My summer break has involved several visits to the lovely Skipton Castle instead of schools, being Nevison the highwayman for two weekends, the civil war governor of the castle for one weekend and a lowly musketeer for another.

Here you can see ‘Swift Nicks’ Nevison regailing two likely lads with stories of his and other highway robbers’ adventures.

While here he is complaining that the country of Yorkshire really ought to be a more important card than the king of clubs! Still, it is at least ‘king of the north’.

And here (the audience unseen, yet quite a crowd before him) he recounts his most famous adventure – hoping that folk will remember it and it won’t be forgotten over the centuries.

If anything I was even more busy, certainly more weighed down with (imagined) responsibilities, when I became Colonel Sir John Mallory, royalist commander of the the garrison in the summer of 1645. In this picture he seems to have become somewhat ghostly, being both eerie and ethereal at one and the same time. He was still as loud as ever though!

I also had a chance to take part in an event there with my son! Here you can see the two of us – me an ageing musketeer and my boy a young and eager pikeman!

Being me, I couldn’t help myself, and I soon found myself addressing the crowds (four times a day to be precise), telling them all about the garrison’s struggles during this sad civil war.

Now I am back visiting schools, having already done a few Great Fire of London days and just beginning to grow what will become my Guy Fawkes’ beard! (Hopefully I started early enough!)

If you would like Nevison the highwayman to visit your school and immerse the KS2 children in the world of highway robbers, perhaps because they are studying the famous poem, or mastering the art of persuasive writing, then please be in touch. Maybe your KS1 or KS2 children are doing some local history about the British Civil Wars in your area (a battle nearby or a castle), in which case Sir John or my musketeer character Obadiah, or one of several other officers, might be of great use? Or perhaps (and indeed more likely) you might be more interested in one of my other alter egos, such as the popular KS1 character Sir William Petty (Great Fire of London or the Great Plague of 1665), or perhaps(in November) Guy Fawkes? There is also the option of my exciting pirate captain Captain Burwash, who works well with children of all ages, or Master Eliot, one of Drake’s sailors who sailed around the world? If so, please have a look at the variety I can offer on my page of Characters.

I look forward to hearing from you.