A Mammoth Book Deal! 

A bit of exciting news! After 18 years of writing I have found a home for my wee mammoth book with Simon and Schuster! Coming out next February in hardback.


A massive thank you to my agents Lauren Gardner & Callen Martin of Bell Lomax Moreton and the team at @simonkidsuk. Plus all my writer friends and family who have been cheerleading me through the years!

A Mammoth Night at the Museum

A Mammoth Night at the Museum

February the 14th - St Valentines days. Whilst other folks may be planning proposals of marriage, declarations of love, secret gestures of affection, or romantic rendezvous, a group of 150 people gathered to celebrate the love of all things paleo and mammoth, at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester.

 

The accumulation of hundreds of hours of digging on site at the Mammoth Graveyard in Cerney Wick, plus preparation and conservation, to get the finds ready to go on display. Just six months from mud to museum, and the grand opening of “Mammoths of the Museum’ exhibition was a joyous affair.

The exhibition, displaying items from the 2023 and primarily the 2024 dig, was passionately and carefully put together by Nev and Sally Hollingworth, who also arrange the opening night, with their usual flare.

The Rock Showman - Steve Cousins

 

It really is something to celebrate, often finds, go to museum and a few may go on display but many go into storage for study and research purposes, so getting to see the items volunteers have pulled from the reach on exhibition in one place it truly special.

 

The night was full of surprises too, we met and mingled in the beautiful cavernous meeting space at the front of the Corinium Museum, under the watchful gaze of Wallace and full-sized inflatable woolly mammoth courtesy of Dinomania. The evening was compèred with wit and energy by Rock Showman Steve Cousins, and had speeches from Sally and Nev and the landowners Hill Quarry products.

 

After an amazing announcement, the lights were turned off and the exhibition unveiled, viewed by candlelight (battery powered candlelight anyway) Neanderthal style, which was rather romantic and definitively a memorable way of viewing the exhibits. At the same time Wally the mammoth was unleashed, with his Dinomania Ranger as carperone/bodyguard.

 

Turning on of the light brought cake, (with some familiar cake toppers - my paleo mammoth on the big cakes!) 

Then The Pointy End, did a flint napping demonstration, whilst the Mammoth Trail was unveiled, with my mammoths in various historical dress, hidden around the museum.

The Pointy End 

 

Lastly, there was limited edition print sales of some of my mammoth and a hand axe by Tom Sermon of PaleoArt.com, with all money raised going back into the dig/conservation/exhibition fund, and a talk by Mark Baggott from The Herefordshire & Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust - Fossil Box initiative that brings curriculum supportive fossil boxes into school.

 

the evening concluded with wine, and a visit to the neighbouring water hole.

It was an amazing event, and one that won’t be forgotten. Whet’s it they say? Mammoths never forget!

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Helping to bring Mammoths to the Museum

If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know I’m mad about mammoths and that I had the privilege of attending the Palaeontology digs at Cerney Wick, the site that was found by Sally and Nev Hollingworth that featured on the BBC documentary Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard.

The site is an old quarry owned by The Hills Group, is an old estuary of the river Thames, and also encompasses a section of The Kellaway’s Formation so is a treasure trove of both Ice-age and Jurassic bounty. Since Sally and Nev discovered mammoth remains there is 2016, the site has had several digs. The one featured in the BBC documentary, and then two more arranged and managed with care and plenty of passion by Nev and Sally.

I was lucky enough to visit the 2023 dig on a sweltering August day, where I got to help plaster cast a tusk ready for transportation. In 2024 I attended for much more of the three week dig and loved all of it. From the shared adventure and comradery to the actual digging and being part of an important scientific endeavour and obviously seeing freshly found mammoths!

Nev and Sally being so dedicated and generous with their enthusiasm, knowledge and time decided to exhibit finds from the past two digs, at the charming Corinium Museum in nearby Cirencester. The exhibition opening in February 2025 – only six months after the dig.

 

So it was all hands-on deck – or in this case - fossil and bone, to help prepare and preserve the specimens! Plus find and fabricate suitable often bespoke hand made stands and cases, to both protect the finds, and display for people to view. Also Sally and Nev had the task of inspiring the army of nearly 300 #TuskForce volunteers from the dig, who now were back at work or university, to write, design and information boards for the exhibition. It was a mammoth endeavour!

For my part, I was excused from tasks in preparation and conservation, due to lack of skills. However I wanted to support the herculean effort as part of the #TuskForce team and contribute in any way that was useful.

So being a dab hand with a crayon, and being competent with illustration apps, plus coming from a children’s writers’ perspective, I created Top Trunks with facts about the Proboscidea species we’d found n site. I also made a comic explaining how coprolite is formed from poo to fossil.

I dipped out of my comfort zone too, to make a few more series paleo art illustrations.

But I really wanted to try and bring my experience and what I’d learnt from working in museums and bookshops, to the exhibitions. The first thing I did was compile a list of book recommendations for the souvenir shop, of recently themed appropriate books.

 

I also offered to do a quite/interactive corner, with bean bags, themed books and games. A place for a paleo-pause, or mammoth mediation. To engage people and give an added interactive element. With this is mind I sourced a mammoth print rug, bean bags and (along with Sally H) loads of paleo themed books and games.

 

Lastly I was delighted to have worked with the Corinium Museum’s staff, Caroline and Samatha – to create a series of illustrations for a mammoth trail, to accompany the exhibition. So I whipped out the crayons, and pondered what would a mammoth look like in Tudor attire, or in a toga? As the brief was to do mammoths that tied into the museum’s galleries. It was an absolute blast -barmy in all the best ways.

 

At last on one rainy Monday morning in February the mammoth task of assembling the exhibition began.

It was an amazing (exhausting) day, with seven members of the #Tuskforse team coming together under the guidance of Nev and Sally to curate literal truck loads of treasure.

 

In the morning when faced with four stark white walls and boxes of bones and fossils, it was a tad daunting, but with the Hollingworth’s signature enthusiasm and exhibition gradually took shape. The sheer scope of the task and the hours of effort put into the preparation is evident. It is an amazing (I know I’m bias) and excellent exhibition. It is well worth a visit during its month-long run. Plus is on during half term!

 

The exhibition runs from 15th February to 15th March 2025, visit here for more details.