Feather Boy

So where did this book come from? Well, I live in Brighton and when I want to think, I walk by the sea. It was April and very cold. I walked for about an hour and actually nothing came in to my head at all. Eventually, I turned inland, up a street called St. Aubyns, and there was this large derelict house all boarded up – except around the back, where the fifteen foot steel mesh had been wrenched off.
So I went in. It’s very stupid to go into derelict houses, especially in a town like Brighton which has a big drugs problem. I went right to the top and, in the room next to the one with the blood-stained mattress – I found Feather Boy. Or at least the idea for it. I’ll tell that story later, if we meet maybe.

I was thrilled about this because, although the shortlist is drawn up by adults, the actual winner is chosen by children. I was also thrilled because it allowed me to go to the Blue Peter Studio, which had been my ambition since I first sent Val Singleton a plasticine alien about 40 years ago… Anyway I went with all my Blue Peter badges on (yes, I still have them all in my jewel box – how sad is that?); I have an ordinary one (for the plasticine effort), a silver one (for some letter I wrote about a rabbit) and two Blue Peter Annual competition badges. The producer called me a Blue Peter Nerd. Then when they announced I’d won the Book I Couldn’t Put Down category– I couldn’t believe it. I got up and thought I was going to make a speech, but mainly cried. Then I sat down and heard the Chairman of the adult judges, Ian Hislop, say now they were going to award the Book of the Year. I didn’t actually know there was an overall winner and I remember thinking, ‘Crumbs, I hope I don’t get that because I’ve shot my bolt on speeches already’. But then I won anyway. I got two huge ships made of glass and did some more crying. Then – guess what, the producer actually gave me a new-modern day Blue Peter Badge. Hooray! That’s in my jewel case now too.