The SCBWI Conference coincided with the children’s book fair Salon du Livre et de la Presse Jeunesse, running from 1st-6th December in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil. This was my debut at this fair. Though I’m perhaps a bit of a Bologna Veteran now, this was something else altogether. I found it an incredibly rewarding, though exhausting experience. The sheer number of stands at the Fair alone was amazing considering it only covered one area of publishing of a single nation

Recently I was in Paris to run a workshop at the SCBWI France Conference and attend the Salon du Livre Jeunesse (Children’s Book Fair) in Montreuil. It was actually touch and go whether I’d get there at all, as services on both sides of the English Channel were crippled by severe winter weather. My Eurostar train was cancelled, passengers for all journeys were left in a first-come-first served queue that stretched almost outside St.Pancras Station. After a two hour wait I was