The judges read extensively and intensely in their search for the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize this year, but decided unanimously that The Unforgotten Coat's great immediacy and humour really set it apart.

And in the novel, published by Walker Books UK, the story is brought to life by beautiful and atmospheric Polaroid photos taken by Carl Hunter. Mrs Spendlove was still there, incredibly, and she recognised me right away. Thirty-four years she’s taught there. Imagine that. A Liverpool supporter, he has strong views about the findings of last month's Hillsborough report, although he has turned down requests to write about it out of deference to those writers who were there. "It's a defining event for Liverpool, in the same way that Bloody Sunday is a defining event for Derry," he says, adding that the conspiracy to blame the fans was "like John Webster, it's something from T he Duchess of Malfi". At times he seems startled by his own vehemence. "I'm really ranting here, aren't I?" he says at one point. Although he probably wouldn't say so, Cottrell Boyce is a writer with a clear moral purpose, who believes the whole point of books is to extend our imaginative reach, and give us pleasure in the process. Recently he has been reading stories by George Saunders, recommended by his adult sons, and the children's books of Rumer Godden with his youngest. "I'm on this mission to read all the books I've given people the impression that I've read or fooled myself into thinking that I have read, all the stuff I've bullshitted about, that's my mission." I wanted to talk to the new boy. I wanted to talk about eagles. But Mimi seemed to regard the whole Chingis incident as a minor interruption in the ongoing global cosmetics conversation. Only the boys were interested. At lunchtime, dozens of them crowded round Chingis and Nergui, asking them if they really had eagles, and how big they were, and whether he was a liar or not. His second book, Framed, took another ordinary boy in an ordinary setting – this time a small town in Wales – and used the wartime evacuation of the National Gallery's greatest treasures to provide the glimpses of transcendence that, in Cottrell Boyce's stories, are the counterpoint to Ealing comedy-style villainy. In Cosmic, the book he says was the most fun to write (now in development as a film), he took a 12-year-old so tall he can pretend to be his dad, and sent him into space.Of course I agreed. No one had ever asked me to be anything before, definitely not anything involving a title. Amnesty International UK 2019. Amnesty International UK Section Charitable Trust. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (03139939) and a charity registered in England and Wales (1051681) and Scotland (SC039534). Amnesty International United Kingdom Section. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (01735872). Registered office 17-25 New Inn Yard London EC2A 3EA.

The Unforgotten Coat is an enchanting story about learning new lessons, experiencing new cultures, and re-discovering lost friends and memories.He has also created a fantastic trilogy, writtenwith his trademark wit, warmth and sense of story, based upon Ian Fleming's novel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, comprising Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon. Being read to at school changed my life. I really became aware of that during the Olympics because we were all of us in that room drawing on stuff we'd read as children and none of it was stuff we were examined on, it wasn't anything measurable. It was stuff that people had shared with us that we went on to share. If you look at that ceremony and what was in it, it was a sense of wonderment in storytelling. We found we had this common heritage – Mary Poppins and so on."

We are meeting to celebrate yet another of Cottrell Boyce's recent achievements. On Wednesday night he won the Guardian children's fiction prize, his second major award for children's writing following a Carnegie medal in 2004 for his first book Millions. The Unforgotten Coat, which saw off competition from Roddy Doyle, Eva Ibbotson and Russell Hoban, could hardly be more different from the five-go-mad-in-motor shenanigans of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Originally commissioned by Liverpool charity the Reader Organisation, and inspired by the true story of a Mongolian girl he met on his first school visit, who left her coat behind when she was deported, The Unforgotten Coat is an offbeat tale of a brief crosscultural friendship, illustrated with photographs by Carl Hunter, a friend and bass player in Liverpool band the Farm. You will be our Good Guide,” he said. “In Mongolia we are nomads. When we come to a new country, we need to find a good guide. You will be our good guide in this place. Agree?”Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments

Millionswas was later turned into a film by Danny Boyle and it features in the Book Trust’s 100 Best Books List for 9-11 year olds. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Year Six. We had been at school for six years and until that moment I thought I had probably learned all I would ever to learn. I knew how to work out the volume of a cube. I knew who painted the “Sunflowers”. I could tell you the history of St. Lucia. I knew about lines of the Tudors, and lines of symmetry and the importance of eating five portions of fruit a day. But in all that time, I had never had a single lesson in eagle-calming. I had never ever heard the subject mentioned. I’d had no idea that a person might need eagle-calming skills. From the best-selling author of Cosmic and Millions comes an evocative immigration tale about two brothers trying to survive- a daring story that miraculously defies belief. These days the relationship with Boyle, who recruited him for the Olympics project, is a big thing. "I do genuinely think Danny's head is a very special head, partly because he's a voracious reader. Danny loves popular culture, he loves movies, but at the same time he loves them because he sees what they can be. I guess that's the good thing about being a children's writer. You try to do something very accessible but substantial as well."With his brilliant depiction of two brothers from Mongolia trying to adapt to school in Liverpool while haunted by a fear from home, Frank Cottrell Boyce never preachers to the reader, and judges felt that he writes with such credibility and warmth that his readers will be left wiser when they have finished the story." Being shortlisted for the Guardian Prize gives you a particularly warm glow because it is awarded by a panel of your fellow authors. Past winners include my childhood heroes - Alan Garner, Leon Garfield, Joan Aiken - and contemporary heroes like Mark Haddon, Geraldine McCaughrean and Meg Rosoff.”