Organisers are deciding whether to award him the title after he joined Halton Lea library at just eight hours old. There is currently no world record for the world’s youngest library member.

Charlie was born at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and one of his first visitors was his grandad, library janitor Noel Harris. Armed with a Bookstart pack to help him on his way Noel got his first grandchild signed up straight away.

Read more here.

I do wish that it could be brought back in the form that it used to be, with someone sitting one-to-one with a camera. It’s like you are talking to your children at bedtime, they look at you and don’t see anything else – they don’t see flashing lights and CGI and all the rest of it.

Perform-a-Poem is a joint project between Michael Rosen, Booktrust and the London Grid for Learning (LGfL), will allow teachers with an LGfL username to upload videos of children’s poetry performances, following national standards on e-safety procedures. Videos are tagged with a pupil’s first name and borough only and teachers can filter out unsuitable content. The children’s performances can be browsed and enjoyed by children in other schools, as well as families and friends, and can be searched by the title or topic of poem, or the name of the borough.

Read more on the Scholastic website.

The book is a modern retelling of Othello, in which the Moor of Venice and his wife Desdemona are transformed into the South American equivalent of Posh and Becks.

Read more on the Guardian’s site.

Events are being held at Sale Waterside Arts Centre and surrounding libraries, as well as many other venues across the borough. Although many events are free, booking is essential.

You can find specific details of events, plus information on how to get tickets, by following this link to the festival homepage.

Browne states that one of his main aims as Children’s Laureate will be:

to raise the profile of, and respect and enthusiasm for, picture books

Browne has written and illustrated almost forty titles and, of these, it is The Shape Game that will be central to his campaign promoting picture books: a story based on a childhood game involving drawing.

Any entries of poetry, stories, lyrics, essays, mini-dramas, plus any other forms of writing will be accepted, as long as they are on the theme of JOURNEYS.

Current Poet Laureate Andrew Motion writes that,

The Sefton Writing Competition is a very welcome event: it celebrates an exciting variety of new voices.

The Judging panel will consist of Brian Wake, Philip Wroe, and David Eddy.

Please click here for more information on terms and conditions, and how to submit your entry. The closing date for entries is 9th October 2009.

Renée Hemmings and Sophie Povey reflect–well, maybe enthuse is a better word–on Shipping Lines, the first Liverpool Literary Festival.

Seven days, fifty events, over thirty writers and two thousand literature lovers! The Liverpool Literary Festival has been marked as a great literary event for the Capital of Culture year.

We’ve had many emails already and here are some of the wonderful comments we’ve received:

“It was a memorable event and I am glad I didn’t miss it.”

“My 15 year old niece travelled up here for a weekend of Shipping Lines, missing school on Friday because “it’s educational and my English teacher is going to be SO jealous.”

“Congratulations … for a wonderful weekend. It was a real privilege to attend the literary events and listen to such encouraging and stimulating discussion about books and writing.”

There were many highlights over the week and the busy weekend, including the wonderful workshops and children’s events by Walker Books. The weekend part of the weekend was launched by Philip Pullman on the evening of Friday 7th November, to a packed out audience. The book signing queue at the end of the event took 45 minutes to clear, and Pullman took the time to chat to everyone which endeared him to all. Carol Ann Duffy was also very popular, and the audience was moved by her inspirational reading. And another long book signing queue!

There was something for everyone, whether it was a poetry reading, discussion or panel group.

It was a long road in the preparation of the festival, but the measure of sucess is that everyone had a brilliant time working on it, participating in it and watching it.

Thanks to all that was involved, and if you managed to get to see an event, we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did.

[Renée, Project Manager for the Liverpool Literary Festival]

The Shipping Lines Festival has come to an end, and oh what an outstanding success it has been! Thanks to the huge amounts of support and effort from everybody at The Reader Organisation and beyond, the week flew past without any hitches, leaving audiences, writers, staff and volunteers feeling fantastic! I was based at the Bluecoat for the majority of the week, and with the welcoming support of Francisco and the rest of the team there, all events ran smoothly. The ‘Scary Scribes’ workshop, led by children’s author Tommy Donbavand, saw over 120 primary school children piling into the performance space for a gory session involving witches blood, a werewolf’s finger and other ‘relics’ too gruesome to mention, but it was a brilliant day and everybody left excited about returning to school to write their own spooky stories.

The highlight of my week has to be Simon Armitage’s poetry reading on Saturday, the second sold out event that day after Roger McGough in the morning. He was very pleased to be at the festival, and thrilled the audience with incredibly moving readings – most notably ‘You’re Beautiful’ and ‘Causeway’. All the events were incredible though, and just skimming over some of the evaluation forms, it is clear that this opinion was shared by all. So well done everybody! Muffins all round!

[Sophie, Event co-ordinator for the Liverpool Literary Festival]

Roger McGough is appearing at the first event to sell out at the Liverpool Literature Festival, but luckily he is appearing twice over the weekend.

In our Liverpool Poets series, Roger is hosting Liverpool Poets Two at the Bluecoat. ’A trickster you can trust’, he is one of Britain’s best-loved poets for both adults and children. He was awarded his O.B.E. for services to poetry in 1997 and a C.B.E. last year. He was recently honoured with the Freedom  of the City of Liverpool.

In May this year the Liverpool Playhouse saw Roger McGough’s ‘Tartuffe’ a sell-out success and receive rave reviews. The Daily Post said ‘There are times when a critic is redundant and last night was one. There is absolutely nothing to criticise about Tartuffe at the Liverpool Playhouse’.

The Reader festival office has had many people enquiring about his events at the Liverpool Literary Festival, and obviously Liverpool folk can’t get enough of him.

Although his event at the Bluecoat has been sold out, the good news is that Roger McGough is appearing twice! He will be hosting a panel discussion and poetry clinic with other festival writers (Sunday 9 November at 4pm) and it will be a fantastic opportunity to see and hear him in this close-up interactive event in which the audience asks the panel to select poems for particular occaisions, seasons and reasons. So get your thinking caps on and come along to put this panel of experienced writers of poetry through their paces by finding instant recomendations for your particular purposes.

This should be lively and entertaining hour indeed! Please see our website for event details, updates on panel members and information on how to book tickets. Even my five year old daughter is excited about the prospect of Roger McGough coming to Liverpool as she’s learning his children’s poem called Gruesome for school!

I was sitting in the sitting room
toying with some toys
when I saw a door marked GRUESOME
and heard a gruesome noise.

Cautiously I opened it
and there to my surprise
a little Grue was sitting there
with tears in its eyes.

Oh little Grue please tell me
what is it ails thee so.
I am so small it said
the other Grue’s don’t want to know

EXERCISES are the answer
each day you must do some
and do you know what
the very next day he GREW SOME.

And don’t forget all the other great Liverpool Poets attending the festival: Brian Patten, Paul Farley, McKendrick, Peter Robinson, John Redmond and Deryn Rees-Jones.

Please see our website www.liverpoollitfest.org.uk for full details.

There will be a big homecoming of Liverpool poets during the Liverpool Literature Festival from 3-9 November, with writers coming from all over the UK and abroad to share their work in over ten events over the weekend. I’ll feature some events here that are the most interesting.

The festival kicks off with a workshop on women’s poetry with Rebecca Goss, at 12 noon on Monday 3 November at the wonderful venue the Bluecoat. There are only 20 places in total and it’s free. Tickets have already been sold so if you’re interested in exploring key stages in women’s lives through poetry in this very interesting event, please consider getting your ticket now.

The first poetry event on Saturday 8 November at 10.30am is a reading and discussion with Jo Shapcott, Jamie McKendrick and Raymond Tallis around the anthology of poems Signs and Humours. It brings together one hundred poems from the last 2,000 years to show how one of the most basic human concerns – the body – has continued to fascinate and agitate poets.

We have a fantastic Liverpool Poets series of four events throughout the weekend, starting off with Liverpool Poets One with Brian Patten (12.30 Saturday 8 November), then Liverpool Poets Two with Roger McGough (2.30 Saturday 8 November), Liverpool Poets Three with Peter Robinson, Paul Farley and Jamie McKendrick (12noon Sunday 9 November), and finally Liverpool Poets Four with John Redmond and Deryn Rees-Jones (2pm Sunday 9 November).

Brian Patten is also doing an event for the whole family, showcasing his Gargling with Jelly poetry collection. See him at the Bluecoat, all family events are free but tickets are advised.

Another fantastic poetry workshop masterclass is being held by Jorie Graham on Saturday 8 November at 10.30am. This is a unique opportunity to observe the thought processes and decisions that go into the making of a poem by watching a great comtemporary poet at work, by discussing several poems of local writers, or offering up your own poem for discussion. Tickets are also limited to this event and are selling quickly.

We have several reading and discussion events over the weekend with poets Jorie Graham, Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, and the editors of Modern Poetry in Translation David and Helen Constantine.

There is also a unique opportunity to view films made of poems, with Comma Films producing several short films of poems and short stories, and there are two opportunities to see these collections at FACT on the Saturday. All event at FACT are free.

And finally, a literature festival isn’t complete with a panel discussion or two. Festival writers join together for two poetry panel events on Sunday: Michael Schmidt hosts a panel discussion exploring the question ‘Are the value and use of poetry in conflict?’, and Roger McGough takes us on an interactive session in which the audience gets to ask the panel to select poems for particular occaisons. Keep watching our website for confirmed festival writers taking part.

Tickets are now on sale are selling really well. With one month to go we’ve already had a tremendous response. I would suggest you buy early to avoid dissapointment, and take advantage of some great discount deals going through The Philharmonic Box Office. Buy 5 for the price of 4, and special £1 student tickets if you buy your ticket in person with your student ID. See www.liverpoollitfest.org.uk for full ticket details, and please do get in touch if you would like us to send you a brochure. Email reneehemmings<at>thereader.org.uk.

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