The Siobhan Dowd Trust
19 March 2008
The booklaunch took place in London of Siobhan Dowd's book Bog Child. The event, organised and generously sponsored by Random House, doubled as the official launch of the Siobhan Dowd Trust.
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David Fickling of David Fickling Books, an imprint of Random House and Dowd's publisher, spoke movingly about Dowd's life and work, describing his sense of wonder on reading her successive manuscripts and his fury at the tragic and untimely loss of someone with so much to contribute both professionally and personally. Describing Dowd as a 'magician', he commended Bog Child for its sensitive and at times gently humorous treatment of the grand themes of Life and Death. That the author managed to write about these themes with such clarity in the face of her own impending death was especially remarkable.
The chidren's writer and editor Tony Bradman, Chair of the Trustees, introduced the Siobhan Dowd Trust. Bradman spoke of his sense of privilege at having 'discovered' Siobhan Dowd through a story she wrote for his collection Skin Deep (Puffin, 1994). What was striking in that story, as in her books, was the authenticity and stylishness of Dowd's voice – the weighty presence of a whole human being behind her words.
It is this voice and this presence that the Siobhan Dowd Trust seeks to keep alive through its work in helping disadvantaged children to discover and experience the joy of reading.