On the Edge with Herts Lit Fest at Rickmansworth Library!

Me and my shadow getting edgy down at the library …

Earlier this week I joined fellow Edge author Sara Grant for a Herts Lit Fest event at Rickmansworth Library with year 7 pupils from nearby St. Joan of Arc School. Here are a few photos from the day …

Karen Stephens introduces the students to all the
amazing FREE services on offer at the library.

Sara reading from her brilliant dystopian thriller HALF LIVES.

Thanks to Judi for this great graffiti wall.

After Sara and I had given the students a brief introduction to our books and a couple of readings, we reconvened for the Edge Graffiti Wall Panel. We were joined by librarians Judi and Melanie, and St Joan of Arc students Ella and Arfred to answer questions from the wall and the audience. 

We started by asking each panelist for a book recommendation. It was such an interesting and varied list, I thought I'd share it here:

Arfred: Russian Roulette (Alex Rider) by Anthony Horowitz 

Dave: Riot by Sara Mussi

Ella: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Sara: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Melanie: Jane, the Fox and Me by Fanny Britt

Judi: Trash by Andy Mulligan

The panel was a lot of fun, with some tricky questions and unexpected answers. Huge thanks to everyone involved, especially Ella and Arfred—it's always great (and valuable to us as writers) to hear young readers' opinions, especially their thoughts on books. 

Thanks also to Miss Turner and Miss Ryan for bringing the students to the library for the event; Karen Stephens for making it all happen; librarians Diane, Judi and Melanie, and Rickmansworth Library for being such welcoming hosts.

Finally, a special thank you to Melanie and the TRG (Teenage Reading Group) at the library who have been reading my novel Waiting for Gonzo and made these fantastic bookmarks. 

For more information, or to book The Edge for an event, please visit the Edge blog.

On the Edge at Hemel Hempstead Library for Herts Lit Fest

A couple of weeks ago I joined fellow Edge Author Sara Grant at Hemel Hempstead Library, for a morning of book-inspired edginess as part of the Hertfordshire Literary Festival. Sixty year seven students and staff from The Hemel Hempstead School made it through a Spring downpour to spend the morning at the library.

With Sara Grant and Hemel Hempstead School students at Herts Lit Fest.
Thanks to Tom for the photo.

Read the full story here …

15 Days on the Redbridge Teenage Book Award 2013 Longlist

I was delighted to hear that 15 Days Without a Head has been included on the Redbridge Teenage Book Award Longlist for 2013.

Previous winners include Cat Clarke, Malorie Blackman, Suzanne Collins, Tim Bowler and Bali Rai.

Each year two awards are presented, one for a children's book and one teenage title. The aims of the award are to inspire children to read, review and debate, and thus appreciate, good quality literature as well as encouraging an ethos of independent reading within schools and across the borough of Redbridge.

The twenty teen and twenty children's titles are selected by school librarians, library staff and children and sent to participating schools and reading groups. Shortlists of eight will be voted on by these groups in March. Final voting for the two winners takes place in May.

"All the participating schools and groups get together for a celebration of reading. The shortlisted authors are invited along to meet the students who have chosen their books.  There is a quiz on the shortlisted books, a question and answer session and the opportunity for students to get signed copies of the shortlisted titles and meet the authors whose books they have voted for.

We also announce the winners of the short story and poetry competition which runs in parallel to the awards process." – from the Redbridge Award website.

To see the books on both longlists, click here.

Thanks to all the library staff and students who selected 15 Days Without a Head. Have a great time reading and debating all the books on the longlists. Fingers crossed I'll be joining you in May!

YLG & SLANI Wendy Drewett Ireland Book Day 2012

Earlier this week I flew to Northern Ireland to take part in the Wendy Drewett Ireland Book Day in Antrim. The event is a joint venture between the Youth Libraries Group and the School Library Association. It provides an opportunity for librarians from all over Northern Ireland to get together and share ideas and strategies, as well as the chance to meet and hear about new books from established and debut authors. Here are a few photo highlights from the trip:

A spot of Telephone Box Bingo at Luton Airport!
(double points, surely?)

A welcome sign after my first flight in twenty years!

The event started with the New Directions panel,
chaired by Joy Court.

Paul Hammond introduces us to Superfly and Midge

Katherine Roberts brandishes her Sword of Light!

Librarian Bev Humphrey gave some excellent tips for online resources.

Cake envy at break time.

Liz Pichon gives a lesson in how to draw like Tom Gates!

Professor Joan Swann shared some fascinating research on the
impact of Carnegie/Kate Greenaway shadowing in schools. Long may it continue.

The New Voices Debut Authors Panel was chaired by YLG Chair, Rachel Levy

Jane McLoughlin on the background to her
Carnegie nominated YA thriller, At Yellow Lake

"Don't worry about the book, just check out my new shirt!"
(Handmade by the talented Mrs C!)

Sarah Hammond reads from the excellent Night Sky in My Head

Lucy Forrester, specialist librarian from Peters Booksellers gave a fascinating
introduction to the world of graphic novels.

Discussions continue back at the hotel bar long into the night.

You can make up your own caption for this one …
(Suggestions in the comments box below please!) 

It was a real privilege to be invited to take part in the event and have the opportunity to meet some of the library professionals who do such important work in helping young people discover the joy of books and develop a reading culture in our schools and communities. Librarians rock!

The Reading Agency MyVoice Libronauts Welcome The Edge Authors to Padgate Library, Warrington

The Edge and Padgate Library Libronauts

On Friday, I accompanied three of my fellow authors from the Edge to Warrington. We were there to meet up with The Libronauts at Padgate Library. Part of The Reading Agency MyVoice initiative, The Libronauts are made up of pupils from Lysander High School in Padgate and meet every Tuesday in their Reading Hub, appropriately dubbed The Launch Pad!

Click here to read the full article and see the photos

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.

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.

Tell me a story

In the past fifteen days I’ve read a total of eight novels, two poetry collections and a short story anthology … or rather, I’ve had them read to me. (I realize some people do actually read that fast, but I’m a slow reader; two novels a month is about average for me.) I’d like to tell you that Anton Lesser himself popped round to read me Geraldine McCaughrean’s brilliant Death Defying Pepper Roux, but hearing him read the audio book was almost as good and great deal more portable.

I can still quote large chunks of these stories off by heart

When I first discovered story tapes they came on cassette and vinyl. As a kid, I spent many happy afternoons in my bedroom, constructing Airfix models while listening to James Herriot read from his series of vet books. Looking back, I realize that the glue and paint fumes probably helped provide a slightly psychedelic Alice in Wonderland twist to my experience of Herriot’s Yorkshire, which the subsequent TV series never quite matched.

By the time I returned to audio books years later, I found they were now unabridged and available on CD – a perfect distraction for the kids on long car journeys and wet holidays. (There is an area around the Llyn Peninsula in Wales that I will always associate with Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men.)

Story CDs also provided a less daunting introduction to new books for the kids, particularly the boys. Our copy of Alan Bennet reading Wind in the Willows was passed between all three of them and became a regular – and I mean, regular – feature on the car stereo. When it was eventually retired from active duty, the youngest had graduated to Alex Ryder and Artemis Fowl – first on CD, borrowed from the library, and then the books themselves.

Old Skool Rare Paddington Bear vinyl (B4 he went electric)

For me, audio books mean I can read more than I would otherwise have time to. I will also try things I wouldn’t have picked up in printed form, knowing that my bookcase of unread books is already over-flowing. I can listen on my walk to work, at home in the kitchen, in the car. I still read – there’s nothing quite like holding a book in your hand – but I know I’d have missed out on some great stories if I hadn’t been able to borrow them on CD. This is one of the many reasons I’d be very sad to see my local library close, because audio books are expensive, but you can borrow them from the library for free – which still amazes me. Prices are coming down though and increasingly books are available for download from Amazon and specialist sites like Audible.

My debut novel 15 Days without a Head will be published in January. I can’t wait to be able to walk into a book shop and pick a copy of the shelf. But, without wishing to be greedy, I do fantasize that one day somebody might want to make it into an audio book. I know I shouldn’t admit to this, but I’ve already decided who I’d like to read it!

Writing a Novel (Part Two): A Place to Write

Welcome to the second part of my series looking at the process of writing a novel. Part One: What to Write? can be read here.

One of the great things about writing is that it doesn’t require a lot of equipment – something to write with and something to write on, and you’re sorted. If you're really stuck, you can breathe on a window and write with your finger! Obviously if you’re going to attempt to be published, eventually you will need to get your words typed-up, but there’s a lot of writing required before getting to that stage.

A common excuse for not writing, along with not having the time (which I’ll look at in a later post) is not having a quiet space. I know that some writers need absolute silence and solitude in order to work. Bill Hussey locks his door, and sometimes even uses ear-plugs; by contrast Frank Cottrell Boyce has talked of finding the clamour of a house full of children inspiring.

Miriam Halahmy wrote much of Hidden in cafés

Most of us are somewhere in-between, and try to write when and where we can. Miriam Halahmy and Candy Gourlay are just two writers I know who are part of a long line of café scribes, following in Ernest Hemingway’s espresso stained footsteps. Some of us write in libraries or on trains – I’m drafting this longhand in my notebook while walking, during my lunch break. Sometimes, in order to write anything at all, we have to adapt and learn to get the words down where we can.

Having said that, I think it is useful to find a more permanent space to write. This doesn’t have to be a beautifully designed bespoke writer’s study, though that would be nice. Stephen King wrote his early novels with a typewriter balanced across his knees in his laundry nook, Roald Dahl famously in his shed, and I read somewhere that Michael Morpurgo writes in bed. What’s important is finding a space you will associate with writing, so that as soon as you enter, your brain recognises it and thinks, ‘Ah, so this is what we’re doing now!’

My corner of the attic

I've written in libraries, on a laptop balanced on a drawing board in the bedroom, but about two years ago I cleared a space for a makeshift desk in the corner of our attic. It’s cold in winter and besieged by wasps in summer, but I love it. And when I climb the ladder each evening, by the time I sit down and switch on my computer, my brain already knows what’s required. It doesn’t always comply, but that’s another post altogether …

Save our libraries – doing it for the kids.

I thought I'd share these posts, written in support of the ongoing Save Libraries campaign. Well worth a read.
What my library means to me, by Shamila Akhtar
Won't somebody please think of the children? by Bryony Pearce


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

National Save Libraries Day

Today my family and I went to the library.

Three libraries actually.

We met up with friends and borrowed some books.

And DVDs, and stories on CD, and magazines … 

and went on the internet, and talked to the librarians and other visitors about what libraries mean to them.

"Going to the library is a three weekly must for me to have time with my daughter, which has led to her absolute passion for books, despite being dyslexic.  We go right up until 8pm if we haven't managed to fit it in earlier, a special mother and daughter time I would hate to see end."

"Since my dad died, my mum comes to the library three times a week. She's 83, but she can walk here from where she lives. She knows all the librarians. She reads the newspaper and chats to people. She knows more about what's going on than I do!"

"Story CDs from the library got my boys into reading. And stopped me throttling them on long car journeys!"

"I used the computers here when I lost my job, and the papers. I probably wouldn't have a job now if it wasn't for the library."

All over the country today, people have been visiting their libraries to borrow books, attend read-ins and protest against 450 planned library closures and reduction in opening hours for many others. The national library day of action is just the beginning. Keep using your library and spread the word.

For further information 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

Special thanks to my wife who came with us and took the photos 

which is why she isn't in any of them.

The great library revolt continues …

Next Saturday, the 5th of February, read-ins will be held at libraries all over the country as part of Alan Gibbons' Campaign for the Book. Two weeks ago the residents of Stony Stratford borrowed every single book on the shelves in their local library, all 16,000 of them. Robin Ince writing in the New Statesman described it as "the first great library revolt of the 21st century."

Last week I posted an article suggesting that we could all follow the example set by the silent revolutionaries of Stony Stratford, and visit our local libraries on Saturday the 5th to borrow some books. Even better, why not take the whole family with us? In fact, why stop there? Let's get friends, neighbours, work colleagues … anybody and everybody, to visit their local library next Saturday and borrow some books. The more often libraries are used, the stronger the argument will be for keeping them open. It won't cost anything, except a few minutes of your time, and if you don't have a current library card then sign-up for one. It's free (Just take something with your name and address on for proof of ID)

But why should you give up your time? What does it matter if a few libraries close? According to the news, the country is on the brink of a depression, people are losing their jobs, life is getting tough for everyone – surely there are more important things to worry about than library closures? "Fine," writes Robin Ince. "In the struggle for existence, libraries may seem a low priority. But they are a sign that a society believes the life of the mind is important. If some are underused, the solution is not to shut them but to get people back inside them and remind them of why libraries are there." Indeed, in times of austerity, we will need our libraries more than ever. To borrow when we can't afford to buy, to access the internet when a home connection is beyond our means, and not least for the sense of community and place of refuge a library can provide. But don't take my word for it …

"For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it. Now, when I read constantly about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that the door is closing and that society has found one more way to destroy itself." – Isaac Asimov

"A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them." – Lemony Snicket

"We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth." – John Lubbock

"One of the fundamental ways in which we organise and make sense of our lives, the lives of others and the world in which we live is through stories." – Viv Martin

"The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries." – Carl Sagan, Cosmos

"The best of my education has come from the public library... my tuition fee is a bus fare and once in a while, five cents a day for an overdue book. You don't need to know very much to start with, if you know the way to the public library."  – Lesley Conger

"Librarian is a service occupation. Gas station attendant of the mind." – Richard Powers

"You might not belong to your library now, but, one day, when you walk by a building site promising luxury apartments, where kids on tricycles once excitedly wheeled back with their new favourite book on dinosaurs, you will be sorry that it is gone. Get out your library card and start borrowing again." – Robin Ince

So, please – spread the word. Let's see how many books we can borrow next Saturday (and beyond). We probably won't empty the shelves, but it's a start …

For a full list of library closures and a handy map see Public Libraries News
For more reasons to defend libraries, please see Voices for the Library 

Save our libraries – borrow a book!

On Saturday 5th February Alan Gibbons’ Campaign for the Book is organising co-ordinated ‘read-ins’ at libraries across the country. Most events are due to start around noon, but it would be worth checking local news and advertising for details.

It may be that there are no read-in events planned at your local library, which is the case with mine, but there’s no reason why we can’t still add our support. Here's an idea: 

Encourage everyone you know – family, friends, work colleagues, school friends, random strangers – to visit your local library on Saturday 5th of February and take out a book, or seven books (which is the maximum allowed here). It doesn't cost anything and what better form of protest against the proposed cuts to library provision, than to use the service in question? Let’s show in usage figures, how many people will be affected if these cuts go ahead. 

Of course don't limit it to Saturday – keep using your library. One of the easiest, and possibly most powerful forms of protest against the cuts, will be to get library usage figures up all over the country. 

I’ll be visiting my local libraries on Saturday the 5th and posting some pictures here. If you want to send me a photo of yourself, family and friends with your loans outside your library on Saturday – I’ll put them up.


If you're taking part in a read-in or have any other library campaign news, please leave a comment and we can spread the word.


Finally, here's a post from last month with some useful links to a number of articles discussing why libraries matter and what we can do to save them.

Why libraries are important

For the want of a library, a book was lost.

For the want of a book, a reader was lost.

For the want of a reader, a story was lost.

For the want of a story, empathy was lost.

For the want of empathy, understanding was lost.

For the want of understanding, an idea was lost.

For the want of an idea, a future was lost.

For the want of a future, everything was lost.

And all for the want of a library.


Please take a moment to read the following thoughts on the future of our libraries:

Alan Gibbons
Candy Gourlay and Teri Terry
KM Lockwood
Keren David
Jon Mayhew
Nick Cross
Philip Ardagh
Bryony Pearce
Lucy Coats
Kathryn Evans
Nina Killham
Sarwat Chadda
Nicky Schmidt
Voices for the Library
Mike Brownlow
Julie Day

Finally, this inspiring post by Mary Hoffman, who has been campaigning for AND SAVING libraries for over twenty years.

For a full list of UK libraries under threat, see Public Libraries News