Good news

I have emailed everyone (hopefully) who contacted me and Facebooked myself senseless, telling everyone that the Cumbrian Book Appeal is postponed until the new year. This will allow the council to recover a little from the devastation and allow for a more considered approach to the distribution of books.

I am moving towards thinking that the fairest way to give books would be to schools and school libraries rather than to individual children. We simply do not have enough books to make that viable at the moment (although authors are still coming in).

But we have had a bit of good news this morning. Hills Bookshop in Workington in Cumbria has very generously offered to store and distribute the books in the new year on a date yet to be decided. So now there is simply no reason for it not to happen. Hills Bookshop visit all the schools in the area on a regular basis.

I had a very similar generous offer from Kate Johnson at Heffers Bookshop here in Cambridge, but obviously it makes more sense for the books to go direct to Cumbria. I will let all contributing authors know well in advance when the books are required.

As well as thanking all the authors and illustrators, I must also thank Heffers Bookshop, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Random House, Piccadilly Press and Usborne. And I'm going to thank Usborne again because I keep forgetting to mention them. Twit.

Postpone or cancel?

Chris Little - the media officer with Cumbria County Council - got back to me today and said, perfectly reasonably, that the council simply does not have any spare resources or manpower to assist this scheme. And the last thing I want to do is cause them problems.

His suggestion is to postpone until after Christmas when they will hopefully be a bit more sorted out and able to help with distribution and so on. This obviously destroys the idea of the books being Christmas presents, but it does have several things going for it.

The council will be able to get behind the scheme - and I personally think that without their support the thing is unworkable. The schools or libraries will be in a better position to act as collection/distribution points. It will be easier to get around the county.

But also, with the amount of authors we have - even with generous additional offers from publishers and booksellers, we would struggle to be able to supply children with books. At the moment it is schools and school libraries that seems a more achievable goal.

Maybe with a bit more time, we might be able to get more authors and illustrators involved and maybe more publishers and booksellers too. With a bit more time, maybe we might get hundreds of us involved. I have always believed that is possible.

Or we could simply decide that it was a nice, but unworkable, idea and call it a day. I will try and email everybody involved tomorrow and see what you all think.

What do you call a crowd of authors?

I no particular order, here are the authors so far:

Mary Hoffman, Sally Nicholls, Fiona Dunbar, Anthony McGowan, Jim Eldridge, Peter Bailey, Narinder Dhami, Josh Lacey, Tony Bradman, Paul Stewart, Celine Kiernan, Saviour Pirotta, Marie-Louise Jenson, Inbali Iserles, Meg Rossoff, Jonathan Mayhew, Joe Craig, Kath Langrish, Sam Enthoven, Sally Grindley, Sandra Glovers, Alan Cliff, Damian Kelleher, Tony De Saulles, Philip Reeve, Tracey Alexander, Pauline Chandler, Paul May, Leila Rasheed, Valerie Wilding, Adele Geras, Rosie Rushton, Brenda Williams, Rob Jones, Sue Eves, Andy Seed, Enid Richmont, Chris Mould, Chris Riddell, Cathy Cassidy, Jane Clarke, Cathy Hopkins, Philip Ardagh, Helen Bonney, Anna Wilson, Sarah Webb, Lynn Breeze, Mariam Vossough, Sue Reid, Francis Mosley, Anita Ganeri, Nicola Davies, Gillian McClure, Lee Weatherly, Lynn Huggins Cooper, Andrew Solway, Amanda Lees, Damian Harvey, Kjartan Poskitt, Philip Wilkinson, Dave Smith, Tommy Donbavand, Brian Lux, Val Rutt, Mark Walden, Ann Turnbull, Tracey Turner, Mike Jubb, Jan Dean, Michelle Harrison, Laura Kennedy, Pippa Goodhart, Lynne Chapman, Kay Woodward, Jenny Vaughan, Cindy Jefferies, James Mayhew, Sandra Horn, Gillian Philip.

This was hurriedly written - so I apologise for any spelling mistakes and if you have offered and can't see your name there then let me know, just in case I haven't got you on my list (though it may simply be an oversight - and I apologise in advance). If you know someone who you think ought to be on that list and are in a position to give them a prod, then please do so.

Thank you all so much.

A new day

OK - it's a new dawn, it's a new day etc etc. Where do we go from here? Today - in between doing some work, some Christmas shopping and sorting out my tax return - I will try one more time to see if I can't get some more positive feedback from Cumbria Council in terms of numbers of children and ideas about the best way for the books to reach them.

Failing that I will try and contact schools direct. Secondary school heads know their feeder school counterparts and hopefully they will be able to give me some idea of how we might crack this problem of where the books might go. I think we may have to concentrate our efforts on particular schools if the Council cannot come up with anything better.

I have had very generous offers of books from Scholastic and Random House, which though it strays a little from the idea as I originally saw it, it will increase the number of books we can offer. Though I have managed to gather a lot of authors and illustrators together, I would be happier if we had four times as many at this stage.

I would ask anyone who has hesitated thus far, to please join in. If you think it won't work, your contribution might well make the difference. If you feel you are already committed to other charitable giving, I am not asking for money - only half an hour of your time.

Over the weekend I also had word from Kate Johnson at Heffers here in Cambridge offering all kinds of practical help, support and enthusiasm. It makes me all the more determined to make this thing work.

As well as Kate, I want to thank Nikki Gamble of Write Away, Philippa Dickinson of Random House, Susannah Nuckey of Bloomsbury, Anne Clark of Piccadilly Press and Lisa Edwards of Scholastic for their offers of help and advice and for spreading the word. Thank you all so much.

Weekend news

I have had a few distractions from trying to sort out the books for Cumbria appeal. On Friday evening we all went to a Private View of arts and crafts and had mulled wine and minced pies whilst chatting to painters and admiring some very nice driftwood boats.

On Saturday morning I went to hospital and had a small camera on a long flexibly stalk put up one nostril until it went down the back of my throat. A very strange sensation.

I spent much of the rest of the weekend taxiing my son from school concert rehearsals and back, to football and back and so on. All of which gave me a chance to feel a bit less frustrated with how the project is going.

More authors joined over the weekend and I hope very much that I have replied to you all - but if I haven't then I will do so today. There is still scope for many, many more authors and illustrators to get on board having said that.

If you are already signed up but you know someone who isn't, give them a prod. If you are an editor then please spread the word among your writers. I am not asking for money (apart from postage), only the time it takes to sign, wrap and post a book (or four). I see this as a team effort - a show of solidarity by authors and illustrators with our readers, but having said that, the more household names we have in the scheme the easier it will be to get publicity and logistical help if needed.

Where do I send the books?

Authors continue to come in to the scheme to give signed books to the children affected by flooding in Cumbria. I hope more will join over the weekend, and I hope that Monday will produce some definite solutions to the problems I have already mentioned. A huge thank you to all the people who have been in touch, both with offers of books and with support and thoughtful comments.

Mostly the response from authors has been a simple, 'I'm in - where do I send the books?' I wish I could answer that question (apart from the obvious, 'Not to me!!)

Where are we?

OK - so where are we on the books for Cumbria front. Well authors are starting to come into the scheme in numbers. As fast as I can reply to one, I get another offer in the inbox. I want to thank all the authors and illustrators who have offered books and I want to thank all the editors and publicity people at Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Random House & Picaddilly Press who have taken time to make suggestions, offer help and pass on details to their authors. It warms the cockles of my heart.

This is how I see things at the moment. The books will hopefully be sent to one address in Cumbria - I think a library is probably the best place. I would like to avoid making families trek for miles to get the books and it would seem better to take the books to them. Cumbria Library service is using a mobile library to reach Cockermouth. That might be the answer. But of course that isn't for me to say.

I don't think this is difficult. But it becomes more difficult with each passing day. I need the same sense of enthusiasm from Cumbria Council as I've had from authors and publishers. I'm sure I'll get that.

Publicity is another issue. The children will have to know its happening and I would like Cumbria's plight to get some more airtime from the media. Blue Peter have been contacted - thank you Susannah Nuckey of Bloomsbury - but they can't do it in the time. Oh yes they can! No - they can't apparently.