Celebrating World Book Day 2012 at Hove Library

World Book Day is a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. I'll be taking part in the celebrations at Hove Library, reading and talking to pupils from two local secondary schools.

Hove Library – lending books for over a hundred years

I'm hoping there'll be time to visit The Book Nook before catching my train home. I've been informed they serve tea and homemade cakes and have a pirate ship, not to mention the books …

World Book Day aims to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. School children receive a World Book Day £1 Book Token (or equivalent 1.50 euro in Ireland) which can be exchanged for one of eight specially published World Book Day £1 Books, or redeemed against any book or audio book of their choice costing £2.99 or more at a participating bookshop or book club.

Visit www.worldbookday.com for full details and a host of other World Book Day stuff.

Keep up with World Book Day on 

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

William Hussey's Essential Six: Author Interview with Dave Cousins

Huge thanks to the brilliant William Hussey for featuring me in his Essential Six author interview series. If you've not read any of the Witchfinder books yet, you're missing a treat. I had to sleep with the light on after the reading the first one! Superbly scary stuff!

William Hussey

Welcome to the first in an occasional series of interviews with some of my favourite authors! I’ve called this series ‘The Essential Six’ for two reasons: first, writers need to write! I love the work of these authors so much I don’t want to take up too much of their precious scribing time. Secondly, I wanted to narrow down my questions to a core half dozen so that we could get down to the real nuts and bolts of their life and work.

What follows is an interview with debut author Dave Cousins. Last year, I was lucky enough to get hold of a proof copy of his moving and laugh-out-loud funny novel 15 Days Without A Head - the finest Young Adult book I read in 2011 …

Read the full interview here

NACOA Children of Alcoholics Week

15 Days Without a Head is a work of fiction, but many young people live with problems similar to those faced by Laurence and Jay in the story. In fact, there are an estimated one million children affected by parental alcohol problems in the UK.

Children of Alcoholics Week aims to raise awareness of the problems faced by alcohol-dependent parents, and let children and adults know there is support and advice available.

The campaign is led by the National Association for Children of Alcoholics who provide a Free Confidential Telephone Helpline 0800 358 3456, plus advice for children, parents and teachers on their website, or you can email helpline@nacoa.org.uk

Here's a short video from NACOA explaining some of the important work they do.

The single, A Change is Gonna Come was specially recorded by Maria McAteer, Bjorn Dahlberg and the Stanford Quartet for Children of Alcoholics Week in February 2011. The video below was produced by Sean Caveille. You can download the single here from iTunes, and help support NACOA.

Please visit the Children of Alcoholics Week website, to find out more.

Thanks.

National Libraries Day – Why are libraries so important?

Saturday 4th February is National Libraries Day in the UK. A day to show support and solidarity for our public library service – a day to visit your local library and take out some books. It doesn’t matter if you’re no longer a member or have lost your card. Go down and rejoin – it’s free! Take the family and friends and see what your local library has to offer, you could well be pleasantly surprised.

There are over two hundred events being held at libraries across the country. Click here to find out what's happening near you.

In the last twelve months my local library opening hours have been reduced. It's a trend affecting branches across the country. In addition many libraries have been closed and many more are under threat. So what? You might say. In the current times of austerity, everyone is feeling the pinch. Funding is being taken from the police service, hospitals and schools. Why are libraries so important?

Is a fair question. Voices for the Library provide some answers here.

But I thought I’d ask my fellow authors at the Edge, what libraries mean to them. Click here to read what they said.

For further information, please visit the following:

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
Voices for the Library
Alan Gibbons' Campaign for the Book
The Bookseller Fight for Libraries Facebook page
The Reading Agency

You can tweet your support using the #NLD12 hashtag.

See you down the library!
Cheers, Dave.