Countdown to a Royal Event

Five things you may not know about Leicester Cathedral:

One of the side chapels

1.  A King is about to be laid to rest there. 

2.  It used to be the Parish Church of St Martins. 

3.  Workmen are preparing for the reinterment of Richard III and it’s looking good. 

4.  It has that calm ambience that invites you to pop in, sit down and think; something that I can never resist doing when I'm passing. 

5.  My Children’s Book of Richard III is doing a roaring trade in their bookshop.

It is only 26 days until the reinterment of Richard III.

They’ve just published the programme for the week’s events. Here is the full timetable.

Last week, as a guest of Leicester’s Interfaith Group, I was invited to a reception at the Richard III Visitor Centre.  We were given a full tour of the Centre and, as is often the case, I got a lot more out of the visit with an official guide than ever I did on my own. We were welcomed into the Cathedral and the Canon explained exactly what would be happening during that week. The coffin will be received into the Cathedral on the evening of Sunday 22^nd March and it will be there for the public to pay their respects each day until the burial on Thursday 26^th.

As for the sale of my Children’s Book of Richard III, we hope to be visiting quite a few more schools over the next couple of weeks and during the week of the reinterment we will have a stall on Leicester Market. I’ll be there every lunchtime signings books so if you want to pop along and say ‘hi’, I’ll be only too pleased to meet with you… and, of course, to sign your copy of the Children’s Book of Richard III.