At the moment I am in Auckland, New Zealand, writing and doing promotional events. I return to England mid-May in time to for the ‘Spook’s Sacrifice’ tour in June.

I have just managed to complete the anthology of Wardstone Witches short stories, which will be published this October in time for Halloween. It features five narratives: a full account of John Gregory’s life with the lamia witch, Meg; a story from the perspective of ‘Dirty Dora, a dead witch; Grimalkin giving her version of how she became a witch assassin; Tom Ward giving an account of a further adventure with Bill Arkwright and Alice Deane telling of her first scary week being trained as a witch by Bony Lizzie.

My own personal favourite is the one about Alice. Put her in a difficult situation where her life is threatened and we see how she reacts. They don’t come any darker or more ruthless than Alice.

After the school holidays I’ll be giving talks at schools in New Zealand but, so far, this is the only event open to members of the public: April 22nd, at 11 am, ‘The Children’s Bookshop’, Ponsonby, Auckland.

Events for the ‘Spook’s Sacrifice’ tour in England are still being negotiated and some of the dates will change. Again most are schools. But the following are events open to the public. I will sign, chat and answer questions. Everyone is welcome.
Monday, June 1st: Pool Cafe, Brows Lane, Formby, 4.30 onwards
Tuesday, June 2nd: Crosby Library, 4pm to 5pm
Wednesday, 3rd June: Birkdale Library, 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Thursday, 4th June: Magull Library, 4 to 5pm
Monday June 8th: Waterstone’s Bury in the afternoon
Tuesday June 9th: Waterstone’s Wigan, 2 pm

I will probably be visiting shops in Southampton, Portsmouth and Lymington. Of course I live in Lancashire and will be doing lots of other local visits which should include:
Border’s, Preston,
Waterstone’s, Lancaster
Waterstone’s, Preston
Corner Books, Garstang
Silverdell, Kirkham
The Bookshop in Colne, Pendle District

I hope to see some of you there and will give an update with precise dates and times in my next blog (the last week in May).

Once again, sorry to say that I have no film news yet, but I am going to try and contact the producer, Lionel Wigram, next week to see if he can tell us anything.

Best wishes,

Joseph Delaney