On a hot summer’s day a few weeks ago, I spent ten hours painting an elephant (not a real one) at the High Street Kensington branch of Waterstone’s in London. Afterwards, I felt as if I’d done ten aerobics’ sessions. It might have taken less time had I used something larger than a three-haired watercolour brush, but there is no way to rehearse the painting of an elephant (as anyone who has watched the Peter Sellars’ film, The Party, will know). Sore muscles aside, however, it was the most fun I’ve had in ages, thanks largely to Waterstone’s lovely staff and the children of Holland Park School, who visited for an hour and painted elephant pictures alongside me. If you’re at a loose end, the elephant will be in store until September, after which it’ll be retiring to the library of Holland Park School.

In case you’ve missed my Twitter dispatches, Dead Man’s Cove is out in the UK now. Read the reviews and see Max’s feedback on my Laura Marlin Mysteries’ page. I’ll be signing books and talking about it at Festivals and in bookshops throughout August and September. See my Events Diary for updates. In between I’ll be hard at work on the final draft of Kidnap in the Caribbean, the sequel. At least, that’s what I tell my publisher. More usually, I’m watching Max chase the squirrel round the back garden, or eating homemade chocolate brownies, or going out to the French baker for croissants.

Cause for celebration this month: the relaunch of Patricia Leitch’s classic Jinny at Finmory series. For the Love of a Horse and a Devil to Ride are two of my favourite horse books of all time, and when I was asked to ride a foreword for them I jumped at the chance. Between the ages of eleven and sixteen, when I was totally horse-obsessed and my whole world revolved around my black colt, Morning Star, I read, re-read and read again all twelve books in the Jinny at Finmory series. Like Jinny, I loved to paint and the walls of my room were plastered in paintings and sketches of Jinny’s chestnut Arab, Shantih, and the red horse of her dreams. They’re wonderful, timeless novels. Treat yourself. Oh, and buy the paperback of The Elephant’s Tale while you’re at it!

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my Bengal cat, Max. The same people also know how hopeless I am at social media and keeping up with Twitter, etc. Well, now Max, who likes to think of himself as a co-author of my books (you can see from the photo how energetic he is), is doing it on my behalf. Follow him at Laurenscatmax, or see his Facebook fan page at: Lauren’s Cat Max Facebook Fan Page.

Once there, click on the home page link to follow different threads. Better still, start your own discussions or debates, or add reviews or photos.

Max writes another chapter

The highlight of May was, for me, a week of school visits in Malta, supported by the incredible Merlin Library, a bookstore and publisher which has been in the Gruppetta family for generations . Initially my trip was planned to coincide with the Children’s Book Festival, but the Icelandic Volcano put paid to that. Fortunately, Merlin and my publishers, Orion, were able to reschedule all ten school visits and I flew out in mid-May.

To be honest, I’d never previously considered visiting Malta. I would have had difficulty finding it on a map. But after a week at the Le Meridian St Julians I was head over heels in love with it. Everything about the island is wonderful. The food, the people, the turquoise bays. Did I mention the fabulous food? It turned out that Merlin’s Chris and Jo (who in her spare time is a gifted stage and television actress), who uncomplainingly drove me the length and breadth of the island and listened to ten re-tellings of my Samantha the python story, were experts on every hidden gem restaurant in Malta. Over the course of the week, I ate two or three times my own bodyweight in sensationally good food. I can state without fear of contradiction that Vecchia Napoli serves the best pizza I’ve ever eaten, that the Barracuda seafood restaurant’s linguini special matches the view for excellence, and that the Fontanella cafe serves the best chocolate cake on earth.

But back to the real reason I was there. The schools and children of Malta embraced my Animals are Not Rubbish competition with a fervour and enthusiasm I found deeply touching. Fifty schools entered and the winning model, a superb panda, is a work of art. The school won books and a year’s sponsorship of three Born Free Foundation leopards.  A single school I visited had submitted 30 models. There were adorable snow leopards, an exquisite turtle, an extraordinary range of elephants and a Siberian tiger too cute for words.

The best thing about Malta, though, were the surprises. On my first morning there, I visited a beautiful old Catholic school. After I’d finished talking and signing books, I was told that the head sister, Sr Cecilia Casolani, wanted to see me. My heart sank. I was convinced that I had in some way offended someone. My talk is full of irreverent jokes about how I spent my school days staring out of the window, and snake stories. Knees quaking, I followed Chris and Jo up to her office. There I met a nun with the kind of serene, lovely face you imagine exists only in the movies. We sat drinking coffee in front of pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and she told me about a dog she’d loved in her youth, and a sparrow with a broken wing which she’d saved and kept for seven years. It was, she said, one of the cleverest creatures she ever knew. It was one of those special moments that you know, even as you’re experiencing it, will never leave you.

To cut a long story short, if you fancy an amazing holiday with a side trip to a uniquely wonderful bookstore, visit Malta and the Merlin Library.

Jo, Rachel & Chris, the stars of Merlin Library

Lauren and Malta librarian, Noel, a gifted artist and inspiration to his students

feeding stray cats in Malta

Just When Stories

This autumn, Beautiful Books will be publishing the Just When Stories, a collection of short stories about endangered species in aid of the David Shepherd Foundation. Michael Morpurgo and William Boyd have contributed to the collection and I’ve written a story called Tiger Tiger. It’s a worthy cause and all money raised from the sale of the books will help save our vanishing planet, so look out for it and buy it if you can.

Click on this link to read a Guardian article on the book and its editor, Tamara Gray: Just When Stories

I’ve also been fortunate enough to be asked to contribute a short story to Ackroyd’s Ark II, actor Sir Timothy Ackroyd’s second collection of wildlife stories and incredible paintings and drawing of animals by famous or interesting people, which will raise money for his charity, Tusk, a fantastic conservation organization which works with communities and animals in Africa. Prince William is a patron. It’s likely to be published some time around August 2010. Will keep you posted on an exact date.

LAURA MARLIN MYSTERY RESEARCH

Blue lagoon, Antigua

I’m frequently trying to convince people that, as an occupation, writing is harder than wrestling alligators. It’s also one of the worst paid professions on earth. Forget what you’ve read about how JK Rowling lives in a castle and travels by Rolls Royce. The average children’s author earns 2,500 pounds a year. Yes, really.

However, the reason I love it so much is that it does have plenty of compensations. Take research. If you’re African like me and live in a cold country where you spend a lot of time clutching hot water bottles, you spend a great deal of time dreaming up plots set in sunny places.

With that in mind, I packed my bags in November and set off to Antigua, a Caribbean Island boasting 365 beaches, to research the second book in my new mystery series: Kidnap in the Caribbean: a Laura Marlin Mystery. Naturally I was working far too hard to spend time lying on the beach, but it was bliss. Sun-drenched days with friendly people, lots of fresh coconut milk, and turquoise lagoons as warm as bath water. I stayed at the Verandah for seven nights and Carlisle Bay for three nights and can’t recommend either highly enough.

Sunset at Carlisle Bay

The first book in my Laura Marlin series comes out in August 2010 and is called Dead Man’s Cove. It is set in St Ives, Cornwall, one of my favourite places in the world, and is about an 11-year-old girl who idolizes a fictional detective. When she is sent to stay with her mysterious uncle, events take a scary turn.

Also out this year is the paperback of Elephant’s Tale, which will be launched in conjunction with an amazing competition. Watch this space. Check my diary page for dates of appearances. I’ll be doing the Hay, Edinburgh, Shrewsbury and Essex children’s book festivals in 2010.

WHITE GIRAFFE MOVIE UPDATE

I get a lot of letters asking when The White Giraffe is going to be made into a movie. The short answer is: I don’t know. Walden Media, the company that made Narnia and Charlotte’s Web, was developing it, but that was before the credit crunch took a bite out of Hollywood. Now we’re looking for a new home for it. I’ll keep you posted.

THE GRASS IS NOT ALWAYS GREENER

Most days I’m fortunate enough to have a short distance commute from the bedroom to the study, but this morning it was six degrees and snowing when I left the house at 6.10am for a school visit in Farnham, Surrey. Anyone living in the Northern hemisphere this winter will know that it has been insanely cold since mid-December. In some ways, it has been magical. For instance, we had a proper white Christmas. Now, however, most people – including me – are well and truly ready for spring and everywhere you go, people are wishing they were in Australia or Africa. To which I say: “Be careful what you wish for.”

There’s a Crowded House song that contains the lyric: “Everywhere you go, always take the weather.” Doubtless the singer was referring to the Australian sunshine, but when I went to Australia and Africa a little over a year ago – at the height of their summer, I managed to take the English rain. For five weeks, it was my constant companion.

First stop, Cape Town. Weather: Incessant drizzle with a light Arctic breeze

Second stop, Johannesburg: Overcast with rare outbreaks of sunshine, heavy downpours, temperature cool to freezing.

Third stop, Sydney: As above

Fourth stop: Tallebudgera Valley, Gold Coast: A tree-demolishing cyclone, followed by days of high winds and thunderstorms with fizzing split tongues of purple lightning. Terrifying but beautiful.

Fourth stop: Byron Bay: Four days of torrential rain

Fifth stop: Melbourne: Overcast with patchy sun and drizzle. Cold at night.

Final stop: London: Blazing sunshine

Moral of the story: The grass is not always greener. At least, it was a lot greener due to the epic quantity of rain (I took floods to parts of Australia that had been in drought for six years), but the sky is not always bluer, put it that way. Everywhere I went I had locals saying to me: “How on earth do you live in England with that awful weather?” And I’d go: “Yeah, like you can talk.”

WOMBATS: THE CREATURE THAT DARWIN FORGOT

The loveable wombat

Speaking of Australia, what is it with the Wombat? I mean, how on earth did it survive evolution? It has no legs. It has four stumps which it uses to manoevre its beer-barrel-shaped body between its bed and its food supply but nothing that might allow it to outrun or even outwalk a predator. It has very small eyes which seem incapable of focusing on anything except its next meal. In fact, the one at the Healesville Sanctuary near Melbourne was so shortsighted it actually climbed into the trough to crunch up its biscuits. While guzzling, it was challenged by a small bird (see picture). Instead of putting up a fight, it retreated to its bed to sulk, emerging only to scratch its butt against a tree.

This, I’m told, is the reason the wombat has survived down the ages – its thick skin. Now that makes perfect sense. Human beings – especially politicians, bankers and beauty queens - have been surviving that way for centuries.

LEOPARD UPDATE

Lastly, but most importantly, an update on Leda, Rhea and Roxanni, the three leopards I helped the Born Free Foundation rehome from a zoo in Cyprus to Born Free’s wonderful sanctuary at Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa. They’re thriving. They love their new home and spend a lot of time basking in the sun and wrestling with one another. The most noticeable thing is how relaxed they are. They’ve thrown off the shackles of their old life, a nightmare of concrete, people throwing things and pounding music from a theme park and found peace in the African bush and freedom.

If you’d like to support Born Free’s work with the leopards and help build a new African sanctuary for endangered animals, donate to www.lastleopardfund.com