Youth Libraries Group Conference, Warwick
I was honoured to be asked to talk at the YLG ‘Read to Succeed’ conference at Warwick University on Saturday. These conferences are massive - for librarians, publishers and the invited speakers. The weekend is a mixture of seminars and small group talks culminating in a gala dinner on the Saturday evening during which all the librarians get dolled up (yes, even the fellas). My talk was on Girls FC - can football get reluctant girls reading? I think it went down OK but it’s always hard to tell. Nobody fell asleep so I’ll take that as a thumbs up. If I’m never invited again I’ll know it was a disaster!
One of the other talks was called ‘New Voices - 4 exciting new authors’. Weird to think that I was one of the new voices at the 2000 conference. Simone’s Diary had just been published and all the delegates were given free t shirts on their way in to meet me. It was also at that conference I saw J.K. Rowling IN REAL LIFE and shook Jacqueline Wilson’s hand. Yey! I still get a buzz out of meeting other authors. At this year’s conference I caught a fleeting glimpse of the bearded bear himself, Philip Ardagh, bumped into Alan Gibbons on his way home, chatted to Marie-Louise Jensen and Michelle Harrison and caught up with Gillian Cross, Tim Bowler and Geraldine McCaughrean but missed Celia Rees as she was speaking on the Sunday. Oh, and Chris Wooding signed a copy of his latest book Malice for me. If it’s half as good as Poison I’ll be well impressed.
The picture above is of me with Andi Watson (middle) author of the new graphic Glister stories and John Harris Dunning who wrote Salem Brownstone ‘All along the Watchtower’ with illustrations by Nikhil Singh. Graphic novels have really taken off recently and I wish Andi, John and Nikhil all the best.
The freebies the librarians get from the publishers at these conferences are reassuringly generous. OK, it’s not quite an Oscar goody bag but even I came home with about 15 bound proofs of new titles, several badges, stickers, a teacher pack of Mini Grey stuff and, courtesy of Walker, a handbag full of chocolate footballs to promote Girls FC. Thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome and to Sophie and Fiona from Walker Books for getting me the gig and looking after me in splendid fashion.
I’m looking forward to reading my bound proofs of Wishing for Tomorrow, Hilary McKay’s sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess (Hodder) and The Sky is Everywhere by American writer Jandy Nelson (Walker) but I’m going to start with The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean in the hope that some of McCaughrean’s brilliance will rub off on me. Sonia Benster, who runs the Children’s Bookshop in Huddersfield said that Geraldine was one of her favourite authors because she ‘never writes the same book twice.’ It’s true. She’s also one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Damn her.
Me n’ my Carnegie Medal buddy, Big G!