British Airways Lands top Thai Children’s Writer

Award-winning author, Jane Vejjajiva from Thailand took part in two days of workshops on 22 and 23 June as part of the ‘Reading Round the World’ programme run by Outside In, supported by the British Airways Community Investment Programme.

Over a hundred children from three Hounslow schools all had the opportunity to take an imaginary trip to Jane’s homeland at the British Airways Community Learning Centre near Heathrow where they had a multi-sensory experience of Thailand through Jane’s novel The Happiness of Kati.

The ‘Reading Round the World’ project is the brainchild of Outside In (the UK organisation dedicated to promoting and exploring world literature), which is bringing a host of international authors and illustrators to the UK during 2009.Reading Round the World’ is funded by the Arts Council of England, with additional partnership funding including the British Airways Community Investment Programme and The Royal Embassy of Thailand.

Jane was born in 1963 in London. Her family returned to Thailand when she was three and she grew up in Bangkok. Having cerebral palsy from birth limited her movements and books opened a whole new imaginary world to her. The Happiness of Kati was Jane’s first novel for which she won the S.E.A. (Southeast Asian) Write Award in 2006It has become a bestseller with more than two hundred thousand copies sold in Thailand and has been translated into English, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish, Italian and French. The Happiness of Kati has also been made into a feature film which was released in January 2009.