Liverpool Reads … Mal Peet

Written by Chris Routledge, 2nd February 2008

Bea Colley, Liverpool Reads coordinator writes:

2008 is the National Year of Reading as well as Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture. Liverpool Reads is proud to present its fourth annual reading adventure with two novels by author Mal Peet, Keeper and Tamar, jointly sponsored for the first time by Cobalt Housing and Liverpool Housing Trust (LHT). Liverpool Reads is a city-wide reading adventure where each year a book is distributed for free across the city and a programme of outreach activity, author events, reading groups, and other great activities are coordinated to accompany the Big Read.

This year's read focusses on Liverpool, its love of the beautiful game, its regeneration after the Second World War and on to this year of celebration. Keeper will be the central book with 10,000 copies to be distributed for free from Liverpool Libraries. A coupon will be printed in the Liverpool Echo on 6th, 7th, and 8th of March which can be exchanged for a copy of the book. The novel tells the story of El Gato--the Cat--the world's greatest goalkeeper--how he, a poor South American logger's son, learns to become a World Cup-winning goalkeeper, so good he is almost unbeatable.

In addition to this, Liverpool Reads will be using Mal Peet’s Carnegie Prize winning novel Tamar, which is a story of espionage, love, jealousy, and tragedy set in Nazi-occupied Holland and appeals to all age ranges. We have 3,000 copies of Tamar to use in various intergenerational projects around the city in. Work has already begun on some of the initiatives for this year including the Four Corners Project in association with The Reader Organisation and The Bluecoat where youth groups and older peoples’ community groups will work together using the two books to produce creative responses to the text.

We are extremely excited to have the support of Walker Books for this year’s Big Read. Author Mal Peet says of the project:

“Books are free travel passes for journeys through space and time, and it’s a brilliant, radical idea on the part of Liverpool Reads to distribute them to the people of Liverpool. And I feel hugely honoured that in 2008, the National Year of Reading and the year in which Liverpool is the European Capital of Culture, my books have been chosen as the City Reads. All it will take now for my happiness to be complete is either Liverpool or Everton winning the Premiership and the Cup. (One each would do!)”

And there's more ...

You are invited to the public launch of Liverpool Reads … Mal Peet which takes place on Thursday 6th March (World Book Day) at the Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool.

Light refreshments will be served on a first come first served basis at 6pm and the event starts at 6.30pm prompt.

Mal will be reading from his two novels and answering audience questions

Tickets are now available for collection only for FREE from four Liverpool Libraries: Central – William Brown Street, Childwall – Childwall Five Ways, Walton – Evered Avenue, and Allerton – Allerton Road. Tickets are limited to four per person.

For more details on the project, please contact Bea Colley, Liverpool Reads Coordinator on 0151 794 2291, b [dot] colley [at] liverpool [dot] ac [dot] uk or visit www.liverpoolreads.com.