Great morning with hundreds of great Spanish kids!  Melvin was his usual mischievous self, especially when we found that we didn't have to speak Spanish after all and we started off by discussing some of his early books - like 'Junk' and 'Doing It' which caused great consternation when they were first published and determined, to a large extent, what 'teenage literature'meant - they were certainly pioneering books and helped to change the perception of what books for this age group were all about.  We also explored some of his other work, including the big epic 'Blood' stories based on the great northern European sagas, and brought it up to date with his latest book,' Nicholas Dane',which takes the dark tales of children in care being abused by their carers.  Very topical.  Lot's of the students were familiar with Melvin's version of 'Billy Elliot' and he told them of the challenges of turning a successful film into a book, giving them an idea of the difference of working in the two media, of voices and of character history.  Intelligent questions from students rounded off both the sessions.  Although the students had mixed language abilities (some were bi-lingual, from bi-lingual schools while others were learning English in ordinary state schools) the level of interest was high and the members of the press present were impressed by the ability of students to stay focussed in a foreign language for up to an hour at a time.  Of course some didn't - we wouldn't have expected otherwise - but in the end a great buzz od interest had been created.  Melvin got mobbed by those with books they wanted him to sign and the last I saw of his he was being taken away by journalists from El Pais for a mega interview over lunch.

Now we have to find out if Beverley Naidoo has arrived in town.  She's the star of tomorrow's sessions!