Children's Writers and Illustrators Group Conference

Robinson College, Cambridge

Friday 29th August - Sunday 31st August 2008

Click here to read the report on the CWIG Conference by CWIG Chair, Celia Rees.

Click here to view the CWIG Conference photo gallery

Age guidance on children's books debate

The session was chaired by Stephanie Nettell and included Philip Pullman and Anne Fine,  prime movers behind the No to Age Banding appeal, Kate Wilson, Group MD of Scholastic UK Ltd, Becky Stradwick UKHQ Children's Buyer from Borders and Celia Rees, CWIG Chair.

Click here to read about the debate from the No to Age Banding website.

Click here to read Kate Wilson's speech about age guidance.

Click here to read Julia Eccleshare's report for The Guardian.

Click here to read about the evaluation of age guidance on children's books from The Bookseller.

Other major conference speakers included: David Almond, Laurence Anholt, Anthony Browne, Polly Dunbar, Julia Eccleshare, Nicolette Jones, William Nicholson and the Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen.

We held debates on the perils of reviewing; a frank look at the current state of the book market; the interaction between children’s publishing and other art forms (e.g. Hollywood).

Workshops/Parallel Sessions included: how to cope with school visits, taboos, from picture book to cartoon film, how to survive as a poet, literary agents, working in remote areas of Australia, publicity, how to manage time, story-boarding, bringing back op books, an illustrator's view on schools and festivals and the man from the DTI.

Outings: chauffeured punting, Lucy Boston's magical house and garden, Althea's glass studio.

An on-site Heffers bookshop stocked delegates’ and speakers' books. 

Exhibitions included Scope and MA students in Children’s Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge School of Art.