I didn't have to go looking for chocolates today; they arrived early in the morning with American house guest named Yoko.


I woke up to an e-mail saying there was a picture book conference today at Goldsmiths college, featuring illustrator Elizabeth Harbour, who got me started on the whole thing with her illustration evening classes at Central Saint Martins eight years ago. Her class was so good that I took it four times in a row. She was nice enough to change it a little bit each time so I wouldn't feel like I was repeating things too much. I hadn't seen her for at least six years, so I dashed off there and had a quick little reunion, which was great, although I would have liked to have kidnapped her for a whole afternoon of chatting. She signed a copy of her latest book for me, Puppy Love. Ben Cort also signed a copy of his Aliens Love Underpants. Then I ran off to have lunch on the South Bank with Candy Gourlay and Bridget Strevens. And at last I got to meet Manuela Pentagelo (manuelap)! I felt like I'd known her for ages because we've done so many illustration challenges together (such as Lunch with Hubert) and general plotting, but we'd never actually met. So that was very exciting. Bridget had to run off, but here's a picture of Manuela, Candy and me in the Royal Festival Hall. (It's kind of blurry, that's why I made it so small.)