Latest News
21st January 2012
Latest News:
Caddy's World- very good news! Publication date for America is March 20th this year, at last! And more very good news is that it is on the Carnegie Longlist over here in the UK. I am so pleased about that.
Lulu books: three published now, and another three on the way. And thank you very much Amanda D for letting me know how much you and your daughter are enjoying them!
Last week I had a message from a reader named Yael, in the mountains is South Africa, in Kwazulu Natal. I asked her to tell me what she saw and this is her amazing and wonderful reply! Ignore the small typos and just enjoy!
Hi Hilary, Thanks for repyling to my last email. BTW, just incase you don't remember me, i am the one in kwazulu natal. You told me to tell you what animals i see. I share the land i live on with a man who has a lot of snakes and reptiles. (He is going to start a reptile house and call it slytherin. i hope) And next door to us our people with lots of scary eagles. Fish eagles, black eagles, peregrines, and owls. They are beautiful but very very scary because one time at there bird show a black eagle got hungry and scraped the ladies head and they had to patch her up. Every morning i see Zebra's from the pasture over and lovely little wild horses. Once i saw a grey rhino up close in the wild but im glad to say he didn't see me or i would be less alive than i am now. But the only animal in this country that has caused us harm is the neighbors dog because he bit my dads hand very badly. My dad is ok though and he says that the scar is in the shape of a lighting bolt and he wonders if he is the next harry pott
There you were cut off Yael, because the message box holds only a limited amount of text. But thank you so much! You paint such a gorgeous picture! That is the best reply I have ever had. Keep writing! You have such a gift!
Thanks for particularly lovely messages to Mabs (but I'm sorry your mum is getting tired of bookshops!) Janeen, and Mathilde in the US (I hope you like Caddy's World when it finally makes it over the water) and Tessa. Julia and family. BIG THANKS to you poeple for raiding the bookshops on your vacation!. Ona, from Australia, who has been following the Casson family for seven years! It's wonderful to know how much they mean to you, Ona, and I'm glad you like Indigo. He gets overlooked a bit sometimes, but he really is a quiet hero in his own way. Vanja, thanks, I'm glad I made you laugh. Darcey, Shannon and Caoimhe, it looks rather like the Cassons are stopping at six at the moment, but I will pass on your messages to my publishers. Lily, always a compliment to hear I kept someone reading through the night, and thanks for the recommendations; I'll put them on the list. Sunny from Korea (how I love my world wide readers!) it was great to hear from you. I'm sorry to say bookless houses happen here in the UK too. Wish they didn't. Thank goodness for libraries (what's left of them- hope you're reading Mr Cameron!). Harper and Jenna, I'm glad you like Saffy's Angel. I hope you enjoy the others just as much.
Olivia, Brooke, Ellie and Izzy, look on the booklist page to find my other books! Addie, The Flying Feeling was a free story that I wrote for the World Book Day charity. Later it became the first part of Caddy Ever After. I believe spare copies were bought up by dealers, and that is what you have seen for sale.
Hello to Yael in Kwa-Zulu Natal- what a place to be! I hope you are loving the mountains and the whole experience. Welcome to the Casson world anytime you need a change of scene, but enjoy where you are right now. Send me a list of the wildlife you see, and I will put it on this website so that we can all turn a little green with envy.
Hi Hanaa, who wanted to know if I ever had a secret hiding place when I was little and upset. I had three little sisters, Hanaa, so there were not many secret places in our house. In fact, it was a very unprivate place indeed. My secret place to escape just had to be books. Which worked out very well!
Hello to Lily in Canterbury! Glad you like Kiran and Rose. They must make a nice change to Eng. Lit.! Jasmine, Ayesha and Becky, my favourite character at the moment is Caddy, probably because she was the last one that I wrote about. Soukaina, I'm sorry but Caddy's World will not be published in Germany. Oetinger, the publishers, did not want it (weep, weep!) (Bonkers) Do feel free to write to them and complain! Kaya, yes, Buttercup and the twins are the children of Caddy and Michael, and it's about time everyone stopped calling Buttercup Buttercup. It's no name for a boy!
Now, then, the thorny subject of Rose, Rose and Tom, Rose and her Blog which (yes, I do agree, Avenna, Camille, Yoone, Maeve, Rose, Lucy, Anna, Ayuni, Jayne and any other grumblers I may have accidentally missed) she is VERY bad at updating. Will you all be pleased or dismayed to hear that she has just discovered Twitter? There is a link on her blog page to where she is twittering. So you can ask her yourself (if you dare!) about Tom. And even Kai if you like Lina, although in my opinion, that was never going to happen. But anyway, all of you Rose-botherers, nip over to Twitter and bother her there. (Good luck!)
Hilda, Anna, and Tamara, certainly I will make a book of Rose's blog if a publisher wants to commission it! Georgie, I'm glad to hear your prize copy of Caddy's World arrived. Polly, I couldn't agree with you more about the covers. Write to my publishers and tell them your thoughts! Grace, my favourite book changes all the time, but today I will pick Cold Enough For Snow because I am wishing it would snow, and it hasn't. Paige, no, the Casson family is not based on my neighbours, and do you think I would admit it if it was?! Jayne, thanks for sending me your homework, I hope you got it done. Lots of people send me homework by the way! I always enjoy it. It is fascinating to look at all the awful things that I will never have to do. Genevieve, the song Tom sings in Indigo's Star is based on Bob Dylan's Mr Tambourine Man. That fine and discordant work. If you sing it loudly enough you will find that the words fit perfectly.
Francesca, I'm sorry to be so unhelpful, but no, I have not created a study guide for Indigo's Star (or indeed, any of my books). I wouldn't think of doing such a thing for several reasons, not least that I do not know the answers. Indigo's Star is a book containing one point of view and one solution to a multifaceted situation. I make no claims for it being the right point of view, or the right solution, or anyone else's situation. However, if at some point a Q and A session with students via this website would be of any use to you, I would be willing to set that up. Students could send in their queries, and I could listen and comment, so that all the replies came through to you at the same time. But I would do that as a writer and parent, not as an expert on bullying (or anything else). Best wishes to you, and your son. Hilary
Reading list for those of you who ask 'What shall I read next?'
Adele Geras: Happy Ever After, Dido, Troy (Recommended by my daughter, Bella)
Kevin Crossley-Holland: The Seeing Stone Quartet
Joan Aiken: Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Black Hearts in Battersea
Garth Nix: Sabriel
Shaun Tan: The Arrival
Nick Green: Cat Kin, Cat's Paw (Recommended by Bella again)
Jean Auel: The Land of Painted Caves (Recommended by Elen Caldecott)
Elen Caldecott (herself!): How Kirsty Jenkisns Stole the Elephant (Recommended by me)
Eva Ibbotson: Ghosts (Recommended by Bess)
Mary Norton: The Borrowers (Recommended by Emma)
Marcus Sedgwick: Diamonds and Doom (Raven Mysteries( (Recommended by Phoebe)
Joanna Nash: Buttercup Mash (Recommended by Leah)
Par Walsh: The Crowfield Curse Trilogy (Recommended by Denise)
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games(Recommended by Lily)
Meg Rosoff: How I Live Now (Recommended by Lily again)
Wendy Mass: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life (Recommended by Yoorie)
Pseudonymous Bosch: The Secret Series (also recommended by Yoorie)
Ingrid Law: Savvy (Yoorie again!)
Any of you with more books to add to this list please let me know. Send your best new reads to me via this website to me and I will put them up for other people to enjoy.
Thank you.
Audiobooks, for those people who could not find them. This is what my agent says:The best way for individuals to order these library edition copies is to contact ABC (our direct mail company) on 01225 443400 or email audiobookcollection.com. They can also visitwww.audiobookcollection.'
