Let’s just, for a moment, overlook the fact that Grandpa, in that classic first make of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, is not the one who has won the golden ticket.
He’s happy.
In fact, the ticket winner is little Charlie. Cheer-up Charlie. Charlie, against whom the odds were stacked so high they must surely have crushed him. Charlie, who stood for honest-to-goodness integrity in the face of gluttony, avarice and greed. Whilst others got their parents and promoters to spend outrageous sums for the one thing they could not have automatically, Charlie relied on fate to bring the golden ticket to him.
But we all join Grandpa in being elated. In incredulity that finally, just perhaps, the tide of unfortunate events might be about to change.
And of course, for Grandpa, and for Charlie, life was about to alter forever.
This does not happen in real life.
But I have, nevertheless, got a Golden Ticket. A chance. But to have any chance of getting into Mr Wonka’s factory, I need your help.
Penguin Books: iconic publishing house whose small bird graces all the best bookshelves. Penguin: launched in 1935, and built on the ideal of selling low-cost books, en masse, to a literature-guzzling public.
They are dear to our hearts. And this Summer, Penguin published The Old Ways, by Robert MacFarlane; a hypnotic journey along some of Britain’s trackways, related in prose that lilts.
And to celebrate the publication, Penguin has run a competition. They want a Penguin Wayfarer: someone to walk Britain during the Summer, chronicling the journey, talking about paths old and new, exploring the stories and myths that surround them. The Wayfarer will share in writing, in film, and in tweets.
I know, I know.
So of course I used my last dollar to buy a chocolate bar. And as luck would have it, I made it to the final 20.
But now the hard work starts. Because Charlie never had to pass a popularity contest; but I do. There are 20 possible wayfarers, and I am one of them. You have never seen me before, or heard my everyday name, but if I am to have any hope of striding up and down Britain with two kids and a dog during the Summer, and broadcasting on behalf of Penguin (May their name live forever) we’re going to have to move a few boundaries.
The Wayfarer page is here: I am the only Kate on the page.
I wonder if you might consider voting for me?
Kate Shrewsday 
Reblogged this on .
Thanks, Jim!!
Done!
Thank you. Much obliged. Will wear a sausage on my head for the rest of the day in your honour xx
Most kind Kate – best of luck – you deserve to win!
Done & dusted!
Hi WP! How the heck are you? I miss those wondering posts of yours, especially the ones about Hebrew…will potter back to see you later today!
Yep – bit of a writing drought this year with some rewiring of priorities imposed. Still lurking from time to time with a backlog of your posts to catch up on!
Glad to do that
Thank you, Elspeth!
Another one, Kate. Good luck, you’d be an excellent Wayfarer.
Thanks, Roger, All one can do is throw everything one has at it….http://wp.me/pX1we-35D
I certainly would! On my way over there right now.
Done. It was worth it just to see you in person, so to speak 🙂
You need to self-promote quite a bit more – start nagging your readers.
I’l practice my nagging tecniques, I’m a bit rusty.
Reblogged this on The Laughing Housewife and commented:
Here’s my blogging friend, Kate Shrewsday. She writes fascinating articles linking weird stuff like toilets and ice cream (she may not have done that one, but it’s the kind of thing she would do).
She has the chance to go for a Britain-wide walk with her kids and dog but she needs your votes to do it.
Please take a moment to read the post and click the link to vote for her.
I promise NOT to eat a Malteser for every vote you cast (I’m on a diet and I need the motivation).
Thanks!
Thank you SOOOOO much, Tilly. Toilets and ice cream. Hmmmmm…..
If anyone can do it, you can 🙂
Kate, I popped over from Tilly’s blog and voted for you… Let’s hope a lot of fellow bloggers do the same… good luck! (or as we rather say in Dutch: “Success!”)
Kiwidutch, thank you so much for your help. I stopped over at yours and stayed for some time copying down a rather fab recipe.
Done, with fingers and toes crossed, and eyes, though I had to uncross them just a bit, to make sure I hit the right button! Good luck – what a wonderful time we would all have, if you were to be the Summer Wayfarer 🙂
Wanderlust, you are Wanderful. Thank you so much.
Reblogged this on me, mine and other bits and commented:
Bloggy buddies, you may know the very wonderful Kate Shrewsday. She hunts out the teeny details, tells the best tales and is a lot of fun. If you don’t know her, you need to rectify that… Start here, with this post where Kate needs all our help do do something wonderful, VOTE, then catch up with her other posts. You won’t regret it.
Fiona, THANK YOU!!!! Extremely kind of you…
Good luck!
Thanks, Hook!
Done.
Thanks, very kind of you!
Reblogged this on breastfedblog.
Thanks for that reglog, yourothermotherhere 🙂
You’re welcome.
Or even, reblog. Though reglogging does have a ring to it.
Voted.
Thanks! LOVED your wartime post today.
Thank you.
Voted and posted on my Facebook Page.
Viv, you’re a good sort. Thanks so much for taking the time to do that…
The Laughing Housewife sent me here and I’m more than happy to help! Good luck! It sounds like a brilliant experience. 🙂
Lance, thanks so much! Been reading of your Norway travels. What an experience…
No problems! It’s a pleasure. I wish you the best of luck. It’s sounds incredibly exciting (I’m a little bit jealous ;-))
Glad you appreciated my tales of Norway. 🙂
Done and will share out to my minions…..you know, all 3 of them.
Lou, you’re a star, thank you. And, indeed, your minions 😀
I’m going to try a slightly different approach to help you, Kate. I hope it works.
I have already voted. MTM is on his way to the office to vote for you, because our ISP has already been counted by my vote. Good to know that people who live in the same house and share the same ISP will only be able to vote one time, not once per member of household.
If only a small fraction of your 25,002 amazing followers vote for Kate . . . she’ll leave the rest of the entrants in Caesar’s Dust!!!
Go Team Cootchie!
It’s the team to be on, Nancy 🙂
Andra, I have been bowled over by your help. Just fabulous, thank you so much; about to follow your advice. Hope the rest of your day was good.
Reblogged this on My New Shy and commented:
Worth voting for Kate Shrewsday. Penguin has run a competition. They want a Penguin Wayfarer: someone to walk Britain during the Summer, chronicling the journey, talking about paths old and new, exploring the stories and myths that surround them. The Wayfarer will share in writing, in film, and in tweets. Kate (https://kateshrewsday.com/) has reached the final twenty…
Chris, thanks so much for spreading the word. Much appreciated.
I just want to say how lovely it is to have a face and voice to go with a mind I enjoy getting to dance with from time to time. And of course I voted and will share. Good luck!
Also posted on http://wp.me/s2oNj1-wayfarer
And I agree, good to put a face to a name!
Ditto! We read her words, heard her lilting voice, and now we have Kate’s face firmly in place! 😀
*blushes* Awwww. Shucks.
Thank you so much for that, Chris!
Lovely comment, Brett; I was rather squemish about the whole reveal. But people have been so kind, it was well worth it. The votes have crept up from 4, where it was early this morning…
Done and good luck!!
Katie, many thanks!
Done! 🙂
Thanks HH 🙂 Much appreciated!
Voted for you – Good luck!
Hello Jackie, thanks so much for your help!
Was happy to place my vote. Good luck!
Carrie! Thought you were off doin’ writin’! Hope all’s going well with novel number 2. Thanks very much x
I am and it is. 🙂 I’ve finished over half my novel in the month I’ve been away from blogging. Really buckling down. Just 25% left, and I’ll have the first draft done. (Well, 2nd draft if you count my very extensive outline as the first…)
Excellent news 🙂
How delightful to see you in person – heres luck and another vote 🙂
HI Alberta! Hope you’re well and enjoying life. Thank you so much for doing that.
Done. I can’t imagine anyone better suited for this assignment.
Very high praise from you, PT! Thank you!
Congratulations on getting to this point! And good luck! I made my vote 🙂
Alison, thank you! If I ever make it I’ll look especially for a Tolkien connection along the paths I travel 🙂
Dear Kate! I have just voted for you , even without viewing the video I would have certainly given you my vote based alone on so many of your posts which have given me such delight. However what really got me especially excited when viewing your little video,was the place you chose which has such special meaning for me~ One summer day from my childhood~ just a single joyous happy day spent with my mother and sister, a friend of my mother and her two boys the same ages as my sister and me. We ran like wild things up and own the leaf strewn tree lined ditches and wore ourselves out in the best way ~ that only children seem able to do . Had a lovely picnic back out in the blazing sun (a “heatwave” that summer following the coldest winter in 100 years) with fizzy ginger beer and lemonade , sandwiches and cake. It has been many years since that long ago day but it has remained etched upon my memory. It somehow seemed synchronicity to go to vote for you and to find you had chosen this rather obscure and little known spot (for most people) There have been many times when reading your posts about love for landscape and things within the landscape (history , architecture as well as the natural world) which so echo my own feelings and responses that I am amazed that someone else sees such things in so similar a fashion. I would so love it if you won! Good luck. I will pass the website on and instruct all my friends to vote for the lady named Kate.
It sounds a wonderful picnic indeed, Valkrye, and I’m so pleased to have revisited a favourite old haunt of yours. Its ramparts are incredible adventure play material. That ginger beer mention made me want to go our straight away and buy a cold bottle…an incredibly magical place, as you say, and one I am privileged to walk regularly.Thank you for your vote!
Oh yes fab totally agree :))
Thanks for helping out, Lisa!
I voted for you!
And posted “Vote for Kate” for you!
Fingers crossed that your “Golden Ticket” leaves your competitors in Caesar’s Dust! Go Kate!!!
Nancy, thank you! There”s planry of Caesar’s dust up there to do the job. Hey, we’ll give it our best shot!
I just watched all 20 videos. Some are splendid but yours stands out for a very special reason ~ you SHOWED why you ARE the Wayfarer!
Most of the rest did far more TELLING about “why I should win” than SHOWING us that they can “walk the walk as well as talk the talk.” (There was also a fair amount of arse kissing). 😛
If you get into the top 10, Robert Macfarlane SHOULD choose YOU as our lucky Wayfarer.
And what amazing prizes!
an incredible summer paid for by Penguin
an Apple iPad
£2500 of Snow+Rock gear including a Contour camera and Garmin GPS
2 months’ CrossCountry train travel
a set of Virgin Experience Days
Oh, fingers crossed, fingers crossed, fingers crossed. 😀
Done and shared! Go, Kate!
Many thanks, Cameron 🙂
Reblogged this on Colonialist's Blog and commented:
Kate is one of the most skilled, thought-provoking and entertaining writers/photographers in Blogland. I cannot think of a better person to become the Penguin Wayfarer and to regale us with tales (and a wagging tail!) and I urge everyone who doesn’t already know her to sample her blog, look at her presentation, compare it with others, and decide.
*gentle persuasion* Those who fail to vote for her run the risk of becoming the subject of one of my Really Awful Rhymes. Just saying.
This is my first ever Reblog, by the way.
Colonialist
COL! I am honoured. Really. Thank you so much, such words of praise from a highly professional writer. And composer. And all the other things. You are very kind, and I am very lucky.
Neither kind nor lucky: the praise has been earned.
Reblogged this on 1WriteWay and commented:
Vote for Kate in her quest to become a Penguin Wayfarer!
Thanks so much for the reblog, 1WriteWay 🙂
Hope it helps!
Okay kate, i voted for you. Tell Tilly Bud that’s one less Malteaser for her. Dianne
Hi Dianne, thank you so much. I am keeping a Malteser tally to pass to Tilly when the voting closes 😀 I may have to take a lorry up to collect them all.
Reblogged, facebooked and tweeted :). Best of luck to you!
1WriteWay, thank you. most kind of you!
Done, Kate… on Andra’s orders! I added a note to my Facebook page too. Good luck!
Kevin, thanks so much…Andra is amazing. Wonderful writer and such energy and drive!!
Voted, Kate. Loved your video. Good luck. 🙂
Just realised that I’m also a Twit, so It tweeted you too. 😀
Thanks for everything, Adinparadise. Most appreciated.
It gives the Top Twenty a whole new meaning! Vote cast, and fingers crossed.
Hello, Grannymar, a name I know so well across the blogosphere! Thank you for coming to my aid. Yup: this is quite some top twenty!
Firstly, congratulations Kate! Secondly, I nearly always read my blog subscriptions in an erratic order so I’ve already learned about this on Andra’s blog. I loved your entry and voted for you straightaway. And, as I told Andra, I love your blog, too. You would be the perfect person to undertake this assignment. 🙂
Oh, Heather, what a lovely comment. Thank you! Time will tell….
And, good luck!
Thanks 😀
You’re welcome. 🙂
Added my vote, too. Best of luck.
Thanks Pussycat. Most appreciated.
Done. Good luck!
Many thanks, Mike. I love the Eva on your bookshelf.
Thanks! She’s radio controlled so, when I need a writing break, I have her sputter about the room.
Now I’m really envious…
I’m doing my part, Kate! 🙂 Sent an email to a group of friends, posted a personal note on FB and passing the word along with great enthusiasm. I have my fingers enthusiastically crossed!
Debra, thank you 🙂
Done – Good Luck – it sounds like a wonderful adventure – do hope you do strike gold. Came across from Colonialists blog, and delighted to have found you…
Valerie, thank you so much for taking the time to help. It is most appreciated. I was extremely flattered by col’s first reblog. A privilege indeed.
You have my vote, Kate. The best of luck to you.
Thank you so much, Judy!
Done! Good luck, Kate!
Thanks so much for your time, Gita!
You’re welcome! 🙂
Ela
Done! and good luck! Hope it’s you — would love to read about your wanders.
Hi Kathy, lovely to see you – it’s ne way to fill the Summer hols, isn’t it?
What an amazing opportunity!
It is, Tandy….lovely to get this far, to be honest.
Done and I’ll put it out on Facebook, etc. to see if we can rally a few more votes. Best of luck Kate!
Thanks so much, Tammy 🙂
Hi there, was sent over by Colonialist and have popped over and voted for you. Wishing you all the best.
Thanks so much for your help!
I just voted for you. Best of luck.
Gale, thank you very much indeed 🙂
Congratulations! I am doing a golden ticket dance for you all the way to the voting booth!
Hi Belle, thank you so much 🙂 I just need to get into the top ten to be considered by the writer Robert Macfarlane.
I am going to clear my cookies and check back to see if I can vote again 😉
Done!
Hi Elizabeth! Very kind of you, thanks very much indeed!
So wonderful to see more than your backside, Kate, and hear your voice. It was a wonderful piece- I do hope you get the experience (as Charlie did) the elevator crashing through the top, so that you may see all of Britain (though, guess you shall be on foot!)
Thanks Angela, we can only vote and wait…
Voted. You will be perfect for this!
Many thanks, BB 🙂
MAGNIFICENT – love it 🙂 Good luck!
Thank you 🙂
My vote is locked in, Kate, and I’m rooting for you to get this! What fun!
Thanks, Penny. Lets see how we get on 🙂
Voted!
Thanks, Weebles!
Enjoyed the vid. After reading so many of your posts it was a delight to catch a glimpse of the visible you.