LORDS A LEAPING

Ten lords a-leaping from The Twelve Days of Christmas illustrated by Jane Ray

The lords weren't exactly 'a-leaping' last week as reform of the House of Lords got underway. But those who escaped on Wednesday to the All Party Writers Group Summer Drinks Reception and Celebration of 35 years of ALCS, hosted by Lord Dubs on the terrace at the House of Lords seemed to be enjoying themselves in the company of authors who were doing a bit of lobbying over sparkling wine, salmon sandwiches and strawberries and cream. Indeed, for a moment it did look as if there would be some 'a-leaping' again when Scottish Poet Laureate, Ron Butlin, stood up to recite a very fine ballad on 35 years of ALCS.

REVIEWS

A review of Zoe’s Boat in Books for Keeps talks about, among other things, friendship:

'This book tells young readers much about friendship’ and that ‘adventure can bring danger and risk’. Books for Keeps 

 But it doesn’t mention Zoe’s attachment to stuff – ‘all her special things’ which are washed away during her adventure at sea.  

However it was the ‘special things’ and their loss that most affected a six year old reader who said rather solemnly, “There must be a moral.”

Well, I didn’t mean to imply a moral but, on reflection, living as we do in austerity times, it might be a comfort to know that friendship is worth more than just stuff.

One day I’ll have to do a sequel for my six-year-old friend and restore all Zoe’s belongings. Perhaps by then austerity will have ended too.

PICTURE BOOK ART

City Lights Bookshop in San Francisco had only a few hard back picture books when I visited it last month. One caught my eye: it had a strange title Wabi Sabi and I had to rotate the cover to the right to read it. As there must have been a reason for this and as the bookshop encouraged lengthy browsing, I sat down to find out what it was all about. Over half an hour later I’d uncovered all the subtle layers of an extraordinary picture book.

    On the surface Mark Reibstein’s story is about a cat called Wabi Sabi who travels across Japan in search of the meaning of her name. I could now see why the illustrator Ed Young had played with the orientation of the book; it reads like a Japanese scroll and the red stamps with the author and illustrator’s names on the cover also suggest something ancient and Japanese. But there is also a vibrant modern feel to Ed Young’s collages which are made from a ‘collection of time-worn human- made as well as natural materials’ – his words.

    I started looking at the text. Woven into Mark Reibstein’s story are haikus and at the start, a Zen proverb:  

‘An old pine tree can teach you the sacred truths’.

Something complex evidently lay behind this seemingly simple story and the prologue gave me a clue: Wabi Sabi is a way of seeing the world:

 ‘It finds beauty in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest and mysterious. It can be a little dark but it is also warm and comfortable. It may best be understood as a feeling rather than an idea.’  

So this is what children of picture book age have to discover as they follow the cat named Wabi Sabi on her journey. I’m sure children are as clever as, if not cleverer than adults at seeing beauty in ordinary things.

 As for me, I left the shop happy that picture books like this are still being published (Little Brown Company New York is the publisher) and inspired to revisit the haikus of Basho,1644, in search of more Wabi Sabi.

CALIFORNIAN BOOKSHOPS

While over in California for my son's wedding, I came across two great bookshops:

The Storyteller - a  large children's bookshop in a small Californian town, Lafayette, where the bookseller was very friendly, breaking off what she was doing to take time to chat with me. I noticed the picture books she stocked were exclusively quality hardbacks.

And City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco which was founded in 1953 by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and is a publishing house as well as bookstore. You can browse for hours in the nooks and crannies of its old rambling premises and sense the presence of great writers; their names are on the posters of past signings hanging on the walls and their words spring up at you from the paving stones outside in Kerouac Alley.

Cambridge would benefit from something like this where Town meets Gown.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

John Rowe Townsend seen here with his wife Jill Paton Walsh threw a big party for friends in Cambridge this week to celebrate his 90th birthday. In the photo, John was about to tell us all about his life going back to his wartime years. I was interested in the late 1950s when John was working as a journalist on the Manchester Guardian. While reviewing children's books, he saw how privileged and middle class the main characters were and decided to change all that by writing for children himself; stories like Gumbles Yard where there wasn't much privilege. It was all quite revolutionary at the time.

HANDWRITING

Writing with a pen will soon be a thing of the past. No longer will we be able to look at peoples' handwriting to learn something of their character from the curl, pressure and incline of the strokes.

This all dawned on me last week in my final RLF term at Essex University when a student asked my advice on how to prepare for his exams. What was troubling him the most was the thought of having to write the essays by hand. Only ever having used a keyboard, he said he couldn’t hold a pen for three hours without getting hand cramps.

I suggested he got hold of some of those small metal exercise balls – a traditional Chinese product dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when they must have been holding their quills for considerable lengths of time.  

ALCS

An Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society focus meeting was held in Cambridge last week. Barbara Hayes (in the photo) and her team wanted authors’ views on the organisation that collects and distributes our monies from photocopying and overseas PLR. It was an hour’s meeting followed by a light lunch at Cambridge Central Library. A dozen authors were present.

I must say, my view of ALCS was changed for ever by the end of the meeting. What had been a puzzling acronym sending out puzzling royalty statements suddenly became an organisation all authors should know about. ALCS is helpful and friendly and is looking after our interests. They even offer authors the use of a room at The Writers’ House (between Aldgate and Tower Hill) where tea and coffee are served, where a laptop is available and where there’s a sofa. It sounds as good as having a London club. I’m definitely going to try it out.