The results of this Year's Threadbread Prize for Children's Fiction was announced today at a special event at Threadstone's flagship Bookshop in Bettiscombe. The winner is Reggie's Perfect Day [Threadbone Children's Library £12,99] by Florrie Fishwick.
Better known for her work in the field of adult literature Florrie turned to children's writing only three year's ago when she met theatre impresario Barton Fishwick. "It was Barton above all who persuaded me I was barking up the wrong end of the bush", she said in a recent interview. "He persuaded me that my true metier was gardening and cleaning his house, but later I decided that it was writing children's fiction particularly in that extraordinary fertile area associated with the Thrupessori Method".
"By anthropomorphising creatures and even physical objects, we can avoid the associative traumas which frequently accompany a young child's over-attachment to identifiable stereotypes in adults and other older siblings, the neutralised conceptual space thus created then allows for the free and independent development of neurologically specific traumas unique to each child", she explained. "It's liberating in a wholly unpredictable way and is (generally) safe to watch". Had she tried out the method - and Reggie in particular - on her own children? "Good Lord no", she said, "they're far too old for that kind of c**p".
Aimed at "children of all ages" (particularly 3-4 year olds) Reggie's Perfect Day is a story of loss, loneliness and redemption "with a bit of nautical refurbishment thrown in", says judging panel chair Barton Fishwick. "It's a marvellous read either to an impressionable child or, as they develop their own reading skills, by the child him, her or its self. And it's only £12.99. Moral improvement, spiritual re-training and intellectual indoctrination don't come any cheaper than that".
Florrie Fishwick will read extracts from Reggie's Perfect Day at the Corscombe Festival late next month as well as on a limited tour of major Threadstone's Book Shops.
Get Reggie's Perfect Day from:
Any branch of Threadstone's
From the orinoco Store
Or directly from the publisher: The Threadbone Press
Winner of the Threadbread Prize for Children's Fiction, Reggie's Perfect Day uses simple storytelling to deliver fundamental truths to impressionable young minds. It may, some commentators allege be the distillation of the Thrupessori Method at its very best.
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