Pre-match nerves

 Readying myself to take the train to London (on a day like this it has to be the lovely Waterloo line from Honiton) for this evening's OPF Award ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall. It's always a great evening, carried off in a style those of us in libraries can only dream of. It's touching that authors who can command this sort of attention for their work - great venue, good champagne, mesmerising canapes and hordes of press photographers crouching at the foot of the stage - are often also prepared to come to do an event in a library .... with a glass of indifferent wine (if they're lucky - otherwise a cup of tea) and a space created by staff heaving aside the book shelves, borrowing extra chairs from the scout hut and maybe - if there's nothing else going on - a visit in the middle of their talk from a youth from the local paper.

Half joking, really - in fact we've come on a long way in recent years, and many libraries are new or re-furbished. Here in Devon we have had new libraries  - The Ivybridge Watermark, South Molton, and Princetown - open within the last couple of years, and have  an ambitious modernisation programme under way. But still, all across the country enthusiastic and passionate staff are willing to ignore the drawbacks of their surroundings and invite authors in - and they come.

The excitement is tinged as always by a vague feeling of guilt at not having read all the list - and the possibility that the winner and her work will be unknown to me. That's more than compensated for by the fact that - should she make the trip - I could be in the same room and get to hear the author of Gilead, among many other potential joys! I'm not sure if Bernardine Evaristo will also make an appearance. Her book Blonde Roots was chosen last night as the winner by the Youth Panel, who have been shadowing the prize. Made up of 3 males, 3 females and all aged between 16-19, they showed an independence of spirit early on, when their shortlist failed to match that of the official panel in every particular! More information on this on the Orange Prize website.

The bookies favourite is currently Ellen Feldman for Scottsboro - and I shouldn't be sad about that. 

So - off we go, and with a bit of luck my next blog will read more like a gossip column....