This Morning presenter Dermot O’Leary launched his new children’s book in Cahoots, Soho last night with his wife Dee and friends including Cat Deeley. The book is about a swift called Linus who serves in the fictional Royal Bird Force during the Second World War. “If it sparks an interest in history for just one kid, that would be amazing,” said Dermot. We applaud the sentiment, but wonder if the timing of his launch will ruffle some feathers. There is a debate rumbling this week about the number of TV celebrities who are turning their hand to literature. Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown also launched her children’s book this week and David Walliams regularly tops the kids best-seller list.
Dedicated children’s authors aren’t raving at the prospect of being outsold by TV names. Katherine Rundell, a Waterstones children’s book prize winner, published Impossible Creatures, her new work for children, this week. “There are many great non-celebrity authors, because they are putting so much time in,” she said at her launch, in an apparent dig at the new kids on the block.
