John Agard’s collection The Poetry World of John Agard is one of five books on the shortlist for this year’s CLiPPA, CLPE Children’s Poetry Award. The book is illustrated by Edinburgh based illustrator Shirley Hottier and the judges describe their collaboration as “the perfect partnership.”
The CLiPPA is the UK’s leading prize for poetry for children and each year highlights outstanding new collections for the young. Past winners include Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Rosen, Valerie Bloom and Joseph Coelho.
John Agard is one of the best loved and most distinguished poets of our time. He was born in Guyana and moved to Britain in 1977. He has published more than 50 poetry collections for both children and adults and was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal of Poetry in 2012 and received the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.
“Shirley’s illustrations in the book match John Agard’s poems in verve and invention, making theirs the perfect partnership,” says Chair of the Judges, poet and current Children’s Laureate Wales, Nicola Davies.
Organisers CLPE encourage schools to explore the shortlist with their pupils in a special Shadowing scheme and produce videos of the shortlisted poets reading their work to inspire children. These are watched by tens of thousands of children in schools across the UK.
When John Agard was unable to be filmed this year, Shirley stepped in.
She read several poems from the book including Cat in the Dark, Gramma’s Biscuit Tin, Twinkle Twinkle Firefly and her own favourite, Hurry-Hurry Mek Bad Curry. Schools have been watching them on the CLPE website.
Shirley, who is French, initially trained as an architect in Paris but is now based in Edinburgh. She is a self-taught illustrator, with a passion for using her work to celebrate her multiple cultures, through the warm, lively scenes and joyful characters she crafts.
Shirley says,
“I really enjoyed illustrating The Poetry World of John Agard. My family is also Creole, and I felt a deep connection with John’s poems. I particularly enjoy the playfulness of his poetry, and it was an honour to illustrate his book.”
“My favourite poem in the book is Hurry-Hurry Mek Bad Curry which really made me think of my family. In fact, I included my own mother in the illustration!”
The winner of the CLiPPA will be announced at the CLiPPA Poetry Show, live onstage at the National Theatre on London’s Southbank, Thursday 9 July and receives £1,000. The event will feature live poet readings from each shortlisted collection and the winning Shadowing performances too. Nicola Davies’ fellow judges are 2025 CLiPPA winner, Colette Hiller; Reading Development and Children’s Book Consultant, Jake Hope; Lisa Mead, CEO of Apples and Snakes; and Anjali Patel, Lead Advisory Teacher, CLPE.
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