audio by artist scottish book trust

An in-depth interview with Bunker 10 author J. A. Henderson, discussing the importance of meeting his readers, and his approaches to writing.

Listen to 4 pupils from Garnock Academy in North Ayrshire talking about their responses to Jan Henderson's Bunker 10 session, and revealing a morbid fascination with ways of dying!

Bunker 10 author J. A. Henderson's funny and entertaining talk to a group of 12-16 year old readers as part of Scottish Book Trust's Royal Mail Awards events.

It's the meeting of two Chrises, as Scottish Book Trust's Chris Newton interviews the author/illustrator of the Something Wickedly Weird series Chris Mould, who talks about his recent Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour of Argyll & Bute, and why he thinks it's important to scare children...

Listen to our exclusive interview at Edinburgh's Filmhouse with Neil Gaiman, the award-winning writer whose many works include the Sandman comics, novels American Gods and Neverwhere and screenplays for recent blockbusters Stardust and Beowulf. Gaiman spoke to Scottish Book Trust's Celia Richards about his new novel for children, The Graveyard Book, and they discussed the differences between writing for adults and children, how he first came up with the idea of The Graveyard Book and which type of 'undead' he would most like to be...

Chris Ryan, ex-SAS Commander, TV broadcaster and author of the Alpha Force and Code Red series' for teenage readers, was in Edinburgh for a Scottish Book Trust/Big Issue event promoting his new book Twister.

The winners of the 2008 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books were announced in a truly exciting ceremony at The Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen on 18th November. Paul Gallagher was on hand to speak to the winning authors, as well as interviewing a selection of the 600+ Scottish pupils in attendance. Listen to them all on our special podcast episode!

Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses series has won awards and acclaim for its intelligent and gripping combination of imaginative storytelling and contemporary relevance. Set in a futuristic dystopia where racism and terrorism prevail, Double Cross is the fourth novel in the series. Malorie was in Edinburgh for a Scottish Book Trust event and Jasmine Fassl took the opportunity to discuss the book with her, as well as asking how it feels to have had one of her books made into a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Vivian French is the author of over 200 books for children and young people including the Royal Mail Award nominated Robe of Skulls, the Tiara Club series, Singing to the Sun and the brand new Sparkle Street series. In our exclusive interview, Chris Newton asked Vivian about her inspirations for Sparkle Street, as well as getting a few hints of some of her forthcoming books. He also challenged her to the most important question of all: "how fast can you say Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper?" Listen now and find out...

Pam Wardell set up her company Books Alive - encouraging children into reading through sound workshops - after many years working in radio production, creating audio books and drama. This podcast features Paul Gallagher speaking to Pam about what Books Alive is and does, followed by 4 audio clips of pupils at Gracemount High School taking part in a workshop - using sound effects to tell their own stories!

Recorded live at the Days Like This book launch at Scottish Book Trust on 29 January 2009, this podcast features three of the project's celebrity curators - mountaineer Jamie Andrew, actress Siobhan Redmond and musician Roddy Woomble - in discussion with Marion Bourbouze. Covering everything from how they wrote their own stories to what they think Days Like This tells us about Scotland, it concludes with an audience Q&A session. Enjoy!

Chris Newton interviews Kelpies Prize-winning author Sharon Tregenza at Edinburgh Zoo (listen closely and you can hear the penguins in the background!). Sharon talks about the ideas behind her debut novel Tarantula Tide, which is all about animal-smuggling, hence the Zoo setting, as well as telling Chris about her fear of tarantulas, and how writing the book helped her overcome it.

NOTE: Apologies for the slight voice distortion on this episode, hopefully it won't spoil your enjoyment of a great interview.

James Jauncey proves himself equal to question-master Chris, as they discuss the author's latest book The Reckoning, as well as his previous, Royal Mail Award-nominated thriller The Witness. James is a fantastic interviewee, offering lots of great insights on his creative process, as well as telling Chris about his proudest achievement and his sideline in musical tinkering...

Michael Rosen needs no introduction, having been a key figure in children's literature in Britain for over 30 years. He is the current Children's Laureate and was one of the Keynote Speakers at the Scottish Book Trust Creative Sparks Conference, where his theme was 'igniting the desire to read'. Paul Gallagher interviewed Michael on the day, asking him about ways to engage children in reading, his thoughts on the place of books in contemporary culture and his perspectives on creativity and inspiration.

Ninive Calegari is one of the co-founders of 826 Valencia, a San Francisco based non-profit organisation set up to support students aged 6 to 18 with writing, and to help teachers get their pupils excited about writing. Having seen huge growth in the organisation since its inception in 2002, Ninive was the obvious choice to speak on 'igniting the desire to write' at Scottish Book Trust's Creative Sparks Conference.

Oisin McGann was our guest on the Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour in March 2009, and he was kind enough to give us even more of his time, sitting down to chat with Scottish Book Trust's Chris Newton. Listen now to hear the Irish writer's thoughts about the tour, his new book Strangled Silence, the books that had a big effect on his reading and much more (including which fictional character he'd most like to be)...

Steve Cole - pictured, in mid-flow - was our special guest on the recent Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour of Orkney and Shetland, and he certainly put all his energy into creating the best experience possible for all the children who saw him. Chris interviewed Steve at the end of the tour, and asked him about the masses of books he has written, including the Astrosaurs and Cows in Action series', as well as his involvement in a certain little-known BBC science fiction series... 

The three books nominated in the Early Years 0-7 category for this year's Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books are Stick Man, Manfred the Baddie and Pink! We spoke to the authors of the books - Julia Donaldson, John Fardell and Lynn Rickards respectively - to find out more about where they got the ideas for their stories and what their favourite books were when they were children.

The books nominated for the Younger Readers 8-11 years category in this year's Royal Mail Awards are First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts by Lari Don, Dino Egg by Charlie James and The Eleventh Orphan by Joan Lingard. We had the opportunity to speak to the three authors about how they came up with their stories, how it feels to have made the Royal Mail Awards shortlist and what their favourite books were when they were younger.

The Older Readers 12-16 years category in this year's Royal Mail Awards features three great titles, Crash by J.A.Henderson, Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray and The Reckoning by James Jauncey. Listen to our interviews to hear the three authors talking about how they came up with their stories and which books and authors inspired them when they were younger.

In June 2009 Catherine Rayner won the Kate Greenaway Medal for Children's Book Illustration for Harris Finds His Feet and we at Scottish Book Trust couldn't be more thrilled for her.

We helped bestselling author MG Harris launch Ice Shock, the second book in her Joshua Files series, with a special Virtual Author event based at Lenzie Academy and beamed to 20 schools across Scotland.

In September 2009 we took Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, the creators of the multi-million selling Edge Chronicles, on a two-week long Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour of schools in the Highlands of Scotland.

Darren Shan needs no introduction for his thousands of readers around the world, thanks to the success of his Saga of Darren Shan series, set in a world of vampires at war. Scottish Book Trust's Michael Merillo, a Shan fan himself, interviewed the author at our recent Glasgow event where Darren was launching Hell's Heroes, the last book in the Demonata series.

Listen in to hear Darren talking about why vampires are so popular and why he loves touring, plus hear him doing the voice of Lord Loss!     

35 minutes of inspiration, discussion, ideas and tips for teachers and other learning professionals.

Renowned creative learning consultant, author and speaker Eric Booth interviews Scottish Book Trust Online Teachers in Residence Michael Stephenson and Lucy Young on their plans for the year and ideas for best implementing Curriculum for Excellence with literature and literacy.

Jason Donald's debut novel Choke Chain, which tells the story of two boys growing up in '80s South Africa, received widespread critical acclaim when it was published in early 2009. In this interview with Scottish Book Trust's Olivier Joly, recorded as part of our Online Teacher in Residence project, Jason talks about how his own background and experiences fed into the novel, and offers his personal perspective on what the book is about.