Read Between the Lines, an event run by Live! magazine and Walker books to discuss teenage reading in the digital age left LBB feeling surprisingly optimistic, not least because the young (mostly male!) teens there were fidgeting less than us. Mal Peet, Peter Cocks (and no one sniggered either), Michelle Gayle and Martyn Bedford talked about the difficulties and pleasures of writing for a teen readership. We loved Mal’s droll and resolute determination not to get on down with the kids, language wise, and his description of the preachy black crow that he has to bat away, one that sits there nagging him to “tell them something useful”. Asked to articulate why people should read (for the same reason we eat, was the general concensus) the panel touched briefly on the power of language, only to have this vividly brought to life in a performance by young Willesden poet Andre ‘ZoOm’ Andersen which was beyond stunning. Would be interesting to see if his writing has the same visceral power it had in the telling. And if so, someone should snap him up immediately….