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April 18, 2008

Mr Gum Storms Norfolk Shorts!

Congratulations to Andy Stanton on his Norfolk Shorts award for 'You're a Bad Man Mr Gum'. Another well deserved award for a hilarious book. If you know any eight or nine year olds, buy it for them.

The six shortlisted authors were invited to attend the ceremony, but I had to decline, what with being in Africa and all. So I was asked to send a letter instead.

Dear children,

Don't you just love short books? You can carry a short book in your schoolbag without breaking your back. You can read a short book on the bus (or on the loo) and finish it before you get off. You can recount the story to your friends without them falling asleep.

Sometimes a short book is called a novella, but most people are a bit hazy about what that means. I'm not sure either, but I like to call Sophie and the Albino Camel a novella because it sounds cool and Spanish, like paella.

Not that there's anything Spanish about Sophie and the Albino Camel, mind you; the story is totally African. It's set on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, not far from where I live, and some of the characters are even based on real people. Sophie is based on a real nine year-old English girl called Milly who lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. Muusa ag Litni is based on a bandit who hijacked Gorom-Gorom's ambulance a few years ago and drove off in it, which in my opinion is even worse than stealing a camel!

I've always had a soft spot for African adventure stories. When I was ten, I used to love King Solomon's Mines (by Rider Haggard) and Sahara Adventure (by Wilbur Smith). Stories of exotic and dangerous places used to keep me up late into the night, reading by torchlight under the bedclothes. If you like African adventures, there are lots of recent books for you to choose from. The Door of No Return is very exciting, as is Ringmaster. Or if you enjoyed Sophie and Gidaado's first adventure, there are two more in the same series: Sophie and the Locust Curse and Sophie and the Pancake Plot.

I'm writing this in my study and it's very hot here. In April the temperature gets up to 48ºC in the shade, which is so hot it makes you want to take your brain out of your head and rinse it in cold water! Apart from the April heat, however, my wife and I love living in Africa. We have five hens, one horse and lots of very friendly neighbours.

I feel very honoured to have been shortlisted for this first ever Norfolk Shorts award. I really wish I could nip back to England and pop into the award ceremony to say hello, but I'm afraid it would be a very long way to travel for just one day. If you would like to write and say hi, please do (I love getting snail mail!), or else you can visit my website and leave a message there.

Very best wishes to you all, and happy reading!

Steve

Posted by sahelsteve at April 18, 2008 08:47 AM