Another Good Man Gone by Dennis Hamley
I really don't want to be the spectre at Authors Electric's feast but for the second time I find myself writing about the death of someone with an awesome reputation in children's books and also with an amazing tale to tell about a life well lived. And, like Jim Riordan last year, he was a good friend of long standing. The death of Robert Leeson robs the children’s book world of a popular and prolific novelist, a tireless fighter for children’s rights and a fairer society for them to grow up in. Perhaps, despite the roll call of wonderful novels and stories, his most influential work was Reading and Righting (1985,) a magnificent polemic which identified books as means of human – and especially children’s – liberation and empowerment in a society which denies voices to many of its members. Sadly, this is still a message which needs to be heard: I'd love to see a new, updated edition of this important book. Bob believed that books are both symbols...