Frank Cottrell-Boyce's visit to Featherstone Prison

Published on: 19 December 2024

"There's something missing. It takes me a while to figure it out"

Waterstones Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce reflects on his visit with PACT to see how prisoner-dads are sharing books and stories to build bonds with their children during family visits.

A big room, decked out with balloon arches and tinsel. People are sitting in family groups chatting, while kids in glittery tops and hairband antlers are running up and down the place. It could be anywhere but there's something missing. It takes me a while to figure it out. Phones. No one has a phone.

I'm at a Christmas family event in HMP Featherstone. (No phones allowed.) The event has been organised by BookTrust and the prison charity PACT – as part of a project called FLIP – Family Literacy in Prisons.

I visited the prison with BookTrust's Senior Partnership Manager (Central) Lisa Eldret and Professor Dame Cathy Nutbrown, one of the founders of FLIP. Cathy explains it's an extraordinarily simple and effective idea. FLIP invites prisoner-fathers to get involved in helping their own children with reading. And, in the process, prisoner-fathers improve both their own literacy and their relationship with their children.

A large percentage of imprisoned dads don't have great literacy skills. Andy Keen-Downs from PACT describes how, when the course began, the men were allowed to buy a book for their child for £1 of their 'canteen' (spends). Lots of them wanted to buy The Guinness Book of Records because it was big and looked more like a present.

Andy: "How old is your child?"
Dad: "Three."
Andy: "OK, let me introduce you to Where's Spot?"

If you enroll on a FLIP course, you get extra opportunities to see your children. Learning is so much about motivation. How many times when I was at school did I find myself saying: "I'm never going to need a French subjunctive verb/the calculus in real life, so why should I bother?"

But the possibility of spending more time with their children, and of achieving something their children could admire, provides all the motivation they'll ever need.

No one who failed at school really wants to revisit a classroom situation, but these family days are full of learning. And connection. An inmate tells me that, during normal, formal prison visits, his bottom must not leave his chair. That's obviously a nightmare if you're visiting with toddlers. But here, the kids are allowed to run around mad.

I end up having races up and down the room with two little sisters. At one point, I realise that – as the special visitor – I'm supposed to perform in some way. The kids are mostly way too young for my books. I look up and see all these big guys, giving me that expectant yet cynical stare.

What do I do?

I read them The Gruffalo, obviously. I get the kids to join in with the noises, slither like snakes, stomp like the beast itself.

The biggest thing I take away from today, is that even here, in the most artificial and emotionally challenging environment, a great story creates fun. Shared fun creates trust. And trust builds the greatest bonds.

Find out more about the Waterstones Children's Laureate's Reading Rights campaign