Bookings
Tony is available for bookings in schools, libraries and similar venues, depending on time and workload. As a rule he gives performances rather than workshops. These cater for age groups ranging between Nursery and Key Stage 2 (e.g. 4 - 11 yrs). A performance normally consists of telling poems, showing picture books, teaching and sharing finger & action rhymes, talking about the processes of writing and publishing, & giving children the opportunity to ask questions individually in open forum. Tony uses his own material: a range of poems short & long, traditional & contemporary, lyric & narrative, humorous & serious, performance & literary. Sessions are, of course, adjusted to suit the age-range and size of each group. Tony is equally comfortable with very small or very large groups, and can, on request, cater for mixed age groups.

Alternative bookings
Tony will also give talks to older groups, subject to prior discussion. These might be talks about writing for children, delivered to teachers, parents, librarians, booksellers, students, or possibly secondary school pupils. The slant here would usually be more theoretical, but will nearly always include some element of performance as demonstration.
Please discuss other kinds of booking if you wish (e.g. short readings linked to book events at schools & libraries, along with prizegivings etc.) (Workshops by specification, possibly.)

Practical Requirements
Comfortable, undistracting setting for audience & performer. Generous provision of table space to stand many books. Water to drink. No need for flip-charts or whiteboards for the normal kinds of performance. Allotted space preferred, but can visit classrooms instead.

Essential Considerations / Timetabling etc.
Tony's normal kind of event is more like performance than like daily-teaching. As such, it can be very physically and mentally demanding. It makes the same kinds of energy-demands as stand-up comedy, being a kind of direct interaction with an unfamiliar audience, attempting to maintain a high level of attention across a given time-span. So please don't block-timetable him across the day without allowing time for recuperation between sessions. An allowance of mm. 15 minutes between sessions is essential for recuperation, in order to come across freshly in the following session. Please also bear in mind that he may have risen very early and made a long journey before the school day has begun.

Suggested Length of Sessions (related to age-groups)
Nursery: 20 - 30 mins
Reception: 30 - 40 mins
Yrs l& 2: 40 - 5O mins
Yrs 3&4: 45 - 60 mins
Yrs 5&6: 45 mins - 1hr 15mins (these are based on the writer's experience of ideal minimum and maximum times for the specified age-groups).

Standard Charges
Please contact us for current prices using the contact details at the bottom of this page. The total fee will also include travel costs: reimbursement of return rail fare (usually from Cambridge) or 20p per mile return road journey, whichever proves easier for the journey in question.

Distant Venues, Timetabling& Accommodation
Where the distance from Tony's home is too great to enable travelling to a venue on the day, this can be resolved either by arranging a half-day afternoon booking (see above) or a "late- start school day (see above). "Late-start' would allow time for early morning travel, geared to arriving mid-morning and doing late-morning session or sessions followed by an afternoon. Where the distance is yet greater, Tony will require modest B&B accommodation, to be arranged and paid for by the organiser.