A Golden Opportunity

I was lucky enough to be invited to Catherine Cooper's celebration party the other day. Catherine has just won the overall Brit Writers award with her magical book The Golden Acorn'

The red carpet was out and many people were trying it out for comfort, but of course it was there for Catherine who is a worthy person to tread it.



The copy below is the one that was printed in advance for when she attended the awards ceremony at the O2 in London.



The room and tables were incredible as Catherine had gone to immense detail to capture the magic of her book. The place names each had a golden acorn for us to take home and many of the characters from the book where on display. A man played a harp as we entered the room and Roman Soldiers mixed with the guests.

I was so inspired by the speeches that friends and family made about Catherine. She had suffered with poor health for years, eventually having to give up her much loved job, but never gave up on her writing.

She began by self-publishing her first three books and taking her wonderful displays into schools to inspire children to read. I was captivated when I first met her at a writers event in Newport earlier this year and had to buy 'The Golden Acorn' out of the money from my own book sales!

She entered the Brit Writing awards and not only won the children's award but was crowned the overall winner.




Catherine Cooper



'Camelin' - one of the characters from her book, carefully guarding Catherine's Awards.



The celebration cake



More characters from the book



Myself and Mom were on a table with other writers which was wonderful and we were spellbound when a Roman Centurion joined us for the whole afternoon. They were dotted around several tables and I had the pleasure of Gaius Longinius sitting right next to me! I even had a go at writing on his roman wax tablet.



I came away feeling so inspired, after such a magical day, and believing that anything is possible if you believe in yourself.