feeling my kids won’t let me…

And then it’ll be back on the road again on Monday morning for Week 2 of the tour! Come back & see what happens & whether the knees, the voice & the plimsolls hold out…

Event number one took place this morning at Westbourne Sports College, in the large, light-filled library, the domain of inspirational school librarian Sarah Greenacre.

Tomorrow is Sarah’s last day before retirement, and it was thoroughly obvious to me just how much the school will be missing once she’s gone. It is a theme of this tour that I am meeting astonishingly dedicated, enthusiastic, expert & inspiring librarians… and Sarah is certainly one of them. (Mr Gove, are you listening?)

Along with Sarah, I met the equally energetic, dedicated & imaginative history teacher Zoe Potter, and was wowed by her account of some of the ways she approaches the teaching of history, engaging the pupils’ creativity.

(l-r) Zoe Potter, me, Sarah Greenacre

I spoke to a group of 30 or so Year 8s – and they were a delight. Switched on, interested, enthusiastic & intelligent, they were generous with their attention and thoughtful in their questions. I had a great time – thanks Westbourne!

And on the way out I was impressed by some of the pupils’  ceramics on display too:

PR-whizz Liz Scott is my very kind & supportive minder, helper & all-round problem-smoother for the rest of the tour. After a lovely lunch with Zoe & Sarah, Liz whisked me off in a taxi out of Ipswich to Farlingaye High School in Woodbridge. There, in a hall this big…

…I was due to speak to 260 Year 8s. Looked after by another fantastic, welcoming & energetic whirlwind of a librarian, Elaine Bate, and helped by the school’s IT expert, we set up my powerpoint and the book’s trailer, overhearing, all the while, some simply astonishingly virtuoso piano-playing from a Year 10 student who was practising in the next room. My mouth was literally hanging open at the sound, and Elaine told me that Farlingaye has some wonderful musicians – I believe it!

The school also has, as I had found out on my way in, great designers – I wish my daughters could have seen these pieces of work on display, because I know they would have loved them:

Before long the Year 8s – all 260 of them – poured into the hall and I was off, talking and questioning, showing them pictures and waving my hands in the air a lot, as usual. They were a wonderful crowd, though after an hour of projecting my voice, I wasn’t sure I would be able to answer all their questions audibly… The voice held out – just! The extra treat was that lots of pupils came up to me with questions in the signing queue, and it was fab to have a chance to chat with them one-to-one.

Then, Liz and I returned by taxi to our hotel in Ipswich, passing this fine Suffolk windmill en route, if you can spot it in my photo!…

And so to the third ‘half’ of the day: an evening event with the Ipswich branch of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, where I had the pleasure of meeting up with Jayne Gould herself. I had first met her – and several other lovely FCBG members who attended the event tonight – at the FCBG conference in Kesgrave near Ipswich last autumn. Just as I found on that occasion, the welcome this evening was warm, the atmosphere relaxed and friendly, and the audience for my talk interested & interesting, enthusiastic & knowledgeable. I love Federation events – they are a real treat to come to, and an honour to speak at.

The venue this evening was Church’s Bistro, whose home is an ancient house right next to the church of St. Mary-le-Tower. The event was held on the top floor, in a room with wonderful exposed beams and, to add to the historical flavour (if you’ll forgive the pun), the chef had researched & devised a menu of Tudor food (including a delicious pottage). We were all very happy diners.

I gave a reading in front of a loo door (those are genuine Tudor fairy lights, obvs)…

…met some fantastic readers…

…and had a great time chatting with Federation members about historical mysteries & Josephine Tey, about researching the history of a house, and about our shared fevered anticipation of Hilary Mantel’s forthcoming Bring Up the Bodies.

Thank you so much to Ipswich CBG for an absolutely lovely evening in a wonderful setting!

And so to bed…

…and then, by sheer strength of will & physical recklessness, got myself and my luggage onto a tube train that was as packed as this…

Playing sardines in a moving tin can with hundreds of other people is a warm business. It dried my trouser-cuffs out nicely & even made a start on my socks.

By the time I made it to Waterloo & the (thankfully emptier) Hampton Court train, I was much less soggy, though the weather hadn’t improved…

Little did I know that the day would involve a great deal more water before it was over.

At Hampton Court station I met up with fab Templar Commissiong Editor and all-round book genius Helen Boyle, & together we splashed our way to the palace.

Here I am – with luggage – at the beautifully gilded gateway to the Clore Learning Centre there:

In the Centre’s foyer, I encountered this wicker Henry VIII by artist Janet Lightfoot:

Every home should have one!

And this gorgeous dragon, though sadly I don’t know who made it:

The organiser of my event was Kingston Library’s Vanessa Howe – a librarian with huge commitment to her local community & its schools, who is an awe-inspiring example of just how much difference librarians make. I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to take part in her event. Vanessa had invited students from 2 local schools – Tiffin Boys’ & Tolworth Girls’ – to come & hear me speak about VIII. They were not, however, the only people in the room…

The day was facilitated by Gillian of the Clore Centre staff (thank you, Gillian!). It was a lovely event at a dream venue. A prize was offered for the best question at the end of my talk and the students rose impressively to the challenge!

Then, after lunch, and despite the relentless rain, we all met up at the front of the palace to have a look round inside.

By the time the students had splashed round the maze, this was one very wet author:

Luckily, help was at hand. My dear friend, the writer & script-editor Merle Nygate (see her website here) picked me up and whisked me off to a fantastic tea shop a stone’s throw from the palace, for a long overdue catch-up and (in my case, anyway) the hugest piece of coconut and lime cake I’ve ever seen.

Then it was back by train to London and on up to Ipswich, where I’ve arrived ready for tomorrow’s 3 events (eek!). Ipswich was the birthplace of Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII’s long-term right-hand man, and the first great expander of Hampton Court (it had had previous owners, but Wolsey was the man who commissioned a great deal of the palace we know). Funnily enough, earlier at the Clore Centre I had spotted a wonderful old poster featuring the very man:

Cardinal Wolsey - red was most definitely his colour!