shewhomust | For children of all ages

I've written a short, professional post in our company web log about how

durham_rambler and I came to build an instant web site for the campaign against branding children's books as suitable for children of specific ages. This is the unprofessional post, in which I get to squee about what fun it has been for us, watching the messages of support come flooding in - because it's

durham_rambler's mailbox that they flood into. Check the list - it's constantly being updated.

So at intervals through the last week, I've been hearing squawks from downstairs, as some of the authors we most admire are writing to us - strictly, I suppose, since I'm the heavy reader of the two of us, some of the authors I most admire are writing to him, and there'll be an occasional query: "Nina Bawden?" The coolness of working for Anne Fine (as for many other clients) is a familiar feature of the job; the coolness of corresponding with Philip Pullman on this campaign could have been anticipated; but we're receiving messages from Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Peter Dickinson - not to mention that the campaign is now backed by all five Children's Laureates. This is not to underrate the value to the campaign of the support of such professionals as

fjm and

pnh (we're a Sidelight in Making Light!), it's pure fanboy pleasure.

The name that makes fanboys and fangirls of us all, though, is Alan Garner. Alan Garner! Anne Fine has managed to impress her daughter: "'Are you writing to Alan Garner? The Alan Garner? Blimey, Mum!'" Neil Gaiman is thrilled: "(I got a crazy thrill seeing Alan Garner in the comments -- an author whose books work if you're nine and work if you're twelve, and work if you're seventeen, and work if you're forty: they just work in a different way each time.)" And that goes double for me!