News:

These days I get quite a few book and reading related press releases through. Some of them I share with you, many of them slip by the wayside as I only have so many free minutes in a day. Today I received an email that I felt I had to share with you, regarding a free online event that is taking place on Thursday. Here are the details:

Scotland’s National Poet Liz Lochhead is to give a live broadcast to children around the world during a special Robert Burns celebration on Thursday 26 January at 11am. The Scottish Friendly Meet Our Authors Special Event, run by Scottish Book Trust, will be streamed live from BBC Scotland in Glasgow and available after to watch again for free from the Scottish Book Trust website. The broadcast will be most suited to children from P6 – S4 (9-16 year olds) and any fan of Scottish poetry.

You too can join over 10,000 pupils across the UK and beyond watching the event live by following this link: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/authors-live-with-liz-lochhead. Alternatively, in case you don't read this until after the event, or you are already busy on Thursday at 11am, the event can be downloaded or streamed from next Thursday following the same link.

Liz will be celebrating the poetry of Burn’s as well as reading her own work. We’re sure this event is going to be really inspirational as no-one can make Burns come to life like Liz can.

Scottish Book Trust do loads of events like this every year: our previous events have featured authors such as Michael Rosen, Michael Morpurgo, Julia Donaldson, Eoin Colfer, Jacqueline Wilson, David Almond and many more. You can stream or download any of these events for free here: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/childrens-authors-live/2010-11.