Celia's diary

I had the honour of opening the Campaign for the Book Conference in Birmingham on Saturday. Some 200 delegates: public and school librarians, School Library Service staff, authors, publishers, library campaigners, academics, teachers, book bloggers and book lovers, assembled in King Edward’s School to hear inspirational speeches, evidence-based research and to join in through workshops and debate. The conference was a great success and we all came away inspired and elated.

Author, Alan Gibbons, started the Campaign a year ago now, as a personal response to the outrage he felt at how both the schools and public library services were being attacked and eroded. Sometimes one story, one incident, can act as a catalyst, pushing the individual over from concern to action. For Alan, it was the sacking of a young school librarian in Chesterfield, and the closing of her library, for no other reason than the school's desire to save money. She told her story at the Conference and received a standing ovation from delegates. Another catalyst was the news from the Wirral that the council were planning to axe over half their branch libraries, a number of them in some of the poorest, most deprived areas in the country. If this council succeeds, their lead will be followed by any council wanting to save money. It is something that should concern us all. To find out more about the Campaign for the Book and find out how you can help, go to http://www.alangibbons.net . It is up to all of us who value books and libraries to act now.

In the words of Joni Mitchell, 'Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.' So join the campaign, support your local library service, your school library, and your school library service, before it is too late.

I've had a busy couple of days in London. On Tuesday, I went to the reception for the new Children's Laureate. It was all a very well kept secret, but if I'd spotted the gent in question, I would have known it was him. I could not have been more pleased when we finally got to the 'without further ado' moment and the new laureate was announced. Anthony Browne. He is an immensely talented and distinguished illustrator, astonishingly creative, genuinely inspirational and a really nice guy. His picture books are extraordinarily clever, but instantly accessible; full of detail that re-pays looking and re-looking. Part of his success lies in the fact that adults and children both quickly become absorbed by his work, stepping into the immensely rich world he creates in his books. He has an enormous reputation abroad, and I hope that he can get the British to finally appreciate the great wealth of artists and illustrators that we have in this country. I also hope that he gets everybody to play the Shape Game!

I've got quite a bit of writing done since New Year (didn't get much done before - best intentions and all that). Sovay is being published in Germany, so on Monday I'm going there for a week's tour and a Festival in Berlin. From there, I'm going to Athens for a British Council Fair. Foreign visits are like buses - nothing then two at once. There will be lots of other writers going, like Catherine Johnson, Keith Gray and Theresa Breslin, so it will be good to catch up with them. After that, I don't have much on, so I'll be back at my desk. If Claire is reading this, I could be tempted to go for a coffee...

and I'm finally getting a bit of time to do some writing. I've more or less finished with visits and meetings for this year. I really enjoyed the The Literlund Festival in Sweden. It was wonderful to be able to meet and talk to Swedish readers and to meet other writers from different countries. I also had a great time recently at Highgate School in London, who had organised a Gothic Day for their Year 8 students. Linda Newbery, Adele Geras and Sarah Singleton were also there, but I got to visit Highgate's famous West Cemetery (the setting for much of Blood Sinister) with my group of students. We had a guided tour, took lots of photographs, and then went back to the school to do some writing. My perfect workshop!

In the next couple of weeks I will be at:

17th October, 2008
YLG Training Day - London

23rd & 24th October, 2008
LitteraLund Festival, Lund, Sweden.
www.litteralund.se

25th October, 2008
Perth Festival - Perth Concert Hall & Perth Theatre
Perth, Scotland
Tickets from: www.horsecross.co.uk

27th November, 2008

Gothic Day, Highgate School, Highgate, London

I've had a busy couple of weeks. First, at Ty Newydd in North Wales tutoring a course with Mary Hoffman www.maryhoffman.co.uk . It was a great week, with really enthusiastic students, keen to know more about writing and hone their skills. We worked them pretty hard, but I think that they enjoyed themselves. If you want to write, then check out the courses at Ty Newydd www.tynewydd.org or at one of the centres run by the Arvon Foundation www.arvonfoundation.org . Marcus Sedgwick came along as our visiting author. It was great to see him and the students really enjoyed hearing about his next novel. When I go back from Ty Newydd, I did another writers' workshop for Warwick Words, but this time it was pretty local. The session was full of dedicated people, dedicated enough to tip up at 10:00 on a Sunday morning in the pouring rain. It was lovely to see some old friends there and nice to meet Claire who has her own blog and has already been in touch via mine, so somebody is reading this! Joe, the book that I was trying to remember was The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

On Saturday, 11th October, I was at the Cheltenham Festival - 'hi' to everyone who came along, especially the Bookwitch, who was there with her daughter and came up afterwards to have her book signed. She's one of the best of the book bloggers, who are getting to be quite a power in the land. You can find her at: www.bookwitch.wordpress.com .

I'm nearly at the end of quite a busy time, so now I'm going to try and get some writing done...