Kids

Some of us, if we’re very lucky, might get to meet our heroes at some point. But my daughter Lily is just 18 months old and she’s already met hers: Judy Allen, author of ‘Are You a Spider?’. Lily loves this book above all others; it inspired her enthusiasm for daily arachnid hunts on the balcony, reciting portions of the book at kitchen spiders and making webs with my string.

In fact, Lily meets her hero often because Allen is part of Children’s Writers and Illustrators in South London (CWISL), an enterprising group which holds regular events for children.
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We discovered the group next to Brockwell Park Café at a quiet summer fête. A table displayed a selection of books by CWISL’s 15 members and, encouraging independence, I asked Lily to choose one. She picked ‘Are You a Spider?’ at a knock-down price, and we sat straight down to read. We were both impressed by the witty, informative text and, equally taken by the group’s friendliness and the promise of free workshops, my husband signed up for its newsletter.

The next event, at Brixton’s Ritzy cinema, was a contrast from that sedate bookstall. Children aged three to 12 gathered enthusiastically around Staffan Gnosspelius, one of CWISL’s illustrators. He encouraged them to draw posters inspired by the Iranian film they’d just seen. The three-year-olds scribbled as the 12-year-olds chatted about characterisation with the authors present. My scheduled interview with the group was delayed as it became clear the children wanted to stay for hours and Gnosspelius had no inclination to finish before the kids were ready. I moved to the bar for a chat with publisher and writer Beverly Birch, who founded the group in 2006.

‘It arose out of frustration, actually,’ recalls Birch, ‘Many authors I work with are loved and well reviewed, but go to the high street and they are not in the shops.’ The solution she came up with to remove that distance between readership and writer was more ambitious than simply running a bookstall. CWISL members don’t just promote their own work. In addition to workshops, there are writing groups for teenagers, storytelling sessions and parties with magic shows, backed up by behind-the-scenes campaigning against funding cuts for children’s libraries. In fact, pushing books is surprisingly low on their agenda, ‘We’re absolutely not about self-promotion,’ says Birch. ‘We promote reading; books are more important than egos.’

Suitably inspired, I set about trying to find similar groups for TO readers elsewhere in London but couldn’t come up with any. There are writers who meet each other and writers who go into schools, but only CWISL creates regular opportunities for authors to sell, children to join in and parents to get involved. It’s not just the kids who enjoy good writing for children. We enjoy CWISL’s events as much as Lily and we’re glad to have the opportunity to thank the writers for creating work we can bear to read six times in a row and to be able to buy books direct from authors we trust.

Birch is not surprised: ‘We always thought about the parents. However much a kid wants to read, it’s the parents that create that environment’. Michael Rosen, another of Lily’s favourites is on the line-up for this month’s Imagine festival at the Southbank Centre. But the events are aimed at older kids, aged six plus, with show length and prices to match. CWISL’s writing workshops require your child to be literate, but the art classes and storytelling events can give tiny tots the Imagine experience.

Lambeth is spoilt, being home to both Imagine and CWISL. ‘We really want to spread right across south London,’ says Birch, ‘then I want to encourage the Society Of Authors to start groups like ours across the country.’

To join the CWISL mailing list email cwislenquiries@hotmail.com