Authors Electric

     First things first. Kay's visa unexpectedly arrived on Wednesday 17th, the day before polling day for the Scottish Referendum. We don't think there was any connection between the two events, though for us one was as epoch-making as the other. Did our campaign have any effect? Who knows? It may be that they suddenly sent it to rid themselves of a minor irritant.           We'd contacted our MP  and a message had been sent to a friendly reporter on the Oxford Mail and Times  which I quickly had to retract. It might  have been on the way anyway. Only sometimes do I consider the futile fantasy that our MP took my letter outlining the points I made in my last blog to Theresa May, saying, 'We've been rumbled.' However, we can't discount the possibility of this bureaucratic monolith having one or two nice people working for it. Nevertheless, I stand by every word I wrote except for one thing. Julia Jones in ...

Part 3 of a typical writer's history. I suppose the occasion which defined my writing career was the day of the Smarties Award ceremony in 1991.  I was amazed to have a telephone call to say that The War and Freddy was   shortlisted.  It was such a little book.  I liked it in a mild sort of way but as soon as I heard the news it grew in stature until it became a  wartime epic, though only in my  mind.          The War and Freddy, in its latest guise  reissued by Catnip in 2007 So the day came and I presented myself in a rather exotic, plant-lined room at the top of the Barbican Centre.  An exciting atmosphere, full of other authors.  Jacqueline Wilson was there with the very first Tracy Beaker story.  No, that didn't win either.  Neither did Robert Westall.  Actually, I forget who did win our section.  Susan Hill was the judge.  Her tone of voice as she started talking about Fr...