HELLO – welcome to our first blog on our new look ALBERT the tortoise website – still with our good friends Hugg ‘n’ Bugg.
We have been a little quiet on here while people did their thing revamping the site. We are thrilled with it – and we hope you will enjoy it too.
You can find info about real ALBERT who started everything ‘Albert’… you can find the books, the goodies inspired by all the Alberts (books, illustrated, real and animated) .. There’s the animation of Albert based on our books, fun activities, info on the authors.. and more besides.
While all that has been going on we have been busy doing our thing with all things Albert…
Time for a catch up…
It was Independent Bookshop Week and we were delighted to spend the final Saturday of the event with our chums and great supporters at Jo’s Bookshop in north Chingford.
Multiple Albert and Hugg ‘n’ Bugg storytimes, lots of chat with customers… Thanks to everyone involved.
Next we were off to one of author Ian Brown’s old childhood libraries.. Cuffley Community Library in Hertfordshire for their Open Day. A super day of storytelling, book selling and chat with folk of all ages. Thank you to everyone involved.
Next we headed up to Norfolk to take part in the Norfolk Tortoise Club summer event at Hethersett Village Hall.
A grand day meeting fans of our books and of tortoises – including real Albert. Two storytime sessions and some fun chats with visitors. Thank you to the organisers and all who came along.
A quick return to Jo’s Bookshop in north Chingford to sign the first batch of our new picturebook ALBERT AND THE LONG NIGHT. Copies are landing all over ahead of official August publication. Thanks to Jo and Team for their amazing support.
A new book means new poses.. all styled by Albert himself, of course. It hardly takes any time to get these shots… that he approves of.
We are very excited about the new book… In it Albert and the garden gang stay up to investigate night noises… This introduces a nocturnal world of hedgehogs, foxes, badgers, moths, owls, bats and more…
The story was kickstarted by our visits to schools and libraries. When we meet young fans and talk about real Albert and his long winter sleep … a lot of youngsters confuse the meaning of the words hibernation and nocturnal. So, we thought a book that introduces the idea of nocturnal animals was a nice idea.. and also it might help discussion about why some noises at night are nothing to be worried about.
The book seems to be going down well already… We heard from Tiny Tommy Tortoise on X who seemed delighted to have his copy. Thanks Tommy.
We are also pleased to be able to gift copies to libraries and some other venues and causes.
Among them.. a couple of copies to our local library … in Waltham Forest.
More copies will be gifted over coming weeks.
Also coming up are our promo and publicitiy efforts for the new book.
We are lined up for radio interviews all over… starting very soon with BBC Radios Essex, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk.
Then we will be on with BBC Radio Cornwall and with BBC Radio Wales and with BBC Radio London.
We will keep you posted and updated on our social sites for all that.
As we always say Thank you for all the support you show us. We are most grateful.
Do please support libraries… Please think about getting our new book ALBERT AND THE LONG NIGHT .. and possibly order it from your local bookshop.
More news soon.. Til next time…