Wednesday 10 September 2008

Frog the Dog World theme park plans put on hold


Sadly, our dreams of buying Fleetwood Pier to build a Frog the Dog World theme park have suffered a set back - the poor old pier was burned down yesterday, the last of the old English seaside piers to be built, back in 1910.
I would love to have known the pier in its heyday; but in recent years it has fallen into decay, and was recently bought by a local business man who hoped (somehwat controversially) to build residential flats on it.
In the hearts of most Fleetwood people though was the dream of restoring it to its former glory. Can you imagine how much it would cost in public liability insurance alone to have a fun fair on the pier these days? But it's what piers were made for - we want to see merry-go-rounds and helter skelters, we want to sniff the candy floss, peer over the railings into the briny, saunter long the planks to take in the stiff sea breezes.
We want somewhere to relish the views across Morecambe Bay, somewhere to sit with an ice cream, somewhere to sit inside when its raining; this IS England, after all!
Now we will have to stand by watching the pier disintegrate whilst it is decided what will happen to it next. Poor old pier.

Wednesday 3 September 2008

Book Signing Events



We are still in the midst of our book signing events for the ASDA UK supermarkets - two more this week, in our home town of Fleetwood on Thursday and a few miles south in Blackpool on Friday, a much larger store.

The sheer footfall through the supermarket doors is staggering. It is a ceasless flow of humanity and trolleys, eager to buy.
The staff are keen to promote the product as part of their commitment to local produce, and are very enthusiastic to have something a little unusual, and for children. I'm learning from ASDA how to be very local yet global - it's fascinating how little details can give a product an edge, so I hope to take this newly acquired expertise into the bookshops too.

It's a fantastic opportunity to get our products in front of the general public in a big way - and the interview on late night BBC Lancashire was a lot of fun too. Ive now been interviewed by all but two of the programmes on BBC Lancashire - think that's a target presenting itself! I only have to crack the breakfast show and the mid morning show and I shall have a full set.
Frogtastic!