I’m thrilled to be able to formally announce a wonderful Ella Bella event at the 2011 Cheltenham Music Festival. Together with a string quartet I’ll be telling the stories of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, and illustrating them live on stage as the music plays. The illustrations, as at the Hatfield concert in November, […]
Category: Ella Bella
This is a post category for posts about Ella Bella Ballerina and includes posts imported from the original Ella Bella Ballerina blog on Google Blogger.
Ella Bella’s month
March has been busy with visits to many schools, in celebration of World Book Day. Although I will not be starting the next Ella Bella book (the Nutcracker) until the autumn, Ella is always in my mind. In a few weeks I am taking my editor to a performance of The Firebird, which I hope […]
Farewell Fairy Godmother
It seems all good things really DO come to an end, as lovely Emma O’Donovan leaves Hachette (Orchard Books) for pastures new. What a fabulous trouper she has been, imaginatively and enthusiastically leaving no marketing stone unturned in her quest for excellance. Katie, Ella Bella and I will all miss her hugely. When I completed […]
Retro Records
I’m always trawling second hand shops for inspiring books and records and was really pleased to find these two gems. I haven’t played these 10 inch discs yet, but I just love the vintage covers. Casse-Noisette is The Nutcracker of course, the story of the next Ella Bella book, which I’ll be working on in […]
Ballet Books
While Ella Bella takes a rest from activity (I start the next book in the summer), I have been looking in bookshops for more inspiration and reference material. I found this very unusual book, very cheaply, “The New Ballet”. It’s about the work of a choreographer, Kurt Jooss, and is filled with dazzling drawings by […]
New year, new projects…
After all the excitement and drama of “the coldest Winter since records began”, I’m looking forward to getting on with some new and exciting projects. It’s always hard to get motivated after a good break, but I’m so excited by future plans it should be slightly easier to get up and running. Yesterday I had […]
A New Nutcracker
As the snow tumbles out of the sky I am feeling thoroughly Christmassy. Last week I accompanied my fabulous editor Liz Johnson and the magnificent Emma O’Donovan from publicity at Hachette Children’s Books, to the opening night of the new English National Ballet production of The Nutcracker. We had a lovely evening, and thoroughly enjoyed […]
Rosita Lollipop
Recent pursuits have led me a wonderful and magical shop in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, called Rosita Lollipop. It’s an Aladdin’s cave of Vintage fun and Retro glamour; a secret den full of Ella Bella’s very favourite things. If Madame Rosa wasn’t a ballet teacher, this is where she would have ended up! Recently a runner up […]
Concert Review
As some of you know, I am a visiting lecturer on the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge Art School (Anglia Ruskin University), and I was delighted that five students, who I don’t yet teach but hope to teach next Academic year, attended the first of the two concerts in Hatfield. One student, Rosemary, […]
Stories from the ballet: The concert!
Here I am on a rainy Monday morning trying to find words for a day of sunshine and autumn light, filled with music and stories and pictures and so many lovely people. Yesterday the two “Ella Bella” concerts took place after months and months of preparation and hard work from many, many people. I was […]
