So They Call You Pisher!: A Memoir

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In June 2007, Michael Rosen became the fifth Children’s Laureate -- he is the first poet to step into this prestigious role. Shakespeare Schools Foundation Patrons". Shakespeare Schools Foundation. Shakespeare Schools Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 December 2017 . Retrieved 12 July 2021.

They talk about the talking cure. Well, there is a sort of doing cure, too.’ The photo of Rosen’s son Eddie, who died unexpectedly in 1999, at the age of just 18. Photograph: Pål Hansen/The Observer A Materialist and Intertextual Examination of the Process of Writing a Work of Children's Literature" (PDF). University of North London. October 1997. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 September 2021. Flood (20 May 2021). "Michael Rosen condemns 'loathsome and antisemitic' manipulated image". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023 . Retrieved 5 April 2023. RCN awards Honorary Fellowship to Michael Rosen following powerful speech at Congress | News | Royal College of Nursing". 9 June 2022. Archived from the original on 9 November 2022 . Retrieved 13 June 2022.Michael Rosen at the 2017 Cheltenham Literature Festival signing his book, The Disappearance of Émile Zola. Prolific children's writer, Michael Rosen, was born in Middlesex in 1946 and studied English Language and Literature at Oxford University. Perring, Christian (15 May 2005). "Michael Rosen's Sad Book". Metapsychology. 9 (19). Archived from the original on 13 March 2007 . Retrieved 30 June 2007. Rosen was appointed the sixth British Children's Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson, and held the honour until June 2009, when he was succeeded by Anthony Browne. Rosen signed off from the Laureateship with an article in The Guardian, in which he said: "Sometimes when I sit with children when they have the space to talk and write about things, I have the feeling that I am privileged to be the kind of person who is asked to be part of it". In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Exeter.

University News" (PDF). Exeter.ac.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 July 2013 . Retrieved 27 November 2012. Knight, Lucy (11 October 2023). "Imprisoned Uyghur academic named 2023 PEN international writer of courage". The Guardian.

If anyone understands suffering, it is Rosen. In Getting Better, he documents the hardships he has faced, from Covid to the legacy of the Holocaust on his family (his two great-uncles were murdered in Auschwitz) to the premature deaths of his mother and his son, Eddie. It feels significant that, after decades spent telling mostly fictional stories for children, this is his second memoir in three years; the last one, 2021’s Many Different Kinds of Love, gave an account of Covid through the patient’s eyes, chronicling the days leading up to his hospitalisation, and latterly, his rehabilitation. Rosen has been married three times and has five children and two step-children. [72] His second son Eddie (1980–1999) died at the age of 18 from meningococcal septicaemia, and his death was the inspiration for Rosen's 2004 work Sad Book. [21] Rosen lives in North London [73] with his third wife, Emma-Louise Williams, and their two children. [74] [75]

The 74-year-old writer is very much alive on Zoom where, after a few technical hitches, he appears on screen seemingly as energetic as ever, his conversation an engaging ragbag of rants and anecdotes, ranging from King Lear to last night’s football match, even if names escape him occasionally. In real life, as has often been remarked, Rosen resembles the BFG, or at least Quentin Blake’s giant, all long limbs, extravagant ears and messy lines. “You’d have to ask Quentin. He’s never said: ‘By the way you are the BFG’,” he says of the illustrator with whom he has collaborated since 1974. “I think he was partly inspired by Dahl himself.” As an adult, Michael spent many years tracing his missing great uncles and aunts, and this book is the result. In August 2010, Rosen contributed to an e-book collection of political poems entitled Emergency Verse – Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State, edited by Alan Morrison. [47] To reach this entrance, enter the Royal Festival Hall via the Southbank Centre Square Doors. Take the JCB Glass Lift to Level 2 and exit to the Riverside Terrace. Turn right to find the Queen Elizabeth Hall main entrance.Flood, Alison (31 March 2020). "Michael Rosen 'very poorly but stable' after night in intensive care". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 March 2020 . Retrieved 31 March 2020. Rosen was appointed the sixth British Children's Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson, and held the honour until June 2009, when he was succeeded by Anthony Browne. [51] [52] [53] Rosen signed off from the Laureateship with an article in The Guardian, [54] in which he said, "Sometimes when I sit with children when they have the space to talk and write about things, I have the feeling that I am privileged to be the kind of person who is asked to be part of it". In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Exeter. [55] JC4PM". jc4pmtour. 28 July 2015. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017 . Retrieved 15 July 2017.

In April 2010, Rosen was given the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award from the National Union of Teachers for "campaigning for education". In July 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Nottingham Trent University. No,” he says. “It’s different. Sometimes he’s wearing clothes I’ve forgotten about, so I wake up and go, ‘Oh my God, I remember that shirt!’”Though Rosen has written about Eddie’s death previously (specifically in Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, a children’s title that begins with the words “This is me being sad,” beneath a Quentin Blake illustration of Rosen grinning), he has only done so sparingly and never in great detail. In Getting Better, he lays out the detail. One night Eddie complained of a headache. The next morning Rosen discovered his body cold and unmoving. When a 999 operator advised Rosen to remove Eddie from bed and place him on the floor in the recovery position – Rosen by this point knowing but not knowing that his son was already gone – Eddie fell stiffly and out of his mouth came “a bit of pale red fluid,” he writes. Paramedics confirmed Eddie’s death at the scene. Rosen watched them slide his son downstairs in a body bag. In the book, he recalls the terrible sound of the bag being zipped closed. ‘I guess I have sad thoughts every day. But I try not to be overcome by them’: Michael Rosen. Photograph: Pål Hansen/The Observer Rosen stood in the 2004 London Assembly Elections as a Respect Coalition candidate for the Londonwide list. [11] He is a supporter of the Republic campaign. [48] Rosen is chosen for laureate role". BBC News. BBC News Online. 11 June 2007. Archived from the original on 17 August 2007 . Retrieved 11 June 2007. Creamer, Ella (28 June 2023). "Author Michael Rosen wins 2023 PEN Pinter prize for 'fearless' body of work". The Guardian.