The 16th RED award

bookwitch

May 19

It was the Resident IT Consultant's birthday, and as a special treat he was commanded out of bed and reminded he was giving me a lift to the RED book award 2022. (But it was nice to drive through the countryside, and I'm sure he didn't mind.) We even got there before the coaches bearing children, so there was no dodging about in the car park.

I can't tell you how great it was to be out and going to an event and to almost be back to a little normality! Well, actually, I can and I'm about to.

I swanned in as the seasoned witch I am, spying Ross MacKenzie having a coffee. So I accosted him, since we'd never met before. He took it reasonably well. Before long we were joined by Manjeet Mann, who'd come all the way from Folkestone. Unfortunately neither Melinda Salisbury or Elle McNicoll were able to be there. Coughs are unfortunate, and I suppose weddings are allowed to happen too. But it was a shame.

The front row was waiting for me, and I had the most welcome aisle seat, where I could enjoy librarian boss Yvonne Manning dancing to ABBA as she entered. As usual the children got to introduce their authors, and then followed digital presentations of the books, two schools per book. I particularly liked Bowness Academy for Melinda Salisbury, and voted for that. But the others were all good too.

No Provost for me to sit next to, however.

Ross and Manjeet introduced themselves, and Ross was rather too tall for the microphone, while Manjeet compensated by being a little shorter. So that worked out fine. This encouraged Yvonne to want to do a rap, so she jumped up on the stage and demanded some meatballs. (On reflection, I believe it was something else. You know, the background beat that goes with rap?) As Yvonne rapped what sounded like Little Red Riding Hood, a boy - let's call him 'Rob' - ran up to the aforementioned microphone and meatballed steadfastly through the whole thing. Apparently it was not pre-arranged. I like the Falkirk young readers who step up so well.

Coffee time came next, and after a while the authors were spirited away and could be found signing books. And a boxing glove. I chatted a bit to Yvonne, and then discovered that not only were my clothes red, as per order, but even my emergency snack was red [grapes]. Totally accidental, that.

And did you know, technology is now so good that my phone takes better pictures than my special witch camera?? (You even get people waving. I've not quite understood this yet.)

Back to the theatre Yvonne had donned her act two red wig. That's red as in really red. There was more dancing, before Yvonne led most of the 300 children in a sort of conga line round the whole place. Ross looked baffled as he stood in the doorway. I suspect not all book awards do this. But it does wake you up if you are flagging.

More presentations followed, and then we sang Happy Birthday. Twice. None of them for the Resident IT Consultant, but it does seem to be a popular day to be born. Manjeet and Ross were invited to sit in the temporary red sofas. (They are usually blue, but always sofas.) Questions were asked, and answered, with the help of what I had taken to be rolled up socks. Turns out they were mobile microphones...

Prizes for alternative book endings, book cover art and redness of dress were all handed out.

And then it was time for the actual award. And you know the irritating way they pause during Eurovision before reading out the points? Well, Yvonne beat them hands down. She had left the red envelope in her car (!) and ran off to get it, telling the young ones to come up with something to say during the wait. Before one of them told a really bad joke - or it might have been a good one - the elegant looking woman sitting next to me, who was not the Provost, stood up to assist with this unexpected interval. She was the hander-over of the award, so that made sense.

Yvonne ran back in, gave the envelope to the young announcer who never got to tell her joke, and the RED award went to Elle McNicoll! They had one of those one we made earlier videos, where Elle coughed her way through heartfelt thanks, and said how much she loves Falkirk.

And that was mostly it. Anne Ngabia of the African libraries and patchwork quilts had made another one, featuring all sixteen winning books from over the years. 'Us three photographers' took more pictures, for you, for RED and for the Falkirk Herald.

The way to the station had not changed too much over this long hiatus of live awards, so I hobbled successfully to my train home, as did Manjeet - not hobbling, and also heading for the other platform. And luckily the Resident IT Consultant had followed instructions and bought himself a birthday cake. The one I had been too busy to bake. But there was no singing. Twice in one day is quite enough.

Oh, how good it felt to have been 'normal' again.

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