THE 2008 ENGLISH TIR NA N-OG AWARD

The Welsh Books Council has announced the name of the winner of the prestigious Tir na n-Og English Award which recognises the exceptional quality of books with an authentic Welsh background for children and young people.

The 2008 English Award was won by Frances Thomas for her novel for young people, Finding Minerva, published by Pont Books. The award is sponsored by CILIP Wales (The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals). The award was presented to the author at a special reception held at the CILIP Cymru annual conference at Llandrindod, Powys.

Finding Minerva is a fast-moving thriller, set in a modern Britain still ruled by the Roman Empire. Action starts on page one and doesn't flag until the end. Livia Marcel can't believe it when she learns that her friend Max is wanted by the police for murder! When she receives a mysterious note, warning that she, too, is under surveillance, Livia's in fear for her life.

Frances Thomas has produced an exciting, intelligent story with great characters and a real sense of danger. There is a touching love story between Livia and the one person she meets she can trust, Cai. The way modern life and the ancient Roman Empire have been blended is convincing, intriguing and very well handled. Livia is an excellent heroine, brave but realistically shocked and frightened by all that is thrown at her.

According to the reviewer on www.gwales.com:
'All in all, this is a gripping, hugely enjoyable novel, and I would highly recommend it to everyone.'

Frances Thomas was born during the war in 1943 in Aberdare where her mother had gone to escape the bombs. Her mother's family was Irish and English, her father's Welsh. Later the family moved back to south London where Frances Thomas grew up.

Being an only child she read lots of books, and when the books ran out she made up stories, a habit she's never lost.

She was educated at a convent school and later read English at London University and took a teaching course. She married the historian, Professor Richard Rathbone and has two grown-up daughters.

According to Frances Thomas' her most interesting work, apart from writing, was working with dyslexic people.

This is not the first time for Frances Thomas to win the Tir na n-Og Award. She has won the award three times in the past:

• in 1981 for her first children's book The Blindfold Track
• in 1986 for Region of the Summer Stars
• in 1991 for Who Stole a Bloater?

She writes for children and adults but especially enjoys writing for children and has won the Scottish Arts Council's award for a picture book for young children.

After living for many years in north London, she and her husband decided to come to live in mid-Wales where they used to spend their family holidays.

Frances Thomas said, 'I'm very pleased and proud to have won this award'.

She is now learning Welsh (ond mae mor anodd!), and enjoys walking on the hills, writing and painting.

For further details please contact: Elwyn Jones, Head of Administration and Public Relations, Welsh Books Council, Castell Brychan, ABERYSTWYTH, Ceredigion SY23 2JB ( (01970) 624151 2 (01970) 625385 : elwyn.jones@wbc.org.uk

A Batty Event

No, it wasn't 1 April, but a beautiful spring day at the end of March. You might have been forgiven for think it was April Fools' Day, however, as respectable Rhiwbina Library was invaded by a colony of bats. Well, not literally of course. There were furry bats, bat puppets, bat sweets, bat colouring sheets and bat badges. There were even bat earrings...and all because of Sheena Crossley's first novel for children, Bats at Bay.

This delightful story for readers of 8 and upwards tells the tale of a family of bats forced to leave their hollow tree trunk and search for a new home elsewhere. They try many locations in the Cardiff area - Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch, the City Hall, Dyffryn Gardens to name but a few - and it seems at one point that they are never going to find a home to suit all their needs, from Baby Bat to Granddad Gwynfor!

Sheena's is already a well-known name - and voice. For many years she was a broadcaster with Radio Wales, and gardening columnist on the South Wales Echo and her gardening tips and advice are still eagerly sought after. Even at the book launch, she had to share her attention between the younger readers and those of the older generation who were eager both to buy books for their grandchildren...and at the same time have the benefit of Sheena's horticultural expertise.

One person who has expertise of her own to share is Sheena's granddaughter, Bryony, who has already contributed to the success of Bats at Bay by her careful proof-reading and editorial suggestions.

'THE URBAN TURBANS' at Trinity College, Carmarthen

The day did not start well! Torrential cloudbursts, floods and strong winds threatened to stop author Dahlian Kirby from ever reaching her double audience of postgraduate students at Trinity College, Carmarthen

Fortunately for her listeners, the wind and rain abated sufficiently to allow Dahlian to talk to both sets of trainee teachers. Her words proved inspirational as she invited them to think about the various groups they belong to and the ways in which this defines them as people. Dahlian talked about her younger days in the north-east of England and how her world expanded to embrace a range of different cultures when she came to Cardiff in the 1970s to study at the Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Dahlian enlivened her talk by reading aloud from her new novel The Urban Turbans where Megan - who hates music - moves to a new area and a new school. She falls in love with the sound of Indian drumming - and a whole new world opens up as a result. It's a wonderful story for readers of 8 and upwards, which shows how prejudice - and acceptance - are two-way processes. As drum-teacher Mr Singh helps her to see, you don't need to be Indian to play the drums; there are many ways of accessing Indian music just as there are many ways of demonstrating Welshness.

Dahlian explained that Sikh culture is very important to the story, and the students were treated to a demonstration of a range of Sikh artefacts by senior lecturer in Religious Education, Geraint Davies, which added greatly to everybody's enjoyment.

All in all, it was a day to remember, not just for the tempestuous weather outside, but for the sheer pleasure engendered by a lively speaker and her warm-hearted, generous story.

'SOCKS!' roared the storyteller.

'BOOTS!!!!' bellowed the audience.

Most storytellers have a trick, a characteristic way of catching attention, but few are quite as dramatic or quite so compelling as Daniel Morden. As he related one of the stories from his collection Dark Tales from the Woods to a mixed audience at this year's Hay Festival, he thrilled and captivated adults and children alike. Expressions of fear, horror, amusement and relief crossed faces in quick succession, and there was an audible gasp from at least one member of the audience as his story The Leaves that Hung But Never Grew reached its conclusion.

There was an extra treat to follow when Mairwen Prys Jones of Gomer Press moved forward to announce that Dark Tales from the Woods had been awarded the Tir na n-Og prize for literature from Wales and called upon Menna Lloyd Williams of the Welsh Books Council to present Daniel with a cheque for £1,000. He also received a special plaque from Gomer to commemorate his achievement.

Close your eyes! Dream that you are sitting on a silken cushion in a brightly-coloured pavilion and that you are waiting for the storyteller to begin. Then a magic carpet arrives and sweeps you away to a land of sunshine and soft breezes. This is the world of The Enchanted Lake by Abdulla al-Ameen and Leena Jamil.

Those lucky enough to be in the Children's Zone tent at the Hay Festival not only had a ride on the storyteller's magic carpet, but took a dive with her to the bottom of the ocean where they swam with the fish and met the mighty King of the Seas! And when they floated back to the tent of dreams and began to think it might just all be imagination, the storyteller opened her hand and revealed... a string of deep-sea pearls!

The Enchanted Lake... and the First Minister!

After months of preparation, The Enchanted Lake had its official launch today - St Valentine's Day, 2007 - in the National Assembly in Cardiff. The Right Honourable Rhodri Morgan, First Minister, gave the book - and its Welsh counterpart Y Llyn Hud - the official seal of approval. He spoke enthusiastically and knowledgeably about the ties between Wales and Aden, and about the childhood friendship between his daughter, Sian, and a little girl from Yemen. The Yemeni ambassador came down from London for the event, together with Julian Lush of the British Yemeni Society. It was wonderful to see people too from the local Yemeni community in Cardiff.

It isn't every day that politicians and ambassadors take such an interest in books for young people! So what is special about The Enchanted Lake? It started its journey as a bedtime story. In Aden, in Yemen (next door to Saudi Arabia if you have a look at a map of the middle east), lives author Leena Jamil and her artist husband Abdulla al-Ameen. Their 3 children enjoyed hearing the same bedtime story night after night. After a while Leena decided to write the story down so that other people could tell it and enjoy it, and Abdulla was persuaded to create a huge painting to tell the story in the form of a picture. (If you look carefully at the book, you will see Abdulla's painting in the endpapers.)

Of course, Leena told and wrote the story in Arabic, but a friend translated it into English and sent it, along with Abdulla's illustration, to the British Yemeni Society in Cardiff. (If you want to find out why there is such a strong bond between Yemen and Wales, you will have to look at the information page at the back of the book!) Eventually both story and illustration reached the Pont editor at Gomer Press, who liked them so much that she wanted to make them into a picture book.

And that's exactly what happened. And then, because it's such a good story and because Abdulla's pictures (he painted many more for the picture book) are so unusual and interesting, Helen Emanuel Davies agreed to translate the story into Welsh. In the future, it is very likely that it will be translated back into Arabic, and the story will come full circle: Arabic, English, Welsh, Arabic.

What sort of story is it? Well, it's a bit like a legend... about a boy who drinks from a magic lake and turns into a gazelle! Is there a happy ending? Why not buy the book and find out!

ST DAVID'S DAY COMES EARLY IN DREFACH FELINDRE!

Daffodils, leeks, folk dancing and traditional Welsh costume? Normally this would mean that it's 1 March and that Saint David's Day celebrations are in full swing.

It all happened a bit earlier this year at the National Woollen Museum at Drefach-Felindre at the launch of our newest giftbook A Gift for Saint David's Day so that schools and children would be able to order a copy well before the special day itself. The book is a mouth-watering collection of stories, poems and plays by well-known children's writers such as Malachy Doyle, Jenny Sullivan and many others. Three talented artists also worked on the book: Brett Breckon, Suzanne Carpenter and Jac Jones; the children, teachers and parents who attended the launch were very impressed not just by the quality but by the variety of the illustrations and spent some time trying to work out which artist had created which picture.

Guest editor Neil Nuttall master-minded proceedings and introduced contributing authors Suzanne Carpenter, Nicola Davies and Nona Rees. In order to present one very new author, the children of the local school, Ysgol Penboyr, recited a special poem. This was the work of Lisa Daniels, their classmate, who won Pont's national competition to contribute a story or poem to the book. Just like the adult authors, Lisa's work was treated to both a colour and a monochrome illustration and she was presented with a framed version of Suzanne's colour print which also serves as the frontispiece to A Gift for Saint David's Day. Lisa also received a copy of the book, as did her school, together with a selection of Pont titles by the individual authors. As part of her prize, Lisa will experience a trip to Gomer Press to see how her book was put together.

It has been a real privilege for everybody at Pont to work with a new author in this way. We hope very much that the children of Ysgol Penboyr will enjoy all the poems, stories and plays in A Gift for Saint David's Day and, like many other primary schools in Wales, take advantage of the fact that two pieces - plays by Jenny Sullivan and Ruth Morgan - have been added to our Resources Section as downloadable files. We didn't want teachers to have to spoil their copies of the book by squashing it under the photocopier and we also thought that, because playscripts are working documents, the performers might very well want to write on their copies too. Jenny's play, in particular, asks for adaptation to local circumstances!

In addition to the playscripts, the guest editor, Neil Nuttall, is busy creating a series of resources to go with the book. These will be invaluable for schools in Wales for many years to come and will certainly gladden the hearts of teachers looking for new activities with which to celebrate St David's Day.

We had a wonderful morning at Trinity College, Carmarthen, with author Mary Medlicott and an audience of more than a hundred trainee teachers and their lecturers. Mary's talk was an inspiration, as she explained how her novel Elephant Luck (which draws together plotlines in Fishguard, Swansea and Nairobi) took shape. Her description of the writing process - in particular the way in which her personal experiences and friendships in Kenya had influenced the story - kept her listeners entranced. The teachers left the lecture theatre hot but inspired, and took away with them not only a novel and a bank of teaching ideas (see Resources), but an insight into the way a sensitive author approaches both her life and her writing.