Obituary: Kate Jones

Kate Jones

Died 27 December 2010

Kate Jones was a passionate campaigner for children’s writing. Initially a teacher of all ages from pre-school to OAPs, Kate founded Young Writer magazine in 1995 and ran it until 2007 when she passed it on to Warners (who also publish the adult magazine, Writers News). Along with David Teale, who founded the Red House Book Club, and Pie Corbett, author and poet, amongst others, she was more recently involved in the Young Writer Trust whose aim was to ‘help children catch the writing bug’.

Kate believed children’s voices needed to be heard and encouraged and so she was the natural choice as the judge for the Henrietta Branford Writing Competition when it started up as an integral part of the Branford Boase Award for first time children’s writers and their editors in 2000. She read every single one of the hundreds of competition entries each year, giving each her full attention and thrilled at the number of children aspiring to be writers themselves.

She attended all but one of the Award ceremonies and was always on hand to enthuse and encourage the children on the night and to talk about their stories, which of course, she remembered very clearly. She welcomed the children warmly and made them all feel special and that what they wrote mattered.

As Damian Kelleher, literature consultant and colleague of Kate’s has said: ‘Though Kate had not enjoyed good health in recent years, she still managed to inspire so many children to express themselves in words through Young Writer.’

The Henrietta Branford Writing Competition is such an integral part of the Branford Boase, that it will continue as a tribute to a unique woman who did so much to promote children’s writing and books.

Kate died on 27 December 2010 and will be sadly missed but warmly remembered by all who are passionate about books and encouraging children to create stories of their own.

Anne Marley
Branford Boase Award
www.branfordboaseaward.org