Meetings with the Minister
Five children's authors on the National Literacy Strategy
NCLL 2003
ISBN 0704914727
Chris Powling, Bernard Ashley, Philip Pullman, Anne Fine and Jamila Gavin have their say. A word of warning. This is not a conventional collection of essays. It lies somewhere between reportage and cri-de-coeur. What’s at stake … is nothing less than the integrity of the novel, the story, the poem … valued for its own sake and on its own terms. We must defend it fiercely against the well-meaning but muddle-headed vandals who want to analyse it, stick labels on it, teach-and-preach it into a coma … or kill it off altogether with some kind of test.’