It was great to see Michael Rosen appointed Children’s Laureate this week; with high aims of promoting books, reading and writing poetry to children. I had the priviledge of meeting Michael many years ago when I worked at Andre Deutsch Ltd, in the days when Andre used to run the company, and titles such as YOU CAN’T CATCH ME and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! (or MYOB for short) were published. What was a greater priviledge and surprise was that I’d mentioned in passing to the Children’s Publishing Director, Pam Royds, that I had written some poems and she asked to see them. Unbeknown to me, Pam sent them to Michael and in return I was sent pages of commentary in Michael’s handwriting – it was obvious that he had read and digested every word of my writing. At the time I was still 16 and needless to say, this made a great impression on me. (Although I haven’t written any real poems since!) Well done Michael, I know’ll you do a great job.
