[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-roald-dahl-funny-prize-judges-meeting":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Judging the Funny Prize is HARD WORK! First you get an absolutely enormous stack of books (some have over 300 pages!) and you need to read them at a fairly brisk pace. Then you get together with the other judges and think very hard and have ARGUMENTS. We argued a lot. Here's the Guardian columnist \u003Ca href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/profile/marinahyde\">Marina Hyde\u003C/a> and me, trying to figure out how to make a hard point diplomatically. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/marina_hyde_sarah_mcintyre_zps101ed4cb-b28f50c01f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here we look like we're having a real laugh, but there was nothing funny about the way we'd been hurling croissants and poorly-considered insults with bad punchlines at each other from behind the make-shift table forts and chair barricades we'd set up. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/roald_dahl_funny_prize_judges_1_zps811dabbd-44149a7e0e.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Marina Hyde, Sarah McIntyre, Michael Rosen, Jamie Thomson, John Kearns\u003C/i>\\r\n\u003C!--more Click for more under the cut!-->\\r\nWe learned something new about the Dark Lord, \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Thomson_%28author%29\">Jamie Thomson\u003C/a>. He's obsessed with ghoulish handbags. He carries around his face powder in this box: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/rdfp_jamie_thomson_zpsb6b35ad2-e654e96e08.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOh, and another handbag! We were all secretly very impressed. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/rdfp_jamie_thomson_bag_zps2174f670-26dc4c0c50.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nUntil Jamie started pulling out a third handbag, a fourth, a fifteenth... comedian \u003Ca href=\"http://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/j/33876/john_kearns\">John Kearns\u003C/a> was in tears. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/rdfp_john_kearns_zpsf3bab48b-5a934acd1e.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHuge thanks to \u003Ca href=\"http://www.booktrust.org.uk/prizes/4\">Booktrust\u003C/a>'s fabulous \u003Cb>Laura Mell\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Rosi Crawley\u003C/b> for setting up the battleground and giving us lots of things to throw at each other, and to our chair, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/\">Michael Rosen\u003C/a>, for giving us lots of LONG, HARD STARES.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/laura_mell_rosi_crawley_zpsc84b08da-14f9c876ca.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.booktrust.org.uk/prizes/4\">Roald Dahl Funny Prize webpage\u003C/a> on the Booktrust website, and if you want to find out more about the judges, check out \u003Ca href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/profile/marinahyde\">Marina's articles in The Guardian\u003C/a>. Jamie has a Kickstarter campaign going \u003Ca href=\"http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1615043334/the-way-of-the-tiger-gamebooks-new-collectors-edit\">here\u003C/a> for \u003Ci>The Way of the Tiger\u003C/i> gamebooks:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"2426\"/>\\r\n\\r\nAnd John's got lots of comedy online... HA HA! I was in a bit of a rush and just going to embed \u003Ca href=\"http://youtu.be/XSmPFjmq9Vk\">this little birdy video\u003C/a> without watching all the way through, then changed my mind, and realised the language is ENTIRELY UNSUITABLE for a children's book blog. *dies in fit of hysterical weeping*","2013-09-28T10:48:00.000Z","roald-dahl-funny-prize-judges-meeting",[],"roald dahl funny prize judges' meeting",1776628725640]