David Long

I need a break, and I've booked one.

Children's Book Week is May 4-10 and sponsored by Every Child a Reader and The Children's Book Council.

New Granta: Therapy.

Joy at yet another great looking list, sorrow that I'm never on it...

Curiously my worst-selling book is nearly always the most borrowed, and has been for more than a decade.

Thank you for the namecheck. It's a great list.

Pleased to see these findings are exactly what I've been telling children for the last two years.

“I love the smell of book ink in the morning.” – Umberto Eco

British Museum to keep pendant linked to Henry VIII after campaign The museum says it has reached a fundraising goal so it can permanently display the artefact.

Fantastic.

One of the best things when I was young was the Molecule Club, an initiative of the (now defunct) Mermaid Theatre in London although I think it toured as well. I was very sorry not to find something similar for my own children 10 or 15 years ago.

I hope I'm not one of them....

Less impact,I think. No disrespect to teachers - at all - but on my visits I've always been struck by the excitement in the classroom when a new face walks in - including among children who have clearly not read any of my books.

That’s a question for my publisher.

Children's non-fiction is taking a bit of a battering, from all sides.

The books I write don't have pictures on every page, they don't need pictures on every page, but the pictures they have are created by artists with as much thought and commitment and authenticity as the words they illuminate so brilliantly.

Chlldren's non-fiction is too often overlooked. www.davidlong.info

He doesn't want what we want.

No, but here are the stories of several - more than 30 - of the most remarkable pigeons who ever lived.

Please share. It matters.

World Read Aloud Day

Tomorrow is World Read Aloud Day! www.litworld.org/world-read-a...

I can't be the only person who, try as he might, hears Hatfield & The North in that first version.

In 1994, when 23 million viewers in Britain watched Torvill and Dean win only bronze medals, I wonder what is the best estimate of the proportion who thought they should have won golds?

A tribute to Dr. Jim Parker ALCS is deeply saddened by the news that Dr. Jim Parker, a champion of Public Lending Right and passionate advocate of writers’ rights, has passed away.

As UK authors are set to receive their annual payments for Public Lending Right, read our tribute to Dr. Jim Parker, a champion for writers and a leading figure in PLR both in the UK and around the world, who sadly passed away last week.

www.alcs.co.uk/news/a-tribu...

“A writer should say to himself, not ‘How can I get more money?’ but ‘How can I reach more readers without lowering standards?’” – Brian Aldiss

Sadly his books associated with this are unaffordable.

Gorgeous.

Whole chapter on her in my book FLIGHT: FROM A BALLOON TO THE MOON - AND BEYOND (Faber & Faber, 2025).