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I have just interviewed one of my all time favourite writers, Julia Donaldson,Ìýcreator of The Gruffalo and a host of other characters. Normally I do a bit of googling/reading/researching before I chat to someone. But this time, I feel I know her and her writing inside out. I've been reading her words to my children for the past 7 years. From her debut picture book "A Squash and a Squeeze" to the runaway success of "The Gruffalo", her words are a joy to read. You know that feeling of dread when your childÌýchooses a book you hate, and you think, how can I read this?ÌýNo, aÌýJulia Donaldson night is a good night..ÌýThere's something innate in her writing, a mix of mischief andÌýmusic that makesÌýyou soundÌýgreat when you're reading it! Move over Jackanory, there's a new reader in town! Direct from the girls' bedroom!

Anyhow, JuliaÌýis coming to Derry on the 21st January for a day of events, an exhibition called The Illustrators in Central Library; an interactive reading/singing show in the Millennium Forum; and a chat with myself and Siobhan Parkinson Laureate na nÓg (Irish Laureate) at the Verbal Arts Centre.

She's a bit hard of hearing, she tells me, and her work, in recent years, has become informed by hearing loss, and how this affects young readers. She's written a story about a deaf fairy, which she will be reading from. But the big draw will be The Gruffalo. She loved the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ adaptation, she tells me, but loved The Gruffalo's Child recent one even better. They got the snow the right kind of crunchy she says!!

For someone whoÌýstarted off as a song writer for children's tv shows, she has transformed the world of children's literature. But song writing for her was a bit like being a hack, asked to write to a brief. She remembers a song she wrote about the Ulster Museum. The show was coming to Belfast and so she was sent a series of postcards - a stuffed polar bear, a vintage car. She called it The Amazement Arcade. She says she's still really proud of it as a title. I looked it up and it seems it was on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Play Away in the mid 1970's. That means I must have sung along to it with Brian Cant. Now I'm getting all nostalgic for Hamble and through the round window. I think that I might be looking forward to meeting Julia more than the children!

Julia Donaldson is in Derry on Saturday 21st January, 1pm show at the Millennium Forum, then at 430pm Two Laureates: Julia Donaldson & Siobhan Parkinson in Conversation with Marie-Louise Muir at the Verbal Arts Centre