Chris Meade is Director of Booktrust, the national organisation bringing books and people together from the start. Projects include Bookstart, the national books for babies scheme; top literary prizes, websites and creative reading projects for children and adults including The Children's Laureate, Writing Together, Bookscapes (launched as part of the BBC’s Big Read), the Booktrust Teenage Prize and Get London Reading, a campaign supported by the Mayor's Office. For six years he was Director of the Poetry Society where he set up the Poetry Café and launched Poetry Places, a major programme of residencies and commissions.  As arts officer for library services in Sheffield and Birmingham, he was at the forefront of creative reading work to broaden access to literature. Chris also writes comedy.