Michael Rosen: Many Different Kinds of Love
Channel: British Library
Date: 2021-03-23

Join beloved author and poet Michael Rosen for a conversation with Chris Riddell about love, life and the NHS, and a celebration of the power of community and the indomitable spirits of the people who keep us well. Last year Michael was admitted to hospital, suffering from coronavirus as the nation teetered on the edge of a global pandemic. He spent six weeks in an induced coma, and many more weeks of rehab and recovery as the NHS saved Michael's life and then got him back on his feet. Throughout Michael's stay in intensive care, a notebook lay at the end of his bed, where the nurses who cared for him wrote letters of hope and support. Embarking on the long road to recovery, Michael was soon ready to start writing about his near-death experience.

His latest book, Many Different Kinds of Love: A Story of Life, Death and the NHS, is the result. It combines new prose poems and the moving coronavirus diaries of his nurses, doctors and wife, Emma-Louise Williams, and features original illustrations by Chris Riddell.

Michael Rosen is one of the best-known figures in the children's book world. He is renowned for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster and scriptwriter. He visits schools with his one-man show to enthuse children with his passion for books and poetry. In 2007 he was appointed Children's Laureate, a role that he held until 2009. While Laureate, he set up the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. He currently lives in London with his wife and children.

Chris Riddell, OBE, is the creator of an extraordinary range of books which have won many illustration awards including the UNESCO Prize, the Greenaway Medal (the only illustrator to have won it three times) and the Hay Festival Medal for Illustration. As an author his work includes the Costa Children's Book Award-winning Goth Girl. Chris has also achieved global success through his illustrated work with a number of high-profile authors including Neil Gaiman (and Michael Rosen). Chris is also a renowned political cartoonist whose work appears in the Observer, the Literary Review and the New Statesman. He is a past president of the Schools Library Association and an ambassador for Booktrust and Amnesty International.