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Patrick Hardy lecture 2009
September 25, 2009
Last night our very own Jeremy Strong gave the Patrick Hardy Lecture 2009 and we laughed our socks off as Jeremy pondered Just How Serious is Humour?
Very, it turns out. Who doesn’t love to laugh (as Great Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins once sang)? Is there a greater sound than a child chuckling away, great big uncontrollable giggles that you can’t help but join in with, no matter how silly or ridiculous the cause?
Jeremy has been writing award winning, laugh-out-loud children’s books since 1978 and is one of the most popular writers for children today. Why? Because he’s very talented at knowing what children enjoy, what they want to read about and what will make them laugh. From Streaker the hundred-mile-an-hour dog to Nicholas and his crazy family to Krankenstein, these best-loved characters and their antics are silly and funny and delightful and if they get children into reading then high-five the writer in his shed.
Isn’t that what our business of books is all about?
Jeremy had plenty of interesting and funny things to say on the subject of humour in children’s writing and I think it’s only right that you should see it, so I’m going to find a fellow Puffin to help me turn it into a link for you to follow. Look out for it on Jeremy’s author page in the days to come (but not tomorrow because I’ll be mostly lying down).
One moment that’s kept me chuckling today is when Jeremy recalled some of the questions he receives from children at the end of a school visit. He asks the young audience if there’s anything they’d really like to know about stories and writing. A little girl at the front eagerly raises her hand, a curious young mind keen to hear Jeremy’s insights on writing and books and . . .
‘Why does it rain?’
Cue lots of laughter from us and cheers all round to Mr Jeremy Strong, Patrick Hardy speaker 2009 and the man with the most famous bottom in children’s books.
Sarah Kettle
Puffin Creative Executive
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