The ceremony was held at the theatre where the musical 'Matilda' is currently staged and it was a marvellous venue. It was a gathering of publishers, school librarians and many, many children, and their roar of approval after Olivia's speech was the highlight of the day.
Olivia took the opportunity to express what many of us feel about Gaza. Part of her prize will a gift of books for children to be sent to a library of her choice. She spoke about the tragedy of libraries in Palestine and how she will donate her books to them, with the help of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People.
We were delighted that she was awarded the medal for her work in 'Clever Crow'. She had indeed brought playfulness and detail to the book, and this had been recognised by the judges as well as the children in the shadowing groups.
We have some of her original paintings and etchings for sale, and the Clever Crow originals will be coming up soon so do let me know if you'd like more information.
Out and about in Beijing
As the Bologna Book Fair ambassador, Neil Packer was invited to the Beijing Fair this month to give talks and take part in forums. He was hugely impressed by the quality of the books being produced by Chinese publishers and could anticipate seeing more of those in the British shops. He was made very welcome on the Bloomsbury stand and he signed some copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which he helped to illustrate. A very sociable fellow, and fond of a pint, this is an exampled of his work for that book.
Neil's work for Harry Potter was produced digitally but we have some of his originals from The Iliad and The Odyssey for sale. As more and more of the artists produce their work in this way the original paintings become quite a rarity – and more collectable. This one is from Walker Books' edition of The Iliad, 'Thetis flung herself at Zeus's feet'.
Jim Burns' illustrations for IT
The Folio Society posted a teaser on Instagram last week, to see if people could fathom which book Jim Burns had illustrated for them. It only took moments.
We can't show you the illustrations yet but you can see the cover, and it's a gorgeous production. The book is launched at 4.00 pm BST on 15th July, a limited edition of 500 copies with an introduction by Guillermo del Toro.
And finally
We had a hugely enjoyable gathering of artists here last week. We were so busy talking that the only time I thought of taking a photo of them was when I found them chatting on our garage rooftop after I'd been stuck on a long phone call . . .
Jan Crabb, Sue Burns, John Harris, Gordon Crabb, Fred Gambino, Jim Burns, Jenny Neale.
