A wholehearted THANK YOU to City of London Academy and to Lydiard Park Academy for the warm welcome both schools gave me this month. Some feedback on my performance just came in from students at the latter:

‘Everyone was silent – nobody could take their eyes OR ears off him.’

‘I found Sam Enthoven really passionate about his work.’

-and-

‘I was very excited about seeing an author; when I saw him he was excited about his new book, funny and, well, a bit mad! But in a good way!’

For details about my school visits and how to book one, see my page at Contact An Author.

This weekend (Oct 11th-13th) is the inaugural Wood Green Literary Festival and I’m very excited! Full details of the programme of events for younger readers (most of which are free) are now to be found here. It’s all going on at Noel Park Primary School, five minutes’ walk from the centre of the festival and the universe, The Big Green Bookshop. My panel discussion with Steve Feasey and Conrad Mason, (now-!) on Monsters, Magic and Mayhem, will be happening on the Saturday (12th) at 5pm.

Alternatively, next Saturday (19th) I’ll be doing my stuff at this:

It’s the thirtieth anniversary of the London Anarchist Bookfair. After last year’s event there, which I enjoyed enormously, I’m thrilled to have been invited back to the Older Kids’ Space at 2pm to talk about the future and maybe preview my new book.

These are my first events in a while that are open to the public. Do come. It’s always such a pleasure for me to meet people who aren’t imaginary. ;D

On Saturday 27th Oct I’ll be emerging from my writing bathysphere for this…

I’m doing my stuff at this year’s London Anarchist Bookfair in the Older Kids Space from 2pm. See you there?

On Tuesday I was invited to a very special occasion, namely the official opening of the all-new Dalston C.L.R. James Library in my home borough of Hackney, London.

It was a packed and glittering affair.

A big crowd had turned out to celebrate, for two reasons. First, because the library is a wonderful, beautifully-designed building providing facilities including public computers, meeting rooms, study areas and community-accessible archives (the latter with space for a projected twenty-five years’ worth of expansion!) Second, because this library was opening when so many all over the rest of the UK are being forced to close.

Hackney Council deserves a lot of credit for Dalston C.L.R. James Library – and a lot of other local authorities deserve blame for the closures. But today, World Book Day 2012, the biggest burden of guilt for the sorry state of so much of the rest of the country’s public library services should be laid on the shoulders of the UK’s current government.

Libraries are centres for knowledge, thought and self-development. If this country is ever going to recover economically – into something other than just a City of London-dominated, tax-dodger-friendly clearing-house for shady deals by the world’s super-rich – then we need libraries. Public libraries are as important as schools: perhaps, given their power to help whole populations and not “just” school-age people and their carers, they’re even more important. The people of Hackney know this, as is obvious from Dalston C.L.R. James’ massive popularity since it opened its doors, even before it was opened officially.

Now: will the politicians of our Parliament be able to overcome their shortsighted, nest-feathering, bickering, self-aggrandizing ways enough to recognise the importance of public libraries too, and act accordingly? Or will the so-called ‘Culture Secretary’ and his ilk continue to stand by making excuses and blaming others while so many of these vital facilities all over the UK are being forced to close their doors?