CHILDREN'S LAUREATE

“The idea for a Children’s Laureate came to Michael Morpurgo and Ted Hughes some six or seven years ago.

‘It was one of those dinner table conversations that just got out of hand,’ admits Morpurgo. ‘I was regretting that the literary world considered children’s books lesser things and Ted was saying he’d come across the same attitude himself, as people didn’t think so much of his children’s books ...’

“At this point, Morpurgo says, he suggested there should be a laureate for children and, instead of it simply being a passing thought, Hughes said they should do it, got some paper and wrote down all the people they’d have to contact in order to make such a thing happen.

“So letters were written - to Chris Smith, who was then Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, and others.

‘By the time we went to see them Ted was sickening, he was poorly, but between the two of us we knitted the whole thing together and then, very sadly, he died. The next May [1999], Quentin Blake was appointed Children’s Laureate. It all happened very, very fast, largely, I have to say, because Ted could make things happen.’”

[Graham Marks, Publishing News, 9 January 2004, “It’s the story, stupid’]