I’ve recently returned from a fabulous celebration of books in Dubai, the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. It was a magnificent week of literary delights.
The festival has a great atmosphere; everyone wanders around, chatting to one another, browsing through piles of books in the shop, and talking about writing.
I had never been to Dubai before, and I enjoyed seeing that intriguing city, but the highlight of the festival was undoubtedly meeting so many interesting readers and writers. Here are two of them, Philip Ardagh and John Dougherty.
I led a creative writing group of twenty children and adults, who created some very imaginative stories. I travelled to the English College and talked to the Years 7s. I spoke on a panel with Klaus Flugge, publisher and owner of Andersen Press, and two legendary illustrators, Michael Foreman and Satoshi Kitamura. Thanks for @NotCoolHolmes for the photo:
Alongside all these literary endeavours, I managed to find time to sneak out of the hotel and have a closer look at the tallest building in the world:
And I took a trip to the desert: if you look very closer at these white cars, you might be able to spot a few famous authors…
Also in the desert, I rode a camel:
And I got the opportunity to hold a falcon named Ziggy.
I did tell her about Ziggy the dragon in the Dragonsitter, but she wasn’t terribly interested.
