I was delighted to read of the death yesterday of Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who helped to hide the Frank family and friends in a secret annexe during World War Two. I was delighted because she lived to be 100 years old; delighted because she had such a long and, I hope, fulfilling life.  She deserved it.  What courage she and a handful of colleagues had in hiding the eight Jews, bringing them food and providing them with news and more significantly, notepaper for Otto Frank’s young daughter Anne, to use for her writing. Gies and her colleagues (one of whom, Jan, became her husband) did this for two years. Two years in a city riven with fear, paranoia and corruption.

But in August 1944 an anonymous phone call betrayed the fugitives. Gies was sitting at her desk when Nazi officers stormed the building. One pointed a gun at her head while the others threw back the bookcase hiding the secret passage leading to the annexe.  Even then Gies bravery continued.  As soon as the officers had left she rushed upstairs to the ransacked rooms and gathered up documents and the scattered pages of Anne’s diary, hoping to return it to her after the war.  The Nazis came back the next day to clear the attic entirely. Soon after that, Gies volunteered to go the the SS HQ in an attempt to bribe the SS officer to release the family.  As everyone knows, she was unsuccessful. They were all deported to Auschwitz where the men and women were separated. Anne, her older sister Margot and her mother were sent to Bergen-Belsen camp on the last transport from the Netherlands. They died of typhus a fortnight before the camp was liberated. Of the eight, only Otto Frank survived.

After the war Miep married Jan and they had one son. She lived most of her life in Amsterdam.

Why am I blogging this obituary?  Because a survey found that one in six British 9-11 year olds thought that Auschwitz was a theme park. Because I recently went on a school visit where the literacy coordinator told me she’d chosen to ditch studying ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ with her class in favour of Katie Price’s autobiography as the ‘kids could relate to it more.’  So writing this is the least I can do.

There was an interesting article in The Times 2 yesterday about how to write a bookclub bestseller. It was written by ‘the most powerful woman in publishing’ Amanda Ross, founder of the Richard and Judy bookclub.

Here are her tips:

1. be original

2. don’t mention the war (too many war stories on the market)

3. stay out of it (don’t write your autobiography unless you’ve led an amazing life)

4. spin a yarn (tell a good story)

5. raise issues (make people think)

6. mix it up (you need to describe the book in more than one way i.e. the next Celia Rees meets Stephanie Meyer)

7. don’t write for critics

8. it’s OK to be highbrow (and I’ll add it’s OK to be lowbrow, too)

9. find a niche

10. be realistic (i.e. learn to accept criticism)

Of those I’d say number 4 was the most obvious thing for a writer to do. Tell a good story - that’s what it’s all about. What Amanda Ross doesn’t tell us is how.  It’s the same for number 1. Be original. Yes, but how?  What does that mean, exactly?  Christopher Booker, in his towering door stopper of a book The Seven Basic Plots, argues convincingly that there is no such thing as originality - that all stories follow a traditional theme or plot. The Quest, for example, Rags to Riches and so on.

I’m not sure about number 2, either - don’t mention the war. Surely it depends on whether the story covers all her other provisos - i.e. be original etc. War stories will always be popular - look at Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, now on stage and getting great reviews or Goodnight Mr Tom (Michelle Magorigan) and more recently ‘Once’ and ‘Then’ by Morris Gleitzman, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas etc. And that’s just the kids’ stuff!

I totally agree with Ross on being realistic and not to write for critics. Always write the story you want to write. It has to come from within or it’s doomed.

For what it’s worth, the best ‘how to’ book I’ve read on writing (I haven’t read many of them, mind you) is Stephen King’s On Writing. He tells it as it is. Like it or lump it.

August means summer holidays and the start of the footy season and the middle of the cricket season and … the dreaded exam results. This week, A levels, next week GCSEs.  Watch for the headlines screaming ‘Dumbing Down Britain’ because GCSE/ A level results are better than average or because they’re the opposite and really good. Kids can’t win. Teachers can’t win. Parents panic. It’s a mess.

Fear not!  For every tense situation in life there’s a book to help you through those darkest moments.

For those waiting for GCSEs read Accidental Friends. Find out what happens to Leon, James, Emma and Grace when they open those little brown envelopes.

And what about those 11year olds waiting to start secondary school, still remembering when they were the biggest kids in class, the favourites of the headteacher, called upon to do all those tasks only a responsible Y6 could possibly carry out?  Poor wee mites. Gone, all gone. You are Y7s now, about to embark on the mysterious world of secondary school. The bad news is, there is no sorting hat.  There’s big kids who smell of smoke and drink bottles of WKD at break (probably - or am I thinking of the teachers?).  But panic not. Help is at hand.  My friend Jenny Alexander has written two cracking non-ficiton titles to help you and your mum and dad and therapist through those first few days. ‘Going Up’ published by A& C Black and ‘Bullies, Big-Mouths and So-called Friends’. Highly recommended.

Of course, for total reassurance and a feel-good factor to carry you right through to Y8, there’s always my lovely Simone. Read her diary account of Y7 in the middle of Love Simone xxx (Oxford). Some of it is based on true events - from my teaching experience, my kids’ and their friends’ experience - even the bit when ‘Clifford’ pukes on the teacher’s shoes really happened!

Love Simone xxx perfect for new Y7s

It’s been a busy week.  Monday kicked off with a visit to the junior department of Wakefield Girls’ High School. This is the school one of my characters, Brody Miller (After School Club series) ‘attends’ so it was particularly interesting for me to see inside! The classes and staff I met were fabulous; thank you all for making me feel so welcome.  I loved the electric blue duffel coats the girls wore.

Some of the pupils from Wakefield Girls' High School

Sophie not only made me a card but came to Waterstone's on Saturday too!

In the afternoon I met nearly all the juniors at St John’s Primary School. I’m sorry I don’t have photographs to show what a great bunch of kids they were. Thank you all for listening so well and screaming so loudly!

invitation to the launch

Do you know what? I’m not doing too bad for a girl who only got a grade 6 in GCE English Literature. That’s what I told myself last night anyway when I attended the launch to the updated edition of the Ultimate Book Guide.  If you haven’t come across this book in the reference section of your school library, check it out now. It’s a great resource for choosing a book or discovering a new author and jam-packed with reviews and tips on what to read next. There’s a website, too, on www.ultimatebookguide.com.  I’m proud to say my Simone series is included in this one and Saturday Girl (listed under its original title of Getting Rid of Karenna) in the version for teens. I also contributed to the Ultimate Teen Guide with reviews of Keeper by Mal Peet and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

The launch was held at the Groucho Club on Dean Street in London. Even the words ‘Groucho Club’ filled me with excitement (I don’t get out much). I had visions of high-backed leather chairs and men in smoking jackets but actually it was just a pleasant venue with bars and stripy carpets. But the people in attendance - now that was another thing altogether - that did exceed expectations. Had a bomb fallen on the Groucho Club that evening half the country’s top authors and illustrators would have been wiped out and I’m not even kidding…

It would be inappropriate, not to say boastful,  to run through the whole list of authors who were there but the highlights for me were meeting Jan Pienkowski and chatting to Yvonne Coppard and Cathy Hopkins.

On tonight’s agenda - a toss up between the ironing and Supersize v Superskinny on TV. Reality sucks.