The London Book Fair Day One: the Roald Dahl Funny Prize discussion

Philip Ardagh (the tall one) with Alison Green (the other one)

Philip Ardagh, author of Grubtown Tales, says he is incapable of going through a day without finding something funny.

Which is just as well because he is the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize for 2009,  a prize founded by former Children's laureate Michael Rosen as part of his campaign to put the fun back into reading.

"I have sat on judging panels before and what happens is that the funny books get squeezed out, because somehow or other they don't tackle big issues in the proper way ... They'll get through to the last four or five books, and then historical fiction, or something about death or slavery or new technology will win out. I think it's a great shame, because actually when I think about the books I remember from childhood they are the funny books." Read Guardian piece

The LBF panel was intended to discuss the value of the prize and it's impact on children's publishing but almost descended into a beautiful beard competition between Ardagh, also known as 'Beardy', and illustrator Chris Riddel, who sported an elegantly trimmed two tone stubble.

John O'Farrell  (comedy writer and author of May Contain Nuts and I Have a Bream) opened the proceedings by apologizing for the non-appearance of some panellists due to the UK flight ban. Luckily,  Barack Obama (ha ha) was swiftly replaced by the educator Prue Goodwin of the University of Reading.

Also on the panel was Alison Green (Scholastic's Alison Green Books), now stalked by picture book writers all over the UK after she edited the wildly successful The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.

Surprisingly, despite being the author of books with titles like Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky, Ardagh claimed he wasn't a fan of "willy-bum-poo humour" and "unrequited wax - "about earwax and ghastly things like that". He did however wax lyrical about beards, citing Roald Dahl nominee Anne Fine's Eating Things on Sticks which featured a Best Beard on the Island Competition.

"Although there is some poo in certain books I publish we keep it to a minimum," Alison Green responded. She then showed a slide from one of her most popular books Ellyphant Wellyphant by Nick Sharratt, nominated in 2008, in which pulling the elephant's tale released a fart. Although the book utilized many gags, it's the tail-fart gag that has been shown to have the most appeal.

Asked what the difference was between adult books and children's books, Chris Riddell answered, "The big difference between adult and children’s authors  is that adult authors are scary and children’s authors are approachable and beat me in beard competitions."

Audiences expect different things of children's authors though ... especially funny children's authors. At one of Philip Ardagh's publicappearances, organizers decided to hire a clown. "If I were PD James, would they bring out a corpse?" he said.

The Roald Dahl prize came about because it was felt that funny books often didn't make it to the cut in the big book prizes. Says Prue Goodwin, "We tend to imagine that a sense of humour is trivial in our lives – and yet it is a far deeper aspect of what we think and of our personalities."

Prue Goodwin

And yet the popularity of funny books - and their authors - cannot be doubted. Chris Riddell recounts the story of being asked to stand in for Louise Rennison (Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging) at his daughter's school. He invited his co-author in The Edge Chronicles Paul Stewart to appear alongside him.

There we were two middle aged men. We said "What you don’t realize is that Louise Rennison is a pseudonym " – and the row of excited faces fell.

 The Roald Dahl Prize raises the profile of funny books. Says Philip Ardagh: "It does get people thnking about humour and books"

The Funny Prize is named after much loved author Roald Dahl whose funny books never won a prize, possibly, as Ardagh puts it, because it was "not about harrowing and beautiful autistic child soldiers in Angola."

The London Book Fair Day One: the book is dead long live the book!

It's eerily quiet at the London Book Fair this year.

The LBF opens - last year this was a melee of elbows and publishers with heavy suitcases on wheels

The volcanic eruption in Iceland has resulted in a total ban on flights in and out of the UK. Even Tony Blair failed to turn up for his Random House appearance to discuss his memoirs.

 Everywhere there were empty stalls.

I was so sad to see all the empty stalls. At some stalls they had slotted boxes with this message:

Click on the image to enlarge if your eyes can't cope with the small size

There were so many stalls that at one point Noisy Dog author Sue Eves and I played LBF stallholder - setting up shop in one of the empty stalls.

 

Sue playing stallholder - check out our samples on the shelf in the background

Well. Not for long. We were just resting our aching feet.

But it was exciting too - this year, the buzz at the London Book Fair had to do with the promise of digital.

In fact the first seminar to do with children's books was a Booktrust sponsored panel titled Children's Bookfuture: Children's Literature and Digital Imagination.

It was a sign of how much things have moved on in the publishing world that the event began with Twitterers synchronizing hashes - Kate Wilson, managing director of Nosy Crow, the new, extremely right-on children's publisher, tried to encourage tweeters to use #LBFK (LBF for Kids) as well as #LBFDC (LBF Digital Conference). What a contrast from last year's LBF when, at a talk about online marketing, very few people knew what Twitter was all about!

I arrived at the book fair all set to do some fancy tweeting. But alas, I was one of the dinosaurs. I discovered I could not tweet fast enough AND take notes for the blog at the same time. I left the tweeting to Sue, who managed very well indeed!

The panel featured Amanda Wood (pictured left), managing director of Templar known for its all-squeaking, all-dancing, interactive books without a screen in sight. She said Templar's experience in novelty books made it easier for them to look at digital opportunities.

"The thinking is essentially the same ... is there a real purpose for the end user in that gimmick? Is it just a gimmick? Or can you give it some real worth? ... what’s the point in taking an existing book and squashing something into an iPhone? We have to protect the value of books because we are publishers."

On the other end of the panel was Neal Hoskins of Winged Chariot Press, the first publishers to put a picture book app on the iphone.

"It’s always going to be about the pictures and the stories ... and that was a real focus for us in our work ... not to cover them with interface –  buttons,  instructions –  but to really let the story and the pictures shine through."

Neal Hoskins of Winged Chariot demonstrating a picture book iPad app that they are due to launch at the fair. And yes, there was a ripple of excitement when he pulled the iPad out.

Author Naomi Alderman (her second book The Lessons is just out and is Radio 4's Book at Bedtime)  - not a children's book writer but a digital writer for such as games was there to envision how narrative for digital forms would have to change. With digital creator Jey Biddulph. Naomi wrote The Winter  House - an online novel with digital enhancements funded by Booktrust. She described the process as having to do with a bit of crafting story around what the technology could do (I'd love to do it!)

Nosy Crow's Kate Wilson asked the final question:

"Is there a place for publishers between the author and the reader?"

And the consensus was - the traditional publishing novel is on the brink of a revolution due to digital pressures. But one thing is for sure, though the book as object may be under threat, the book as story is alive and well.

So here's what I took away from the panel for my fellow authors: you have nothing to fear — our profession ain't dead yet. It's just that the message we craft will soon be using other mediums (media?).

As panel chair Chris Meade of The Future of the Book (which calls itself the "think and do tank for reading") said:

We spend so much time promoting the book on the page, on the paper and undervaluing the experience... The book is what happens inside you. The book is just the souvenir of that visit.

Tweeting from the London Book Fair: Day One

What is it about book fairs and fate? When I went to the Bologna Book Fair, an airline strike threatened publisher flights. Now it's the London Book Fair ... and Iceland has erupted!

I am tweeting from the London Book Fair from Monday 19 April until Wednesday 21 April.

I'm not totally sold on Twitter and this is an experiment on its usefulness - last year, there was so much happening that I found myself wishing I had set up a facility by which I could tweet as things moved along.

This year, I am making a big effort. (It's an experiment - I hope it works)

So ... watch the twitter feed on the right which I've set up purposely for the London Book Fair!