MCBF ....got the teeshirt...

Today I volunteered at a Manchester Children's Book Festival event. It was a poetry reading with Carol Ann Duffy and fellow poets Mandy Coe, Philip Gross, Grace Nichols and John Agard with fantastic musical accompaniment from John Sampson and his wide range of wind instruments.

This event really worked to my strengths - my obsession with health and safety ("where are the exits and disabled lifts?") And chaperoning school children and teachers to Lecture Theatre 1 honed my cat-herding skills. Actually, the young people were really well behaved, as were the poets... mostly! The whole event was planned with the kind of attention to detail that excites my youth work sensibilities - everything ready on arrival, a clear tick list spreadsheet and I even got a snazzy teeshirt! The event was brilliant. You can read more on the official blog here. A great do! Thank you to the performers and Manchester Writing School for organising such a great festival event.