J.K Rowling alongside Katie Price aka Jordan at the Galaxy British Book Awards
Whenever I mention I want to be a children's writer the response I usually get is "Oh, like J.K Rowling?"
Now it's a shame no-one ever says oh like Eva Ibbotson - my favourite writer (in fact not even Enid Blyton or Roald Dahl get a look in!) - but yes of course I'd like to have even a little of her incredible success.
Now J.K has added one of the most prestigious Nibbies awards to her no doubt groaning trophy shelf with the Galaxy British Book Award's Outstanding Achievement honour.
This Award (sponsored by The Book People) recognises an enduringly popular author whose books have made an outstanding contribution to contemporary literature.
In previous years the award has gone to John Grisham, Jamie Oliver, Sir John Mortimer,
Sir David Attenborough, Alan Bennett, Spike Milligan, Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper. A real mixture of genres there.
The Nibbies press release gives some nice detail about J.K's childhood : Jo always loved writing more than anything. "The first story that I ever wrote down, when I was five or six, was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee. And ever since Rabbit and Miss Bee, I have wanted to be a writer, though I rarely told anyone so. I was afraid they'd tell me I didn"t have a hope."
At school, Jo would entertain her friends at lunchtime with stories. "I used to tell my equally quiet and studious friends long serial stories at lunchtimes." In these stories, Jo and her friends would be heroic and daring.
As she got older, Jo kept writing but she never showed what she had written to anyone, except for some of her funny stories that featured her friends as heroines.
After school, Jo attended the University of Exeter in Devon where she studied French.
When she was 25, Jo started writing a third novel ("I abandoned the first two when I realised how bad they were"). A year later, she went to Portugal to teach English, which she really enjoyed. Working afternoons and evenings, she had mornings free to write. The new novel was about a boy who was a wizard.
There are certainly parts I (like a lot of writers) can relate to - writing from an early age, telling stories to friends (although mine were always written down.)
'Dr Midas and the Pirates' is also my third book - the first I wrote while at college was a comedy called Hamilton (it was only 10,000 words about a motorbike riding cat that gains the ability to speak after an accident - oh dear.) The second was a crime thriller I wrote while at university called 'While the Cat's Away' (femme fatales not felines) that I actually sent out to agents and publishers - but which is now gathering dust.
Sadly that's where the comparison ends - J.K as anyone can tell you found an agent, then after several tries - a publisher and then she went on to sell millions of books.
The fact is most children's writers remain pretty much unknown by the general public and if lucky will sell thousands of copies - well I'd be happy with that too.
J.K and the Nibbies.
J.K. ROWLING received her first Nibbie ten years ago for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and went on to collect another three before receiving the Outstanding award at the London's Grosvenor House Hotel ceremony.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a video message: "She has joined a distinguished line of British authors whose work has got the whole country reading, and whose books will be read for many years to come by successive generations. That alone is worthy of an award, because we all know reading is the gateway to learning and fulfilment for every generation."
He also said: “She has been incredibly generous with her time and her money supporting some of the U.K.’s most deserving charities, but always in a quiet way."
J.K said she was thrilled “and quite pleased that I haven’t been pensioned off just yet with a lifetime achievement award�.
There was disappointment for Katie Price (Jordan) as the Children's Book of the Year award went to Francesca Simon for Horrid Henry and the Abominal Snowman.
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