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Matt Haig: From Shadow Forest to a Blue Peter badge
He may be an award-winning author who has been hailed as the new millennium's answer to Roald Dahl and whose dark tales for children have already persuaded Brad Pitt they could be Hollywood blockbusters.
Hear an exclusive interview with Matt Haig in our OutLoud series
But all Yorkshire writer Matt Haig has really wanted for three decades since he grew up watching one of Britian's most successful TV shows was a Blue Peter badge.
So the best-selling creator of some of Britain's oddest teenage fiction was lost for words when the Blue Peter cameras turned up to present him with the show's national book award during a school visit.
York-based Mr Haig never expected to win anything in the Blue Peter Book Award 2009 which saw him go head-to-head with literary names such as Tom Palmer, Leeds-born author of the Football Detective books.
But yesterday Random House Children's Books revealed Mr Haig's Shadow Forest had not only won the Book I Couldn't Put Down category trophy, but been judged the overall best book of the awards by the young judging panel.
Matt, who lives in York with his partner, novelist Andrea Semple, picked up two sculpted glass awards, though his eyes were on the Blue Peter badge that came with them.
It was a dream come true, even if the 33-year-old Sheffield-born author's joy was slightly tempered by the fact the badge's guaranteed admission to 200 attractions around the UK only applies to under-16s.
He added: "I have always been a fan and wanted a badge. It was a complete shock because not only did I not expect to win but I thought the winners were going to be announced on the show in March."
But he was awarded the prize when Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton ambushed one of his school events in Staines, Surrey, only a day after the author had popped into the Blue Peter studios in London without a word being said about the award.
"I was halfway through a book event at a school when suddenly I turned around and saw a Blue Peter camera crew burst in to hand me the award," he said.
"I nearly hyperventilated. I was up against some very stiff competition so I couldn't believe I'd won my category let alone the overall prize, although I'm very pleased I did."
The awards were broadcast yesterday to tie-in with today's World Book Day. Film rights to some of the work of Mr Haig, a former Hull University English graduate, have already been snapped up by Brad Pitt's Plan B production company.
But of the Blue Peter honour, Mr Haig added: "I am absolutely over-the-moon, not only as a lifelong Blue Peter fan but also because this is one of the few national awards still left where children help decide the winner."
Charlie Sheppard, Matt's editor at Random House, said: "I'm so thrilled that Matt has been awarded this fantastic prize.
"Winning the Blue Peter Award means that so many more children will be exposed to his brilliant book.
"To win the category of Book I Couldn't Put Down is very apt. I certainly never wanted this story to end. But to win the overall prize is a dream come true.
"And Matt even gets a Blue Peter badge. It doesn't get much better than that."
Mr Haig and Andrea, author of popular fiction novels The Ex-Factor and The Make-Up Girl, already have one child and another on the way.
He hopes Blue Peter, which some fear may be axed due to falling ratings, is still around when the children grow up.
"There would be an outcry if they go rid of it. It would be like axing Top of the Pops. They would only have to bring it back," he said.
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