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Children's laureate Anthony Browne spent the day at Hamstreet
Primary School in the month that a new author vetting scheme
came into force.

The Home Office now requires authors visiting schools to pay £64
to get a background check on whether they are safe to be around
children.

The measures were drafted in response to the inquiry into the
murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002 by school
caretaker Ian Huntley.

In response several high-profile authors have vowed to stop
visiting schools.

The Canterbury author said: “I did notice that the writers who
were making such a fuss about it were writers that didn’t go into
schools very often anyway. It didn’t seem to me that it was going
to be such a great loss to schools.

“I think it’s a shame but for £64 writers get paid a lot more
than that to go into schools and it’s just a one-off payment. In a
way it’s a reflection on the society we live in that these things
have to happen but I don’t think we should be any different to
anyone else.

“It wasn’t so much that I was supportive but some high profile
authors were making a fuss about having to be vetted and I just
though we’re not special.

“I know that dinner ladies, music teachers and so on have to be
vetted to get into schools and I didn’t like the idea that writers
thought of ourselves as so special that we didn’t have to go
through the same process.”

Pupils were treated to storytelling by the best selling author
who also dedicated a chair in the school’s library especially for
story telling.

The 53-year-old who has more than 40 novels to his name said:
“What I’m doing is really encouraging children to enjoy
reading.

“That’s my job to encourage the enjoyment of reading but because
I write and illustrate picture books, it is in particular picture
books that I’m going to focus on.

“I had no burning desire to be a children’s book writer but just
by chance I found out it was the best job in the world.