Oxfordshire Book Awards

On Wednesday 7^thNovember, seven of the Inters braved the downpour to attend the Oxfordshire Book Awards Ceremony. Lured by the promise of cake, they quickly found out that it was also going to be a lot of fun! MC Mark Thornton told us he had been warned to “improve the quality” of his jokes, and he must have succeeded because Olivia admitted that “they made me laugh until my stomach hurt”! We drew superheroes with Matt Carr, author of the highly commended Superbat, laughed out loud at a hilarious extract from Kid Normalread by Greg James and Chris Smith of Radio 1, and were suitably disturbed by Pam Smy’s pictures of creepy dolls. Nicki Thornton, the last author before the cake, was happy to assure us that even though her own book featured poisoned apricot dessert, the cake we were about to eat was delicious. And it was!

It wasn’t all strange pictures and silly voices though. A common theme in many of the books was the importance of being yourself, even if everyone around you seems to be super-powered. This point was most thoughtfully addressed by Tom Pollock, whose hero is able to cope with shadowy organizations, spies and assassins precisely because he has so much experience of being afraid of everything!

After the ceremony all the girls braved the scrum at the book stalls and some determined stalwarts battled through the enormous queues to have their books signed. Even though there were so many people there, the authors were still able to make time to talk to people, which was truly appreciated. Fuelled by tea and cake, everyone agreed it was a brilliant afternoon.