Booktrust Bloggers

2007-08-16T23:38:00.001+01:00

And now the end is near.. well, of my time as Director here at least, and as a Booktrust Blogger too.

Viv Bird is to be the new Director and I'm sure will be brilliant. James Smith, website editor, has already stepped into the blogging role. I'm off to be co-Director of the Institute for the Future of the Book, a do and think tank currently located in Brooklyn, New York and extending its activities in Europe.
I've had an amazing time at Booktrust, will miss the fantastic team here and am very proud of the range and quality of work we've been doing to bring books and people together. But mustn't get too mushy yet.
Before I go there's lots to do. And if you want to read my future bookfuture thoughts go
here!

Bob Stein, Founder of the IFB with Ruth Borthwick of Planet Poetry

2007-06-28T13:33:00.000+01:00

To Norway on holiday.

Not content with being the most beautiful and friendly country in Europe, Norway also has its very own Hay-on-Wye book town (or bokbyen) - Fjaerland, on the Sognesfjord. I might move there.

2007-06-13T19:20:00.001+01:00

At the South Bank on Sunday to witness the relaunch of this national institution, I saw Billy Bragg, Alan Yentob, Richard Rogers and thousands of other artsy people. I watched street theatre from a garden shed, went Gormleyspotting - oh and saw one of those bags.

On Monday it was an absolute pleasure to MC the Children's Laureate announcement this week at BAFTA, despite having woken up that morning with a stinking cold.
Jacqueline Wilson has been superb in the role and her final round up of laureating activity was impressive. Michael is wonderful and will do wonders for children's poetry - which needs all the help it can get according to the judges of the CLPE prize awarded today to Julie Johnstone (editor): The Thing That Mattered Most. Scottish Poems for Children illustrated by Iain McIntosh (Scottish PoetryLibrary/Black & White Publishing). Our new laureate was there as was judge Ian McMillan, an old friend from Sheffield days.

Yesterday I met up again with the phenomenal Rachel Van Riel of Opening the Book, pioneer of Reader Development and scourge of floppy thinking, and Gary McKeone, the man we all miss at the Arts Council, currently working with the Reading Agency. We were on a panel with performance poet and web 2.0 enthusiast Jacob Sam-La Rose, talking to London librarians at the LLDA conference on their GET LONDON READING strategy - a good opportunity to urge everyone to rise to our own Get London Reading challenge. 'ReadDating' was one of the best ideas of the last GLR I thought: speed dating meets book talk.

2007-06-08T10:46:00.000+01:00

Wednesday 6 June

To the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers ceremony at the refurbished Royal Festival Hall, prior to its official reopening.

Booktrust administers the prizes, which means sorting submissions from publishers; sending titles to the judges; attending longlist and shortlist meetings; and - perhaps most importantly - remembering to bring along to the ceremony the winners' cheques and the Bessie statuette. Our head of IT also plays a key role in maintaining and updating the Orange Prize website.

Kate Mosse, founder of the prize, generously praised us in her speech for the behind-the-scenes role we play.

The winner of the OANW was Canadian writer Karen Connolly, who gave an impromptu speech about the Burmese people who had inspired her and her book (The Lizard Cage), and also praised - in this era of digitisation - that perfect piece of technology: the book.

Then a huge cheer greeted the announcement of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction for Half of a Yellow Sun. Chimamanda's surprise was all the greater because her handbag had been stolen the day before (thanks, London), which she had convinced herself was a bad omen.

Spotted at the ceremony: Bianca Jagger; Gerald Scarfe and Jane Asher; India Knight; authors Romesh Gunesekera, Zadie Smith and Nick Laird, the lovely Joanna Briscoe and equally lovely Charlotte Mendelson.

By happy coincidence, it was also my 40th birthday, but Kate forgot to mention that ...

2007-05-25T10:57:00.000+01:00

And the winner is ...

At a lavish ceremony at the Wallace Collection in London last night, the Rossica Translation Prize was awarded to Joanne Turnbull for her translation of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's 7 Stories. Her publisher, Glas, was recognised as well.

And Robert Chandler was specially commended, both for his translation of The Railway and in recognition of the excellent work he has done over the years in bringing Russian literature to an English readership.

If anyone ever needed an example of how to run a superb event, this was it - a stunning setting, champagne and canapes, a warm welcome from Academia Rossica, a distinguished and witty guest speaker (Michael Frayn: 'translation is impossible'), a lucid - and note-free - summation of the merits of each shortlisted title by Peter France (one of the judges), and two very happy winners.

2007-05-25T09:01:00.000+01:00

Huw Molseed, Head of Websites at Booktrust, at The Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp.
This houses two of the earliest printing presses in the world, dating from the days of Jan I Moretus (1543 - 1610). The museum preserves the only complete set of Garamond's letter dies. The typographical collection of the Plantin-Moretus Museum is often called upon when old type fonts are digitized.

2007-05-24T16:41:00.000+01:00

The Economics of Attention by Richard A Lanham arrived at my house yesterday bought online and secondhand from Amazon , recommended by Professor Ronald Soetaert who gave a fascinating talk to members of the EUREAD reading promotion task force in Antwerp last week.

Soetart teaches teachers – his subject is the interconnectedness of different disciplines, and his talk was appropriately wide ranging. He spoke about research showing how a group of teenage Metal fans discuss their favourite music along very similar lines to academics discussing their field. Both groups frame their debate in the context of a canon of great work, a past golden age, an unappreciative general public etc.

Ronald also collects quotes from the many books which describe the great virtue of reading being that it gives one a ‘Second Life’. How come the same people who rave about the imaginary world of fiction find digital play so unnatural?

He’s interested in the complexity of computer games and the energy and intelligence that young people put into exploring them, without any encouragement from teachers or parents. It’s a bit like discovering your child has been locked away in his room secretly learning latin.

And he talked about Lanham’s work on the Age of Information in which what there’s a dearth of is not product but attention. From novelists to manufacturers, everyone is out to catch and claim your precious time. Reading Promotion organizations fly the flag for books not because we love ink, paper and cardboard but because we think reading fiction can capture the attention in a particularly imaginative and profound way. But if we focus on the issue of attention, we’re lead to look at other comparably grabbing activities, and to look at reading as it fits into the midst of our multi-modal lives.

2007-05-24T09:16:00.000+01:00

Website editor's first entry:

To the London Review Review Bookshop for an evening of readings from books shortlisted for the Rossica Translation Prize. The prize, set up by Academia Rossica, recognises the best translations of books from Russian into English; crucially, three-quarters of the prize money goes to the translator and one quarter to the publisher. Certainly in the case of this year's shortlist it would be difficult to reward the authors, most of whom are no longer alive.

The six books in contention for the prize are: new translations of Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and War and Peace; a travelogue about a road trip taken by two Russians across America in the 1930 (Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip); Sonechka: a novella and stories by Ludmila Ulitskaya; Hamid Ismailov's The Railway, set in Uzbekistan; and a collection of surreal stories by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, who was only published in Russia decades after his death.

Introductions and readings from five of the books were given by the translators. Robert Chandler was moving about how privileged he felt to have worked on The Railway (Ismailov was at the event); Anthony Briggs' chose two episodes from War and Peace to illustrate Tolstoy's virtuosity, reading both with gusto; and Hugh Aplin read in measured tones about Ivan Ilyich's visit to his doctor.

Anne Fisher's rendering of the Russian into 1930s 'American' was the most modern of the evening, her accent - she is American - perfectly complementing her translation; and Arch Tait gave us a slow, composed reading from Sonechka about a deeply unsympathetic grandmother after telling us that he had completed his translation of Anna Politkovskaya's book on the day she was murdered.

Finally, the actor Andrew Sachs read one of Krzhizhanovsky's stories in its entirety, a surreal fable about a man whose box-like room magically expands when he paints a substance called Quadraturin on its walls. Sachs, a master of pacing and different voices, had already recorded Krzhizhanovsky's stories for BBC Radio 4 - this event gave him the opportunity to read one of them in its entirety.

Academia Rossica has done readers in the UK a great service with this award. Like the Independent Foreign Fiction prize, it reminds us that - surprise, surprise - people in other countries can write as well as 'western' authors. Durr.

2007-05-12T09:53:00.000+01:00

At the end of the week of the PM's stepping down, I'm making a slightly less historic step in opening up this blog to James Smith, website editor, and between us we'll be encouraging others at Booktrust to contribute their news, views and musings. I'm Director till September, but this curious handover phase is a good time to present different voices of Booktrust. And talking of handovers, I was glad to see that Gordon Brown's first interview took place with a shelf of books in the background.
Next week I'm going to Antwerp with Huw Molseed, web expert at Booktrust, to a meeting of EU*READ to talk to them about their hopes and fears for the future of the book in the digital age. I'm interested to discover whether the topic is generating such heat across Europe and what we can do together to explore the creative potential for readers and writers.
Meanwhile I've been reading Steven Hall's 'The Raw Shark Texts' - Moby Dick meets Roget's Thesaurus - and some fantastic graphic novels lately, all of which make best possible use of the black and white printed page, and challenge the notion that Real Readers don't mess with pictures. Marjane Satrapi's 'Persepolis' is an account of growing up female in Iran which has a wit and lightness of touch which makes the horrors hit home too.

2007-04-26T22:07:00.000+01:00

Booktrust's Big Picture seminar at the London Book Fair

There's so much going on at Booktrust currently - major new book gifting projects for children in care, children arriving at school and at secondary school; campaigns to promote picture books and the short story; the challenge issued to Get London Reading; the appointment in June of a new Children's Laureate - I am deeply impressed by the energy and dedication of the Booktrust team.

After seven very enjoyable and engrossing years here I've decided to step down as Director in September, feeling that new skills are needed to lead the organisation through its next phase of development, but I hope to remain connected. Currently I'm working up plans for a project to explore the creative opportunities that the digital age offers to writers and readers, working with the FLO (Friendly Literature Officers group on an event in June on Leadership and Diversity in literature development, and am involved in planning another Booktrust education scheme to promote writing as a life skill. There's lots to do - but time to marvel at how much goes on at Book House these days to help people of all ages and cultures to discover and enjoy reading.

2007-03-04T22:25:00.000Z

The Reading Adventures Conference organised by the brilliant Miriam Posner and held in Jerusalem from 19 - 21st February brought together academics and reading promotion practitioners from around the world.

To begin with Prof Stephen Krashen delivered a passionate and witty keynote speech on 'Free Voluntary Reading: the most powerful took in language development.
"Study after study confirms that those who read more read better, write better, have larger vocabularies, and have a better control of complex grammatical constructions."

At the end of the conference Prof. Dr Hans-Heino Ewers argued that "all too often for educational policy reasons discussions about the importance of literary education in the era of multimedia side with the traditional media only."

Between the two keynotes, workshops covered every aspect of reading promotion including: the School Library as a focal point for cultural enrichment for the whole school population; the principles practices and effects of reading aloud to young children; connecting Jewish and Arab children through reading - and much more.

I was there with EUREAD colleagues from Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, talking about Bookstart and Bookfutures. It was a fascinating week and I'll be writing more about it soon.

Discussions at the bar with Belgian academic Prof. Ronald Soetaert led to the issue of how few rock songs feature references to books and reading. Can you add any to our short list?

Paperback Writer; Day In The Life ('I read the news today oh boy'); (who who who wrote..) The Book of Love; Every Day I Write the Book - Elvis Costello...
Can you think of more? Do tell.

2007-02-02T08:53:00.000Z

A Million Penguins - The More the Merrier

Penguin has launched its first wiki and in a project called A Million Penguins have created a space where anyone can contribute to the writing of a novel and anyone can edit anyone else's writing.

"Over the next six weeks we want to see whether a community can really get together, put creative differences aside (or sort them out through discussion) and produce a novel. We honestly don't know how this is going to turn out - it's an experiment. Some disciplines rely completely on collaboration, while others - the writing of a novel, for example - have traditionally been the work of an individual working in isolation. But with collaboration, crowdsourcing and the 'wisdom of the crowds' being buzz words du jour, we thought we might as well see if these new trends can be applied to a less obvious sphere than, say, software development." says
Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher, Penguin Books.

Penguin are working with members of the Creative Writing & New Media MA at De Montfort University. A Penguin editor is on hand to write regular reading reports on the novel in progress, and the rest is up to the wreaders.

A Million Penguins

Can a community write a novel? Let's find out.

2007-01-24T08:51:00.000Z

FLO LEADERSHIP DAY
Stephen Page, CEO of Faber & Faber, talks at an event on Literature Leadership organised by the FLO consortium of Friendly Literature Organisations.
Members of FLO each gave short talks on different issues. Here's mine on the future of the book.

As it happens it was the poet Simon Armitage who was the first person to show me an iPod. I thought it was beautiful and snazzy, but just a classy form of walkman.

Actually the iPod was the moment when music stopped belonging on disc or CD or even concert hall and sailed aloft to exist in the ether, ready to be downloaded into our lives in whatever way seems most appropriate at the time.

That’s what’s happening now to words – Google digitising everything they can lay their hands on, Sony bringing out the e-reader, a Cambridge company Plastic Logic making a flexible screen on which you could watch a tv programme, read a short story, search a blog, or do all kinds of inbetween things we’re only just beginning to think about.

So the book is changing, artforms and platforms converging, but what’s that to do with leadership and literature?

We need to lead the way for writers grappling with the ‘transliteracy’ skills they need to make texts which incorporate new media as part of their substance, not just the wrapping.

And we need to be clear about the essence of what readers need, as all the trappings we associate with books transform around us.

But I think the ‘Literature Sector’ is ahead of the field.

We’ve talked for years about creative reading and writing. In the digital age that blurring of divisions between creator and consumer is now taking place across the board.

Other art forms are suddenly grappling with personalisation – turning their staged events into podcasts to be consumed privately in people’s own homes and heads, creating on their computers a ‘bookshelf’ of their favourite cultural product.

But we know all about bookshelves, and the portable, personalised virtual reality generator that is the book.

Film makers are horrified to find everyone churning out YouTube snippets, remixing Star Wars and finding thousands of viewers for a film of teenagers miming to stolen songs. Publishers realise that readers and writers can cut out the middleman and communicate directly...

But Literature Development and Reader Development are practices based on the interactivity between reader and writer.

Back in the 80s in Sheffield we set up Write Back noticeboards in libraries and encouraged users to post their own poems then post their comments on other people’s. We photocopied single copies of anyone’s work and made it free to borrow – looking back it was akin to a manual MySpace for local writers.

Before the blog there were photocopied pamphlets of poetry, before videocasting there were rooms above pubs. Anyone who has run a poetry competition knows about User Generated Content; there is no shortage of poetry out there!

And we’re used to seeing some great writing emerge from that dense but democratic mass of words.

Young poets - like Daljit Nagra, now being published by the illustrious Faber - are likely to have learnt their trade through workshops, contributing to small magazines, appearing at poetry clubs above pubs. Nagra lived in Sheffield so maybe he even came across the Write Back board. Once published, poets like bloggers know they’re still responsible for growing their readership through appearances and wordspreading.

In the NESTA report Ten Habits of Mass Innovation Charlie Leadbetter writes:
“The future of our society should not continue to extend the pleasures of consumerism ad infinitum. Our aim should be to become a society of adapters, contributors, participants and designers, with people having their say, making a contribution (often in small ways) to add to the accumulation of ideas and innovation. A society of mass innovation offers access to a deeper story about freedom and self-expression that will distinguish us from many societies...”
That could be a society modelled on the literature sector.

2007-01-20T20:38:00.000Z

EVERYBODY WRITES is a project to promote the importance of writing as a life skill.
Last friday Allison Edwards and I ran a workshop at the Institute of Education for primary school teachers with actor Toby Jones (currently receiving rave reviews for his role as Truman Capote in 'Infamous'). The session was about creative approaches to making the whole school a 'Writing School' and led to ideas for word benches, poetry gardens, blogs and newspaper projects, letter writing days and much more.

2007-01-15T20:08:00.000Z

Well it's utterly disgraceful that this is my first Booktrust blog of 2007!
It's no excuse whatsoever that the last few weeks of last year were utterly hectic - including our wonderful children's party at Number 11 Downing Street, exciting news in the pre-Budget speech and the Annual General Meeting when we said a sad goodbye to our wise and supportive Chair, Kim Reynolds, and Trevor Glover, who held the post before Kim and handled this difficult role with great skill.

Today a number of the Booktrust team attended the launch of the Family Reading Campaign at the Oval where newscaster Huw Edwards held court, so let this murky photo represent a year of family reading and glad collaboration between reading organisations.

I have no excuses, but am also in the midst of much planning, which includes thoughts on the direction of the Booktrust blogerama more news of which shortly.

2006-11-27T22:52:00.001Z

At De Montfort University on the Creative Writing & New Media M.A. last week I worked with a wonderful and extraordinary group of people to explore the potential of new media, and in particular the online tools of Web 2.0 to make stories, poems and hybrids. We were visited by the Penguin blogger too - read all about it here and follow the link to a good introductory set of new media artworks/texts/whatever.

http://www.thepenguinblog.typepad.com

The picture shows Mary, Maryse and Toni at play in the Fuse media lab studio.

2006-11-08T08:32:00.000Z

Question Time at the Comics Cafe - photo from Frankfurt Bookfair

2006-11-02T22:18:00.000Z

Today's 4th Booktrust Teenage Book Prize, awarded on the top floor of the Pearson Building, was a wonderful event thanks to the efforts of Hannah, Helen, Katherine and Rosa at Booktrust. The winner, Anthony McGowan for 'Henry Tumour', made a touching off the cuff acceptance speech. Go to www.bookheads.org.uk to find out more about the short story prize, the teen judges, reading diaries and more.

2006-11-02T21:39:00.000Z

THE BATTLE OF IDEAS at the Royal College of Art on 28th October had a fantastic spirit. I went to debates on Happiness and Money. The 'future of the book in the era of txting' debate which I was speaking at was not so contraversial, but John Sutherland stood up for bookshops and paper against wicked American search engines, while I asserted that the book of the future will remain the book, even if it's digitised and downloadable. Someone said Star Trek presented a bookless future - but maybe Captain Kirk has an iBookreader under his bunk containing an infinite library of great literature. "Transport me to Narnia, Scotty." "Aye Aye, Cap'n."

Another good quote: "Technology is anything invented since you were born." And Alyson Rudd said she has two children and loves them both; it's possible to love books and computer screens too.
My fellow debaters were Michael Caines, editor at TLS; Shirley Dent of Institute of Ideas; John Sutherland; Alyson Rudd,Times Books Group; Jack Klaff. Read what we all said at the Battle of Ideas website.

Oh and finally 2 pictures of The Bettertones, featuring Eamonn Flynn, Booktrust's own Head of Finance, on mandolin. We were playing at the launch of The Very Best Of Linda Smith, a much missed friend.

The star studded cast included Arthur Smith, Sandi Toksvig, Phil Jupitus, Andy Hamilton, Jo Brand... and, most impressively, all the newsreaders off Radio 4.

2006-10-09T18:06:00.000+01:00

FRANKFURT AND EUREAD

Now Jonathan of the MLA says I don't blog enough and indeed it's true, so here are some photos from my recent trip to the Frankfurt Bookfair where I spoke at the opening LITCAM conference, at the press launch of the Google literacy website (www.google.com/literacy - see what you think) and then went onto Mainz to meet with the other organisations in Eu*Read, another very supportive grouping of reading promotion agencies.

2006-09-05T11:12:00.000+01:00

Article written for the Battle of Ideas - visit www.battleofideas.co.uk for further information about the event in October.

CAN THE BOOK SURVIVE IN AN ERA OF SOUNDBITES AND TXTING?

Defin8ly. Although we live in an increasingly snippet-driven society, there’s still an appetite for big fat stories, as the success of the blockbusters by J.K. Rowling, Dan Brown and so many others attests. Research commissioned in 2001 by Arts Council England into attitudes towards the short story suggested that readers have a bias against small books and believe Real Literature should take a while to consume.

Whereas we might have expected the screen to have replaced the page by this point in the 21st century, in fact the new media have done wonders for reinvigorating the old. The first dot com success was Amazon books, followed by eBay and ABE creating an extraordinary global, browsable book stall of second hand volumes where nothing goes out of circulation. Google’s modest aim of making all information available to everybody everywhere (well, apart from China) may scare the hell out of copyright lawyers, but sounds good for free reading.

Meanwhile the BBC not long ago spent a good chunk of licence fee money on the Big Read, which in turn prompted Channel 4’s Richard & Judy’s book club, both promoting books on telly with impressive effect. Why? This wasn’t an act of mercy towards a dying form; literary dramatisations may be costly but a few people in a studio chatting about paperbacks makes for cheap TV and happy culture ministers.

Everybody wants to be seen to love books; the Orange telecom company has been an exemplary sponsor of its book prize, and texts its customers to tell them about it. The Man Group are equally generous to the Booker, and the book trade takes for granted that the Arts Council, charitable trusts and other businesses will fork out for campaigns and prizes which directly benefit their book sales.

The Government supports schemes like Bookstart because it’s clear that literacy is still an essential life skill. A troubling survey in 2005 found that one third of the population have no interest in books. The good news is that it’s not only professional book promoters who give a damn; it is widely acknowledged that those lacking literacy skills and reading stamina are seriously disadvantaged in a society where the screen may be replacing the page, but the (spellchecked) written word still rules ok.

Actually it’s sales of the conventional visual media that may be more vulnerable as the young generation scratch, cut and paste together their own entertainment from a digital scrapbook of sounds and images. Only recently has the moving image become as fluid and interactive as words have always been. The digital age makes everything participatory - if faintly repetitive now that so much human endeavour is reduced to clickings on mouses. But when the Arts Council gazed into its crystal ball to talk about the ‘personalisation’ of arts experiences as being one of the challenges to the arts organisation of the 21st century, they failed to notice that literature has always been personal. Why do computer users 'bookmark' their favourites? The analogy of a shelf of well thumbed tomes is the best way to describe our personal list of regularly used sites. Poetry lovers have always tended to both read and write poems, participating in the creative process in a very 21st century way, the continuum between photocopied booklets and mainstream publication being as seamless as the blogosphere.

The underlying fear of dumbing down is that changing patterns of production and consumption encourage a less challenging and rigorous literature. But let’s not forget that there have always been dumb books; others considered dumb at the time of publication have been re-appraised at a later date, and vice versa. The web is good for the most popular and the most esoteric. Online it takes the same amount of time to buy an obscure out of print treatise as it does to get Jordan’s autobiography. It’s the middle ground that’s at risk, the books we don’t think to search for. This problem of how readers and other cultural consumers can find their way through the mass of what’s available is an issue for all forms of art and information.

The book will survive. It might change shape though. At Booktrust we don’t promote sheets of paper with print on sandwiched between card. We are concerned about access to literature, to genuinely creative reading and writing. If Apple can produce a gizmo which provides a better way to imbibe fiction, then Booktrust is happy to encourage the discovery and enjoyment of that too.

We are interested in the experience of creating a world in your head inspired by words.
Having said that, we also promote picture books, audio books, graphic novels, and downloadable e-books. It does get hard to keep fiction in its box, and of course good fiction will always be breaking through boundaries. Academics and writers are already exploring new ways of creating narratives on screen, exploring the web’s interactivity and multi-media nature.

Most hotlinked metatexts are pretty naff so far, but soon enough a masterpiece will be created in a form we can't yet imagine quite, and then the question is whether this artwork will be embraced as literature or new media or something else again. I very much hope that the literary world expands to include these experiments. If it has words in, then it’s part of a tradition that goes back to Caxton.

Why does that matter? Because the word conjures up images and words in your head. That conjuring is done by the author magician with the reader as glamorous assistant - both are fully involved in the creation. The best films and paintings and installations are evocative, but their appearance is all. A book doesn't work until it’s translated into the thoughts of the reader as the words slide through us to trigger meanings. And that process is uniquely stimulating. Books connect with our psyche at a deeper level than other art forms.

Books aren’t yet under threat, but the time spent reading them is. Over 40% of non readers blame this on not having the time. In 2006 few families sit in their lounges before the watershed turning the pages together. Now the times relegated to reading are restricted to late nights, journeys and holidays. iPods have invaded the journey time, but then it is possible to read and listen to music. People seem to spend a massive amount of time looking at their phones, so why not put books on those? A company called iCue has launched a system that flashes up whole novels one word at a time on mobile phones; a dizzying thought, but if it works then let’s go for it.

We need to get written stories on those 'platforms' or else we will risk further erosions into booktime; writers and literature development workers need to keep up the undumbdowning, to crawl all over the new media finding creative ways to exploit its creative potential. And that’s just what has already been happening: webtexts and SMS haikus, txtable summaries of classics and interactive metathrillers.

Paperbacks will survive as well, I have no doubt. They just need rebranding as recyclable, wire-less, portable virtual reality modules, no batteries required.

Alex Strick's brilliant work on disability and children's books has culminated in a fascinating report, downloadable from our website www.bookmark.org.uk, which was launched at the Unicorn Theatre by Quentin Blake on 13th July. Books help us all to do what we cannot - to inhabit other bodies, to change our age and gender, to feel what it's like to be somebody else, but it¹s also vital that we can find our actual experiences reflected in fiction. Quentin admitted that while it's now common practice for illustrators to check that their work reflects the multicultural nature of contemporary society, people with disabilities tend only to appear in 'issue' books. I'm sure Alex's report will lead to real change. Meanwhile it was a joy to watch Quentin in the act of creation before our very eyes.

Everybody Writes is a new project in development: a campaign in schools to promote the importance of writing as a life skill. Working closely with the National Literacy Trust and an advisory group including NAWE, The Poetry Society and others, we want to highlight projects, and develop new ones of our own, which show how vital it still is that we are able to expess ourselves in words, whether we aim to make novels or job applications, shopping lists, text messages, love letters... or blogs for that matter. I love this phase of a project, when so many conversations lead to new ideas and potential connections.

*********

- Chris Meade

2006-07-23T22:21:00.000+01:00

I started this blog soon after an Awayweek with a group of Directors from a range of literature development organisations who had met together and found they had lots to discuss. That week was life changing for me, an amazing opportunity to think around work with a supportive and stimulating group who faced similar issues. A year later and we've a) been awarded Arts Council funding as part of their cultural leadership programme and b) our second awayweek, at Cumberland Lodge this time, and involving members of our teams in day sessions on marketing, strategy and 'thinking big', has been as thought provoking and battery recharging as the first. The group currently called Friendly Literature Organisations (FLO for short) includes Chris Hollifield of the Poetry Book Society, Emma Hewett of Spread the Word, Stephanie Anderson of the Arvon Foundation, Geraldine Collinge of Apples & Snakes, Jules Mann of the Poetry Society and Ruth Borthwick, Head of Literature and Talks at the South Bank Centre.

2006-06-21T23:13:00.000+01:00

I'm determined to find time to add to this blog on a regular basis - but for now some photos of recent goings on including David Lammy, Minister for Arts, launching National SureStart month at Tate Modern (and giving Bookstart enthusiastic support); Rosemary Clarke, Nicolette Jones, Prof. David Crystal and Wendy Cooling discuss 'Getting Bookstarted' at the Hay Festival; Jacqueline Wilson with Nikki Marsh at the Booktrust stand at Hay; Zadie Smith wins the Orange for 'For Beauty'.

2006-05-18T08:42:00.000+01:00

YO SOY EL PUNTO CUBANA

During an amazing holiday in Cuba I spent a fascinating morning in the company of a group of librarians and reading promoters in Havana, including the Director of BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL "JOSÈ MARTI", Miguel Viciedo, Vice President of ASCUBI and Margarita Bellas, President ASCUBI. ASCUBI, the Asociación Cubana de Bibliothecarios. Adrian Guerra Pensado runs the children's library and did a great job as interpreter. He's pictured pointing at the smiley face used as a form of reader recommendation.
"Everybody reads in Cuba" I was told, and bringing literacy to the people was one of the first tasks of the revolution. I have to say I saw a lot more singing and dancing than reading and writing on the streets.. but then that's what I was looking for. Pictured is a rumba session linked to the Santeria religion.

2006-04-11T11:48:00.000+01:00

Celebratory cakes on our 'brand new day' - the launch of Booktrust's new logo and brand.

At a recent Arts Council seminar on work with children and young people, arts organisations were presented with the five targets of 'Every Child Matters'.
It's hard to disagree that children should be healthy and safe etc., but shouldn't the arts community be pushing at the boundaries of these definitions?

I've been talking to a range of people about how we in the field of literature development can set out our stall as organisations happy to be working in the education system, but also having an approach all our own.

Here's my reworking of the 5 precepts.Your comments are invited.

Every Child Matters More

Be healthy - and feel free to be strange
Stay safe - take risks in your imagination
Enjoy and achieve - and be prepared to "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett
Make a positive contribution - and always be prepared to kick up a fuss
Achieve economic well-being - but know there's more to life than money

2006-03-24T09:38:00.000Z

Bookscapes seminar in the Orange Studio, Birmingham.

This Hamlyn Foundation funded project, co-ordinated by Yvonne Hook, has been working with 'hard to reach' young people, including travellers, refugees, young mothers and children coming out of care. Readers in residence have encouraged groups to use books as the basis for arts work, making a creative response to what they read.

Here are some comments on the project from those involved:

“Although I know from experience that participants in such projects find a new sense of achievement, I hadn’t expected that the participants would be so enthusiastic about carrying on with the sessions, or that they would be so pleased with their work that they went to find another group of young mums-to-be to come and look. The poems currently under production are also an unexpected benefit from a group who “hate poetry”, and the group’s own suggestion that we should collect these into a book was something I had hoped for but not expected.” Reader in Residence (RIR) Brenda Read Brown

“Considering the barriers to reading and writing (including dyslexia and having English as an additional language) and some of the negative experiences of school, I was surprised at how enthusiastically the group members responded when asked to do some creative writing.”
“Several of the young people started to visit the library in between sessions, for example to use the internet for college work… One member of the group has been into the Information Shop for Young People several times since being introduced to the facility, to get help on multiple issues including applying for college and dealing with the prospect of becoming a father.”
RIR Birmingham Sam Owen

“I certainly did not expect the group to enjoy the project so much. The session with Rosemary Harris, the poet, was an incredible eye opener. Harris did a phenomenal job and so did the group. With enthusiasm and commitment they became poets in two hours and their reaction to the poems they wrote was incredibly moving. As one member said afterwards “I feel I can write anything now”.”
“The group opened up a great deal through the course of the project and, by the end, they could confidently engage with text on a more personal level. Instead of just thinking “what did Stargirl think” they began to ask “what did Stargirl feel?” and “what did her actions reveal about her emotions?” RIR London Elizabeth Bananuka

“They read books! I know this was an aim of the project, but with my group I didn’t actually believe it would happen …but some of the young people actually read the (set) books from cover to cover and others that I recommended to them.”
The comic book they are producing is something they can hardly believe in themselves…Working with Dave (the comic artist) has enabled them to design their frames and produce them to a standard that has surprised them.” RIR Cumbria Zosia Wand

“Adults and younger children were often interested and wanted to join in” and “…inspired through meeting the Gypsy writer, (the community) are exploring the possibilities of bidding for funding for education and employment projects.”
“By arranging for Richard O’Neill, the Gypsy writer, to visit the local primary school and through storytelling explore issues of difference and prejudice it will have supported the school in tackling bullying and discrimination.”
RIR West Yorkshire Jen Kilyon

“The activities during the project have also informed the way she (the resident writer in the prison) plans to work with readers’ groups in the future.” RIR Manchester Kim Haygarth

From the participants:

“This has been a fantastic opportunity for so many women who would normally never think about reading anything more than the TV guide! Thank you!”

“This project has made me a better person, more outspoken and all. I feel more confident in myself now than before.”

"I would not read poetry before - I found it intimidating. But now I enjoy reading it."

“I tackled things I would ordinarily shy away from."

“I would like to share my crazy poetry with the world!”

“The arty stuff was cool.”

Some of the young people also felt that the sessions had helped them in some way:

“Got things out of my head”.
“It’s ok to be different”.
“No matter who you are there are people that are the same.”
“Getting things out in the open.”

2006-03-09T19:52:00.001Z

Jackie Kay, our brilliant and hilarious keynote speaker at the Manchester Writing Together conference.

Booktrust's last board meeting was chaired by Alison Morrison of Walker Books deputising for Kim Reynolds, in attendance were Nigel Williams, Treasurer, Sue Horner of the QCA, Nick McDowell of Arts Council England, London plus Booktrust staff Catherine Large, Eamonn Flynn and James Smith.
We have an excellent board - interesting people with useful ideas, loads of experience and a recognition of the complexity of their role in relation to the staff.

2006-02-27T12:21:00.000Z

I spent the weekend in Koln where they're celebrating Karneval, the midwinter festivity celebrated in Catholic cities along the banks of the Rhine. It involves days of round the clock drinking, singing and wearing fancy dress. The bars, streets and trains are full of clowns, cows, nurses, vampires... and a good number of Pippi Longstockings, with plastic ginger plaits and freckles. It's good to see at least one childre's book character has that iconic status there. Perhaps she should be invited to the Queen's Birthday Bash.

Back in Britain Get London Reading was launched last monday and there have been many sightings of our posters on tube stations, plus extremely good feedback from the Rough Guide to London By The Book which has been handed out at stations, libraries etc. All great stuff. On Thursday we ran the first of this year's Writing Together conferences to encourage teachers to bring writers into schools. Our keynote speaker was Ian McMillan, poet and, according to the New Statesman, the fifth most irritating voice on radio. Personally I think he's a brilliantly funny performer and just the person to leave teachers inspired and excited about the amazing potential for creative writing in schools. I have no pictures sadly of launch, conference or Karneval as my camera battery ran out, so instead here's one from a Writing Together conference years ago: Paul, Frank and Abigail of NAWE, Poetry Society and Arts Council England respectively, all partners in the project.

2006-01-26T10:30:00.000Z

Pictures of Teya road testing a new book bag for a pilot project. A dead ringer for a Chris Riddell illustration too don't you think?

Meanwhile my nineteen year old daughter has just set off on her 6 month gap year journey around South America and I'm gutted. If anyone has any thoughts on good fiction on or relevant to the subject of 'Empty Nest Syndrome' I'd love to hear them. And yes, I know the nest may not be empty for long - and I know how many parents are desperate to clear their nests of grown up children, but it's still a big moment.

2006-01-18T11:45:00.000Z

Interesting advice found in North London!

2006-01-13T10:45:00.000Z

BOOKS, TRUTH AND RADIOWAVES

Last night I was asked by the BBC World Service to appear on The World Tonight discussing author James Frey's memoir of drug addiction, 'One Million Little Pieces'. I haven't read the book but it's a bestseller in the States and there's been some controversy since it was discovered that he's bent the truth a good deal in writing it. I do think that memoir as a genre is a grey area between autobioigraphy and fiction where the most important thing is the literary text in its own right. The idea of readers demanding a refund because a book isn't true is hilarious. Most importantly I think readers should be reassured that what counts is the authenticity of their personal response to the book. Okay so it looks like this guy has fibbed somewhat, but there's no shame in being moved by Anna Karenin's suicide just because she's only pretend.

I think my favourite book of 2005 was Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, an awesome and imaginary memoir of life growing up in a Nazi-friendly USA. It's clearly labelled fiction, but the brilliance is in the way Roth mixes childhood reminiscence of dark basements and eccentric aunts with big world events - such as President Lindburgh's flight to Germany for talks with the Fuhrer. 100% fiction - or your money back!!

Booktrust planning meeting, Jan 2006

2006-01-12T10:22:00.000Z

Re. NATIONAL HEALTH OF READING
"in answer to your question:
I reckon the biggest external threat to books/reading is etiolating attention span. The biggest internal threat is the industry's technophobia.
All best
Sara Abdulla
Editor
Macmillan Science: popular science books from the publishers of Nature"
Sara was shortlisted for this year's Kim Scott Walwyn Prize.

******

BOOKSTART INTERNATIONAL

We've just had a visit from Izumi Satou and Kaori Sito, co-ordinators of Bookstart in Japan, which is going from strength to strength - and closely modelled on our UK scheme.
Their website is www.bookstart.net

2006-01-04T09:32:00.000Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM BOOKTRUST

Booktrust resolves to be more vocal about the needs of the reader in 2006.

So what should we be speaking out about?

Readers need FREEDOM OF CHOICE and, along with many others, Booktrust has major concerns about Waterstones’ bid to take-over Ottakar’s. We are supportive of initiatives like the i-2-i project being developed by Snow Books which aim to make it easier for independent presses to sell through independent bookshops. We want a diversity of booksellers selling a diversity of books to an ever expanding diversity of readers. Do you think that a monopoly on the highstreet leads to limited choices for readers?

We welcome the ways in which the web has opened up access to ideas, made it easier to keep texts in circulation, and become such a powerful means to sell books across the globe. Much as we like books made of paper, the e-book, print on demand and on-line literature are exciting developments which we welcome. Our aim isn’t to protect the status quo of the book world, but to ensure that future readers retain choice and quality. Do you think they will?

Readers and writers need FREEDOM OF SPEECH and Booktrust wholeheartedly condemns the actions of the Turkish Government in trying author Orhan Pamuk for speaking out about the deaths of Kurds and Armenians under Article 301 of a new Turkish Penal Code. Do you think freedom of speech is being restricted in this country too - how can we stop its erosion?

We believe in FREE ACCESS FOR ALL TO BOOKS and see a public library service offering high quality information and imagination services as an essential feature of the increasingly complex landscape of reading. In the era of the the Pod-cast, E-bay and Amazon, highstreet discount wars, bookcrossing and the book group, what do you think of as the centre of your reading life?

FREE THINKING AND IMAGINING FOR ALL!
Functional literacy matters, but an appetite for reading is what we need to survive and thrive in the 21st Century.
From early years, through school and into everyday life, we want to see the growth of a society of creative readers and writers, exploring the world around them through imaginative literature, finding their own words to express their response to what they discover.
We urge schools to adopt the proposed Creative Entitlement developed as part of the recent English 21 consultation (see entry under 'CREATIVE' below).
What are the issues you’d like to see us tackling and how?

THE NATIONAL HEALTH OF BOOKS AND READING

We asked Lynne Patrick, shortlisted for last year's Kim Scott Walwyn Prize for women in publishing, what she considered to be the greatest threats to the health of books and reading in the UK. Here's her response:

"The stock answers are television and computers, but I actually don't think that's the case. TV actually encourages people to read - I gather Jane Austen and Dickens are selling pretty well at the moment! I think I have to say the way a very small proportion of books and authors get a lot of media and bookshop attention at the expense of lower-profile but excellent work by less well known authors. This tends to discourage excellent unpublished writers who keep falling at the final hurdle despite producing high quality work, so the standard of books in general doesn't improve.
Also, I think too many books are published which no one actually reads - cookery books, diet books, not especially well written celebrity autobiographies.
But then I would say that, wouldn't I, since my company specialises in fiction (which is bought to be read!) by authors no one has heard of - yet.

I think Booktrust does some excellent work; long may it continue. Providing admin backup for awards like the Kim Scott Walwyn Prize is an excellent service to publishers and readers alike; and seeing our books listed on your website gave us a real buzz when we started out and everyone else ignored us. Giving small independent publishers an even higher profile might be something you could consider!"

Lynne Patrick
Managing Director
Creme de la Crime

Creme de la Crime: the best in new crime writing
www.cremedelacrime.com"

*********

Eamonn, Robert and Claire at Booktrust HQ - Jan 2006

2005-12-09T11:19:00.000Z

As the Office of Fair Trading decides on a full inquiry into Waterstone's bid to acquire Ottakar's, at Booktrust we're going to be doing some inquiring of our own. The Reader is at the heart of everything we do at Booktrust. So what are readers entitled to?
What is the role of independent presses and bookshops in ensuring readers themselves remain independent?
What are the forces today which influence our choices and access to literature?
And how can Booktrust best serve readers of the 21st Century?
Your thoughts on any of the above are welcome.

2005-12-08T13:11:00.000Z

Christmas is coming, I'm slightly hungover from our staff drinks party last night, and preparing for the AGM next week. We have a fantastic board giving their time to support the work of Booktrust - and I'm not just saying that! Boards of trustees can be problematic groups, frustrating to be on and to report to - but this one is both encouraging and challenging; I'm truly grateful for their time, wisdom and energy. Kim Reynolds, our fantastic current chair, has written this introduction to the Annual Report.

CHAIR'S REPORT

2005 has been another dynamic year for Booktrust. The portfolio of established projects has been consolidated, and more recent initiatives have attracted exactly the kinds of partners and attention that characterize Booktrust at its best. The exciting Get London Reading scheme, for instance, has not only received funding from Creative London, an initiative of the London Development Agency, but is also growing through the support of major book organisations in the capital. The buzz around this event is growing weekly through the hard work and imaginative initiatives of the Booktrust team.

‘Buzzy’ would be a good way to describe the year for Booktrust. Book House is currently a hive of activity with lorries full of Bookstart materials being sent all over the country, and a host of events such as the Children’s Laureate launch, the National Short Story Prize, and the own-brand prizes such as the Booktrust Teenage Prize, all attracting enthusiastic and wide-ranging media coverage. Activity around National Children’s Book week has been building steadily, too. A detailed picture of Booktrust’s activities and services can be seen on the redesigned, reconceived, more substantial Booktrust web sites.

This has not just been a year for launching activities, but one of strategic re-evaluation and professional development. Several excellent new appointments for Bookstart and Booktrust are in place and contributing to the delivery of projects, fundraising, and very importantly, to planning for the future of the organisation. Some projects have been completed; others have been wound up to make way for fresh initiatives arising from contemporary needs and opportunities. The board, too, has had an injection of lively and talented new members via the Arts & Business GAIN scheme. With secure funding and an appropriate range of projects, it has been possible to invest time and training in staff at all levels, strengthening the knowledge base and commitment of all those who work at Booktrust.

These changes have come about through detailed and creative leadership; the resulting high regard in which Booktrust currently stands has been recognised through increased funding and approaches from significant new partners. Partnerships can sometimes be unequal, but the internal strength of the organisation and its increasing clarity of objectives mean that Booktrust is able to ensure that such partnerships are firmly rooted in the ‘Booktrusted’ ethos.

Having reached this stage in the planned development of Booktrust, a rebranding exercise has commenced which will raise the profile of Booktrust itself, alongside its many important projects. The coming year seems set to hear the buzz become a roar!

My thanks go to the Director and his staff, the members of the Board, and especially my predecessor, Trevor Glover, who stepped in at several crucial moments, and to all our collaborators and supporters who have contributed to this most successful period in the history of Booktrust.

Kimberley Reynolds

2005-11-09T16:51:00.000Z

So much has been going on since I last found time for blogging: At the end of September we awarded the Booktrust Early Years Awards at BAFTA, won by Poppy Cat's Farm by Lara Jones (Campbell Books), The Very Dizzy Dinosaur by Jack Tickle (Little Tiger Press) and The Fantastic Mr Wani by Kanako Usui (Little Tiger Press). The picture above is of board member Emmanuella Dekonor with one of our judges, HRH The Countess of Wessex.
Soon after, Laureate Andrew Motion was a fascinating and fascinated interviewer of Laureate Jacqueline Wilson at an event at the Soho Theatre.
In October I went to the Frankfurt Bookfair and a meeting in Mainz with the EUREAD group where European plans for Bookstart schemes are being hatched.

On National Poetry Day I met up with poet Debjani Chatterjee at an event to celebrate 'Poetry in the Waiting Room', an amazing project co-ordinated by Rogan Wolf who I first met at the Poetry Society when he approached us for support. Rogan has been committed to the project ever since and it has grown and grown. Debjani and I were both in a writers' group called Poets Plc back in the Eighties.

November began with the announcement of the winner of the third Booktrust Teenage Prize. It was obvious from her gasp on hearing the news that Sarah Singleton did not expect to win with Century, her first novel.
Meanwhile lorries have been setting off from our distribution centre in Newcastle loaded with Treasure Boxes and Bookstart Plus bags for the expanded Bookstart scheme. The team are working their socks off to support local schemes around the country as they cope with the challenges of this remarkable investment in the future of reading.

2005-11-09T15:42:00.000Z

CREATIVE

Text of a talk at the Qualification & Curriculum Authorities' seminar on English 21, a national discussion on the future of English, 9th November 2005.

What's creative? This is:

"Thinking
Is a beautiful use of a mind.
Our thoughts are bees
Buzzing in the hive of our head.

The bees visit flowers
Then return with ideas,
Stories of butterflies,
dogs, cats, rabbits and grass

Our blood runs like honey,
Sticky with thoughts."

This poem is from year 5, Kingsway Primary School, Wallasey. It’s quoted in Jean Sprackland and Mandy Coe’s book on writers in schools which is called ‘Our Thoughts are Bees’. it's simple, no reference to literary culture, no long words, no complex rhyme scheme or metric structure, no difficult ideas - but a stunning new poem, a real act of creation.

To be a good writer or any kind of artist or communicator, or someone who tells good stories or sends memorable e-mails, you need Competence, Cultural awareness and Critical ability. But to start with you have to do what these writers did: have the nerve to "create new meanings and make new effects", to make a fresh image, to shape words your own way and see what happens. To write things you yourself don't fully understand as you write them.

So what gives you that nerve? Well, often somebody gives it to you. Someone persuades you that you have that right and that potential. Often it’s a teacher. David Almond said:
"I’ve seen some stunning work done and it just emphasizes how I feel about teachers today, they’re just fantastic and compared to teachers when I was at school are just amazingly creative."

Sometimes it’s not. The poet Michael Donaghy wrote, “I started a PHD in English because I loved poetry, which I now realize is like saying I studied vivisection because I loved dogs.”

And lots of people talk about how education can crush the life out its subjects. It’s a serious charge levelled at schools today, in the age of attainment and measurement, with so much emphasis on what exactly each unit of work is FOR – that there’s no space left for free creativity.

So how do you defend that space, and generate that creative spark?

Often it’s a one-off satori-like experience like… going to the theatre and suddenly a whole world of possibilities opens up.
(At an Arts & Kids event film Australian film director Baz Luhrmann talked about seeing Shakespeare in a little town in the middle of nowhere and how it blew his mind. Then Prince Charles said he grew up in a big house in the middle of somewhere and saw Shakespeare with his granny and it changed HIS life too).
For me a drama group I was part of as a teenager was fantastically liberating- it felt too good to be true: to attend a drama workshop with actors who give young people permission to play about and make believe, and takes their actions and inventions seriously.

Of course reading is a creative activity in its own right, and at the core of building a creative sense of self. Freedom and the information yo need to find the books that inspire us is vital, but the kickstart to creative writing is often to meet a creative writer.

Now, it’s not just creative writers who are creative, (and they can be uncreative too at times!), but writers, dramatists, actors are uniquely involved in making the imaginary - telling new stories. It can be life changing to actually meet a writer, like for instance - to pluck one name from the pool of diverse and brilliant writers who work with children - John Hegley, performance poet, and musician. A trickster, punster, wise cracker, rule breaker. He’s very funny, but also kind of cool, and very moving on the topic of growing up a glasses wearer, very honest about his time as a school bully. He’s a personality (but not a glitzy celebrity) who says all things are possible with words.

A visiting writer reading from their own book brings the whole library alive, makes children long to get to grips with how grammar and spelling can be used like glue and string to build your own word-things.

We all know this, but do all children?
As part of English 21, Booktrust got together with a range of literature organizations – like the Poetry Society, Apples & Snakes, NAWE, The Arvon Foundation… to look at the idea of a creative entitlement. Could we pin down the key opportunities children need in order to open them up to their potential for creativity?
Our first version was a list of activities, from reading whole books to having a writer visit the school - things we thought should happen to every child as they go through school.

THEN we sent it out to all and sundry: writers, organisations, teachers.. There was widespread approval of the general idea.. but lots of minor suggestions. For instance writer Eva Salzman said “I can't imagine not thinking this Entitlement idea a good one! I was glad to see the mention of theatre, and related activities. being a cross-arts sort of person, I've worked with children in galleries or museums a lot, so was wondering if or how this might figure”

Those responses have led us to reshape the document – trying to pin down the key elements of the entitlement in reading, drama and writing. Here's the latest version.

A Creative Entitlement for the Classroom
_______________________________________

Imagination and creativity are at the heart of English. Children are entitled to experience and develop creative uses of language through reading, drama and writing. Some of this can happen as part of normal classroom work, but wider opportunities stem from partnerships beyond the school. These will enable children to involve themselves fully in the world of words as readers and writers, and by taking part in drama.

Children are entitled to:

• discover and rediscover the pleasure of reading through responding imaginatively to great books, stories and poems

This means children should, from their earliest years, hear stories read aloud and regularly read whole books purely for enjoyment. They should be able to choose books that interest them and discuss the reasons why.

• enter with confidence the world of books and culture, becoming part of the community of active and creative readers

This means that children should meet and talk with writers and readers, visit public libraries, bookshops and literature venues, participate in book groups. They should be involved in projects - like National Children’s Book Week and National Poetry Day - which inform and inspire reading.

• share the experience of live theatre, being caught up in the ways words, actions, music and staging combine to create unique dramatic moments

This means that children should regularly go to the theatre, see street performances, and participate in Theatre in Education in school.

• explore and expand ways of expressing thoughts and feelings in words and actions through improvisation and performance

This means children should participate actively in drama workshops and discuss with actors, playwrights and directors the impact and meaning of different ways of performing and staging drama.

• try out many ways of discovering and shaping their own meanings, seeing written language as a fascinating resource for expressing thoughts and feelings

This means children should work in sustained and practical ways with writers to learn about the art, craft and discipline of writing.

• share their words with confidence

This means that children should see their own and each other’s work presented through publication, display or performance, voice their own thoughts and hear the reactions of responsive readers.

__________________________________________________

Let me know what you think. These documents are hard. How do we make it strong enough without sounding bossy? This isn’t a wooly menu of options, we intend it to be a requirement for schools. And it’s not just for the enthusiasts - it’s for all.

So why is this important? For literature organisations I think it's revolutionary.

All of us do projects with schools, produce resources to schools - at Booktrust we run Children's Book Week and the wonderful (and free) www.booktrusted.com website for teachers. But those activities can feel like drops in an ocean that’s hard to fathom when we’re bobbing about on the top of it.

Through the WRITING TOGETHER alliance, literature organisations have been speaking a lot more with DfES and QCA. The evidence is that many perfectly competent schools still would not think of bringing in writers or theatre companies.
Armed with this entitlement we can work as a sector with schools across the UK, tailoring our activities to help schools meet their responsibilities. We can debate together how best we can deliver the entitlement. We have a clear role with clear benefits for those we work with.

At the meeting with literature organisations, people started off a bit dismissive.
“Yes, but these things happen in most schools!” We had the QCA on hand to say that well, maybe they don’t .
The organisations said, “Can’t we make a more radical manifesto?”
Yes we can. And we will. That’s the next stage. But this isn’t it.
The entitlement needs to be manageable, feasible within existing resources.

So why is creativity imortant for children?

Lots that we learn from school prepares us for the future, equips us to make a success of ourselves in later life. And of course the business world is crying out for creativity of the flipchart and brainstorming variety. The authors of ‘Our Thoughts aree Bees’ will be good at that.

But creativity is also what makes whatever life we lead worthwhile. It helps us make connections, tell stories, share jokes, find interest wherever we look, express ourselves freely.
An author describes the pleasure of working in schools, of "days when the formal classroom dissolves away,
because the whole group is enthusiastically engaged… it becomes a group of eager, self-motivated, curious, exploring writers."

Creativity is absolutely vital to self esteem which is vital to being alive.
Schools have a responsibility to encourage all children not just to learn about the real world but to make up worlds of their own. As William Blake said, “I believe a person may be happy in this life and that this is a world of
Imagination & Vision.

2005-10-05T08:41:00.000+01:00

SEPTEMBER THINGS

The Small Wonder Festival (15th - 18th September) at Charleston in East Sussex, supported by Booktrust and the STORY campaign, featured Zadie Smith, poets turned story writers Sean O'Brien, Sophie Hannah and David Constantine, Alex Linklater of Prospect, the brilliant John McGahern and many more.

At the Lib Dem Conference in Blackpool, Booktrust lobbies for Bookstart at a fringe meeting on 'Parent Power'.

The Scottish Bookstart conference in Edinburgh featured Wendy Cooling, Marc Lambert of Scottish Book Trust, and more.
Bookstart Communications Officer Emily Butt documents the event.

2005-09-14T09:56:00.000+01:00

This blog now has a link from the Booktrust main site, so may actually attract some readers! I welcome your comments, and in particular would like to know:
What are the questions you think Booktrust should be addressing over the next five years?
How do you make booktime in your life - when and where do you do your reading?
Which are the books you read on holiday this summer that meant most to you and why?
Email Chris@booktrust.org.uk and tell me.
Then go to

Get London Reading

to find out about Booktrust's challenge to Londoners!

2005-09-13T10:46:00.000+01:00

At the weekend I spoke at the Third International Conference on the Book at Oxford Brookes University and heard papers presented on 'the Artists' Book and Negative Space' by Australian artist Nola Farman whose own work - flicker books meet the haiku - was fascinating; public attitudes to coffeeshops in bookshops; the American right's attack on Harry Potter, and 'Bookscapes' - not our reader development project, but a paper "towards a conceptualisation of the Architectural Book" by Willem de Bruijn, a PHD student from the Netherlands. I spoke at a plenary session on 'Literacy, publishers and the media' with Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of the Independent, and the editor of the Kenyon Review who talked optimistically about the increasing cultural diversity of the authors and publishers of the USA .
It's amazing to go from the busking and winging it world of projects and funding proposals to the land of academe where people look so carefully into the quirkiest corners of thought. At Booktrust we want to spend more time looking at the bigger questions to which our projects are attempts at answers, for instance, what is the future of the book - who will write it and read it? what could it look like and how will it be distributed? This conference tackled that issue from every angle.

2005-09-08T11:06:00.000+01:00

Booktrust has a busy autumn ahead.
The STORY campaign and National Short Story Competition were launched very successfully at the Edinburgh Bookfair, creating even more attention than we'd expected. The first New Writing Ventures competition we've run for the New Writing Partnership in East Anglia nears its close - winners to be announced in October.
****

Faith Liddell, co-ordinator of the STORY campaign, Jacob Polley, poet and a judge of the New Writing Ventures competition, Kate Griffin of Arts Council London and Yvonne Hook, Reader Devt Officer at Booktrust and editor of our 'Underwords' anthology.
****
The winner of the third Booktrust Teenage Prize will be announced in November, the Booktrust John Llewellyn Rhys prize soon after that, the Nestle Children's Book Awards in December... (see our main websites for details on all of these). Our wonderful Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson will be in conversation with Andrew Motion in an event to launch this year's National Children's Book Week.... I'm speaking at the Conference on the Book at Oxford Brookes University this Sunday, at a fringe meeting of the Lib Dem Conference and the Scottish Bookstart Conference over the next few weeks, and attending the Frankfurt Bookfair for a meeting of EUREAD, the European network of reading promotion organisations. Meanwhile we're all working hard on the expansion of Bookstart.
I'll be taking a camera and posting blogupdates on these events as they happen,plus putting up some archive photos of events gone by.

2005-09-01T10:07:00.000+01:00

Rosemary Clarke, Head of Bookstart, and the Bookstart Bear

2005-09-01T10:05:00.000+01:00

OPINION

(This article appeared in THE BOOKSELLER, Feb 2005)

The BML’s 'Expanding the Book-Market' research reveals the urgent need for the trade to look way beyond its comfort zone, and reach out to the 45% of the population on whose radar books just do not register. Too many potential customers lack literacy skills, are turned off by bookshops, don’t trust the blurb on the back of books and don’t want books as gifts.

"I read all the time now - and I'm not a reader." That quote came not from a new marketing campaign but a participant in Breathtaker, a Booktrust project run three years ago with what we’d now call light readers. With funding from the Hamlyn Foundation we worked with isolated mothers, victims of crime and young offenders, offering them the services of readers in residence Maggie O’Farrell and Alex Wheatle to recommend three breathtaking books to give them a boost and some breathing space to take a fresh view of their lives. Those involved told us about the thrill they felt when a parcel of free books arrived through the post chosen specially for them. Even more thrilling was the personal letter which accompanied them.

One young mother in Suffolk showed me a paperback she’d been sent and said, “I loved this book - and it’s not my kind of thing at all.”

****

Booktrust staff Hannah Rutland, Karen Dickenson and Helen Hayes celebrate with author Alex Wheatle at the launch of our Development Board, 2004.
****
The use of personal recommendation, expert input and new settings in which to share books, chimes with many of the recommendations of ‘Expanding the Market’. This approach has been integral to reader development work ever since the 1980s when we clocked how many borrowers headed straight for the Returns trolley. Faced with the mass of choices on offer, people went for titles that someone nearby had read recently. The booktrade took some convincing of the significance of all this to the hard-nosed business of shifting units.

A lot has changed since then. There are strong collaborations now between publishers and reader development organisations like Booktrust, Opening The Book and The Reading Agency. Bookstart, our amazing books for babies scheme now funded in England by SureStart, has tremendous support from publishers who no longer see it as a charitable cause but a vital route to the readers of tomorrow.

Give a board book to an eight month old child and they will grab it, suck it, open it and savour it. Nobody can tell those babies that books are boring or ‘not for them’. Bookstart gets under the wire of assumptions and fears to put books directly into the eager hands of the next generation; like a Jamie Oliver school dinner, it gives kids a taste for the best. Now the booksellers too are looking at how the Bookstart ‘brand’ could tempt new customers over their thresholds. The potential has never been better for collaborations, but these must be based on mutual trust and awareness of our different strengths and aims.
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Nick Hornby and Zadie Smith at the launch of GET LONDON READING, February 2003
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Literacy and literature organisations have pioneered work with word of mouth book promotion, encouragement of readers’ groups, broad based promotions like the Reading Campaign, National Poetry Day and Children's Book Week, innovative residencies for writers in businesses, schools and the community, not just broadening access to words but deepening appreciation, inspiring new experiments between reader and writer. As a sector we’ve raised significant funding from Government and trusts as well as commercial sponsors for projects targeted at exactly those parts of society the trade have not been reaching.

Booktrust’s logo is a red book. I think of it not as a novel but a notebook, the book where readers feel free to doodle, jot down odd thoughts about the stories they've been reading, what they’ve been thinking and doing recently, with maybe a scrap of their own poetry and a list of 'Things To Do' . It represents the breathing space which is the essence of creative reading, where we find the time to reflect on what we make of the world we live in.

Everyone has the right to that space, but many lack the literacy skills, the knowledge and, most vital of all, the confidence in their ability and creativity to claim it. Our work at Booktrust is tending that time, space and notebook.
We don’t sell books – we make booktime.

It's up to the trade to look at the commercial implications, but if Bookstart isn't absolutely key to expanding the book market of the future, then my name's Harry Da Vinci.

2005-08-30T21:05:00.000+01:00

Piloting new initiatives to bring books and people together

2005-08-30T14:08:00.000+01:00

Public Art outside State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

2005-08-30T13:52:00.000+01:00

MAKING BOOKTIME
From an article on Booktrust's work, originally for the Booked! conference and book, published January 2004 by Audiences Yorkshire.

However busy people are in the modern world, they tend to find time for watching telly, getting exercise, having sex, eating out - these activities are seen as part of leading a busy life; but reading still gets relegated to the sparest of time: when you’re stuck on a train, can’t sleep at night, have absolutely nothing else to do but sit on the beach in the sun.

A major survey of reading habits in 1994 found that over 42% of those people who didn’t read books said this was because they “didn’t have time”. Far fewer – 29% - said they didn’t enjoy reading.
Booktrust works closely with authors, with people who publish, market and sell books, with organisations whose first aim is to increase literacy levels, library loans and footfall, bookshops sales and educational attainment. Of course our work supports all of these things, but I think our main aim at Booktrust is: to make more booktime.

By that I mean more hours spent by the widest range of people, of all ages and backgrounds, enjoying books, reading for pleasure, reading them creatively and confidently, thinking and talking about them, sharing books with others.

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Andrew Motion talks about baby books at the Bookstart conference 2004

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Gaby Holm and Majo de Saadeleer, German and Flemish members of EU*READ, the alliance of reading promotion organisations of which Booktrust is a member. EU*READ is campaigning for more Bookstart schemes across Europe.

Representatives from Japanese and South Korean Bookstart.

****

"Creative Reading" was the term we coined when I worked with Rachel Van Riel in Sheffield Libraries back in the 80's where we set up the Opening the Book Festival. In Sheffield we found a way of doing literature promotion which started with readers. It has developed over the years into the Reader Development movement in public libraries, spearheaded by the amazing Rachel's Opening The Book organisation and now The Reading Agency.

Creative Reading cuts across the division of books into educational and for pleasure. It's about the individual's journey through reading and how we locate those books which speak particularly to us, and lead us somewhere special. It invites readers to talk about what their books mean to them, how they enrich their lives in that way that only books can.

And although libraries provide access to literature, neither they nor the bookshops are where reading happens. Booktrust is an independent organisation, defending the independence of the reader who may find their books in shops, schools, libraries, websites, car boot sales… but they read them in the midst of their whole lives, in time which is personal, pleasurable, exploratory, creative - and very precious.
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(Winners and judges and authors and publishers at the launch of 'Underwords', Booktrust London Short Story Competition Anthology, published by Maia Press 2005.)

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K. Sello Duiker, South Arican novelist in residence at Booktrust in 2002 with Anne Fine, ex-Children's Laureate.
Tragically Sello took his life last year. We remember him as an exceptional talent and a lovely man.

2005-08-30T12:22:00.000+01:00

Gordon Brown at the event to celebrate the handing out of the 4 Millionth Bookstart Bag. London 2005.

2005-08-30T12:18:00.000+01:00

Plunged back into work now, just back from the very successful launch of the STORY campaign and National Short Story Prize, I'm working with Catherine, our Development Manager, and the rest of the team on our five year plan, and a branding review, so looking back at recent articles and thoughts on what we're all about.
I wrote this for the MANIFEST O conference last year organised by NALD, the National Association for Literature Development.

MANIFEST O

Audience/Reader Development

Who are we working for?

In the process of writing this article I’ve realised what Booktrust’s logo is really about. That red book isn’t a novel at all – it’s a notebook, one of those nice hardback ones. It’s the book where readers feel free to doodle, jot down odd thoughts about what they’ve been reading, doing, watching, thinking and feeling recently, with maybe a scrap of their own poetry, a shopping list and some columns of ‘Things To Do’ too.

It represents the breathing space which is the essence of creative reading, where we find the time to reflect on what we make of the world we live in. Everyone has the right to that space, but many lack the literacy skills, the knowledge and, most vital of all, the confidence in their ability and creativity to claim it.

Our work strays into the territory of marketeers, youth workers, programmers, educationalists, PR agencies, literary critics, social engineers, but our particular patch, at least at Booktrust, is tending that time, space and notebook.

Reader Development at its best is a creative endeavour in its own right, undertaken by those who not only like words and believe in increasing access to literature, but find fulfilment in devising imaginative ways to open the books to new readers. We do it for ourselves, but out of a concern that the books are not for ourselves only.

Of course our kind of work is funded by the State and charitable trusts because it hits their targets - improves literacy and educational skills; works with disadvantaged communities; helps to increase library usage and book issues; supports forms of literature such as poetry and short stories which are recognised as requiring subsidy to help them stay afloat and on course in the shark infested waters of our commercial world.

Like a drum, the tone and resonance of what we produce is enhanced by the pull of the different agendas we are stretched between. That’s the creative tension of work in the public realm.

Writers are delighted when we invite them to events where we pay them to plug their new books and talk to polite fans, but can get suspicious of our wider intentions, fear being overloaded with requests to run workshops and pen letters of support for good causes; are wary also of having their work dumbed down to become more palatable to the many.

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Massed authors, judges and administrators of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in Victoria, 2004
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Though some writers - Simon Armitage comes to mind as a shining example – are highly supportive of experimentation in the relationshiop between reader and writer, many aren’t. Others are won round to become passionate supporters and collaborators when projects offer them genuinely inspiring connections with readers.

And do readers like reader development? Those who identify as such will say they can develop themselves thanks very much; those hard to reach readers we are all so keen to work with are – well - hard to reach and often not hugely grateful when we do get our hands on them,

What do we do that no one else is doing?

Reader Development tempts people to explore new territories in their reading and thinking through projects which highlight what I really do believe is the unique quality of the experience of reading. Books connect with your psyche at a deeper level than other art forms; we escape from the self to enter a character or the landscape of a story or poem, and transcending self is one of those things that all humans yearn to do.

The American concept of Bookcrossing brilliantly transforms the world into one huge conceptual free, Borgesian library. Cities from Seattle to Liverpool have urged their citizens to read one book all at once, creating one citywide bookgroup; our own ‘Get London Reading’ explored a dozen fictional versions of the capital and asked residents to map the libraries, shops, parks and cafes where they found and savoured their books.

Literary events, like the recent Small Wonder Short Story Festival, which find original themes and formats, intelligently juxtapose ideas and writers to spark off amazing conversations. Okay, so readings can be hell on earth, but the best are bedazzling.

Residencies for poets and authors in public settings can open doors to new experience for the writers, draw attention to their work from new quarters, and spark inspiration. When Poetry Places twinned the much mourned Michael Donaghy with close up magician Chris Powers, the result was an astounding evening of poetic tricks and stand up phliosophy at the Poetry Café for the launch of his equally astounding book ‘Wallflowers’
Similarly, Creative Reading work with young people can tease out amazing responses to imaginative literature - these are thrilling and meaningful undertakings.

The Big Read proved that there are big numbers out there who want to talk and think about books they love; they’ll download a pack about starting a bookgroup,and I hope a proportion of them actually set them up. They don’t want to be part of the Hay-On-Wye-going-literati, but they deserve more than just (God bless ‘em) Richard and Judy and the celebrity driven Big Read.
However you find out about books and wherever you get them from, you read them in your head, in the midst of your real life.

I hope that NALD members, Booktrust, the Reading Agency, Opening the Book, the NLT’s Reading Campaign, festivals, venues and other literature and reader development projects around the country provide some kind of infrastructure to support independent readers. I’m not sure we’ve thought enough together about whether we do.

What is essential to keep on doing?

1. Giving Bookstart bags to babies. I would say this wouldn’t I, but that first introduction really can unlock the door to so much more. And the key to Bookstart is that it’s all about pleasure. The more I think about this scheme the more profound its significance becomes. New research by the University of Roehampton compares Bookstarted children, one with perfectly good literacy skills but no book habit, the other used to sharing books; the questioning, imaginative response of the latter was the epitome of creative reading.

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Wendy Cooling with Professor Doh and Suh from Korean Bookstart
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The Government’s new commitment to help us give books to every child at 8 months, 18 months and at 3 years is wise and wonderful, and I hope all those who care about books and people will do what they can to help this investment in reading succeed.

2. Encouraging people to make more time for reading and thinking about books, as well as buying and borrowing them.

3. Sticking to our creative guns in the face of the pressure to fit criteria and targets which have nothing to do with literature.

What we mustn’t do is hold meetings where organisations which have bust a gut to define their unique selling points and market their resources in a competitive sector, are then invited to sit round a table and asked to pool their precious ideas.

Good collaboration comes from differentiation, a clear recognition of the particular strengths and perspectives of each partner, and of what they can gain from a connection.

The Writing Together partnership, which involves Booktrust, The Poetry Society, NAWE, the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority, DfES Literacy strategies plus many other partners from around the UK has proved to be a robust alliance with the shared aim of bringing more writers into schools. Competitiveness is redundant here because we each know what we’re in it for. Without that clarity there’s nowt but rivalry coated with mush.

What could we do that we don’t do now?

Looking overseas is useful. EU*READ, the European network of reading promotion organisations of which Booktrust is a member works well because we can nick each other’s ideas without worry. Our German equivalent, Stichtung Lesen, works as much for media literacy as books. They produce teachers packs on new blockbuster movies, as our Film Council does. This connection between page and screen is interesting. Majo de Saadeleer is the inspired director of Stiftung Lesen Flaanderen. Her Fahrenheit 451 project with teenagers is very impressive… oh but you can find your own ideas!

I’d like us to put more energy into mapping the bookscape contemporary readers inhabit. Libraries cannot claim to be the home of reading anymore, but neither can bookshops. Our reading lives are more complex than that. If you were trying to set up a service to provide free public access to literature in the twenty first century, I doubt you’d come up with a network of libraries. The web is a perfect place to provide services to supplement the private act of reading. Having said that, the library as shared, public space for reflection and research is as crucial as it’s ever been. We need sanctuaries, and communal spaces still. And the web entangles one in umpteen distractions; it’s a bit like trying to read a serious novel while someone hums, taps you on the shoulder and waves topless pictures of Britney Spears in front of your nose.

We could do things we haven’t thought of yet but can make the time to think about.

Is it just me or is creative reading not looking so creative anymore? I want to dig deeper, think harder about our own responses to literature, move beyond formulaic interactive tricks to encourage reader responses, and work on eliciting some truly exciting content.

And I'm also interested in developing some ideas about a management practice which is informed by the work we do. In this sector 'that management stuff' is often derided. I'm aware that people in our field often swallow whole what business tips they receive, and I think that literature deserves better. I'm interested in the narrative of organisations as well as the structures; finding imaginative ways to run creative organisations.

What do we need to do it?

Money to do the undreamt of. Supportive and imaginative funders who will recognise good ideas, allow us to take risks, be prepared to accept some uncertainty, and be honest enough to ask us to run ideas past them again if they don’t get them the first time (and all the best ideas take a bit of getting).

The Roald Dahl Foundation have given Booktrust two grants, the first was for Booktouch, an idea which emerged out of a hugely stimulating conversation about our aims and their criteria. The second was a Quentin Blake Award. For this the Foundation asks organisations they’ve already funded to come up with projects that push at their boundaries. It’s a fantastic concept, and so refreshing after hearing funders say, “that’s an exciting idea – shame it doesn’t fit our criteria”.
Let’s make excitement the criteria.

2005-08-16T17:26:00.000+01:00

Arriving back at work today I remembered when I first brought my daughter into work with me to see Booktrust and she said,
"Wow, Dad - it's like a castle!"
Later we commissioned artist Fiona Banner who created two white flags with big black full stops on, and a full-stop screensaver to download from the website, connecting our real and our virtual homes. (Fiona is keen on full-stops!)
Today Booktrust looks good - and we've moved the whole team onto the ground floor, which suddenly makes us feel much more connected.

2005-08-14T14:59:00.000+01:00

2005-08-14T14:43:00.001+01:00

BY THE POOL

It's mid-August and I'm just back from a week in Portugal with family and friends spent eating, sunning and drinking, going pink and visiting churches, reading around the pool. Books circulate, conversations begin to include references to the fictions we're sharing. This year our daughter, 18 and awaiting A-level results, takes a break from her social whirl to be with us, maybe for the last family holiday. Our own and our best friends' sons are already off on their own adventures. Is it by chance that this year's novels include poignant portraits of daughters growing up and away?

Ian McEwan's SATURDAY, Kate Atkinson's CASE HISTORIES, Meg Rosoff's HOW I LIVE NOW each confront empty nest nightmares, leading to thoughts scribbled in notebooks at town square cafes, warm night-time talk over wine and more wine.
Which books led to what thoughts on your holidays this year? I'd love to know.

2005-08-14T14:28:00.000+01:00

Bookless on the Beach