Two (not so) random acts of kindness. Humans can be rather awesome, you know?

A lovely moment this week from one of the pupils at St Augustine's school in Warrington. The young lad had saved all his pennies in order to get the first Wereworld book, Rise Of The Wolf. Sadly, at the signing event, he realised he was a couple of pounds short of the amount he needed for the book. Rather than mentioning this to his teachers, he simply decided to purchase a Raa Raa the Noisy Lion board book for his
one year old sister (she's a huge fan apparently), passing up his opportunity of getting a signed, doodled in edition of Wereworld.

To say I find his kindness touching doesn't come close.

Now, this young man is utterly unaware of the fact that his father has emailed us to let us know about this big brother's act of kindness for his little sibling. Dad's asked if there's any way we can send him a book, and he'll pay for it, as the poor boy is obviously a bit crestfallen. Even better than that, I suspect a certain author will be revisiting the school in the morning with a signed, doodled in copy of Rise Of The Wolf for the boy, and we won't be expecting pennies for it either.
It seems to have been a week for kindness. In addition to the young man who so generously spent his own pocket money in this way, we
also received an email from a stranger in Yorkshire. I know what you're thinking: "That doesn't narrow it down, it's Yorkshire, surely they're ALL strange there," but bear with me. (Sorry, the cheeky Lancastrian in me just came to the fore).

This was from someone who was living in our old house and had received fan mail from somebody in the United States. The stranger didn't know who I was from Adam, nor what my work was, but was so touched by the letter that they felt obliged to forward it on to us. We assumed they had received the letter at my old home which we left 6 years ago, a converted church reading room, in a North Yorkshire village, and said so much in our reply. Turned out it wasn't THAT home but the one we'd vacated 5 YEARS PREVIOUS to that. So, this lovely lad from the US had found an address that I hadn't lived at for 11 years. And somehow, the message still came through. Kudos to the tenant of my old house from yesteryear! Makes my helping an old woman up some steps with a shopping trolley this morning look rather paltry.

Here's a wee scan of the back page, where young Chris from Cambridge, NY, shows that no author has a monopoly on wordplay 

Bada Bling!

PS: I'm allowed to make the Yorkshire joke - I'm a half-breed Yorkie mongrel thanks to my old man, plus I do rather love the old county.