Federation Conference

It's that time of year again, and the FCBG (Federation of Children's Book Groups) conference is upon us - this year it's to be held on the weekend of April 3rd-5th, exactly a fortnight hence. As usual they have an amazing programme - you can find a draft programme here; if you're into children's books, you'll be in heaven. This year's company includes Mike Rosen, Alan Gibbons, Patrick Ness, Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffler, Meg Rosoff, Susan Gates, Linda Newbery, Tim Bowler and many others. Impressive or what?

I'm delighted to have been asked to chair a couple of events again this year - so I'll be with three first-time authors on the Saturday morning (Jenny Downham, Damian Kelleher and Michael Grant), and two seasoned veterans on the Sunday morning (Linda Newbery and Susan Gates). So that's my reading for the coming weeks taken care of! I've read Jenny and Damian's books already (Before I Die, and Life, Interrupted, respectively) and thought both were excellent, and will be interesting to discuss them alongside one another; and I'm currently immersed in Michael Grant's Gone, which is absolutely thrilling so far... And when that's done I get to catch up on as many of Linda's and Susan's that I've not yet read as I can get through between now and our event.

And two big boxes of new books arrived this morning for me to read - I'm having more than a little trouble keeping up...

Anyway - I recommend the FCBG conference very highly to anyone who can make it; it's two days of a really interesting, really fun, very collegial sort of atmosphere with brilliant people everywhere you look. Can't wait. I'll report back on it when it's done. And will have a couple of events at Hay to announce in the coming weeks too...

D.