I haven't written here for weeks. I was going to say that nothing much has been happening, but that wouldn't be quite accurate.
For one thing Borderline Books was instrumental in arranging a trip to the Keukenhof (bulb gardens in Lisse, NL) for a group of undocumented women in Amsterdam. In spite of a rather damp, sunless day and the fact that not a lot of the bulbs outside in the open were in flower, the greenhouses were full to bursting. Everyone had a great day - not least because some of them live in the Bijlmer which is somewhat akin to the moon when it comes to grey landscapes. Just going somewhere new where other people were taking care of all the arrangements must have been a treat in itsef. The fact that the gardens were also full of tourists, so our group did not stand out in the least was also quite comforting.

After that the London Bookfair where I met up with Judith Parke from the Literacy Trust. She is working on getting children reading and we discussed the difficulties involved when the parents don't read. I hope that in the future we will be able to work on some projects together where Borderline Books will provide free books for the parents of the children the Literacy Trust is working with. There is no shortage of good ideas, that's for sure.

This week I'm hoping to go back to the YMCA in Sunderland and see how they are progressing with the library they want to set up. I'll also go to Crisis in Newcastle and bring some more art books they have requested and refill the bookshelves for giving away. I'll probably visit one of the refugee centres as well as we have collected more stock of nappies, womens necessities, razors, soap, toothpaste etc.

More news later in the week probably - next week we've got the BLinN 'festival' where we'll be taking books in as many languages as we can muster - and also doing a radio interview for Schepper & Co, as part of the Ab Harrewijn prize publicity.