David Fickling, accepting the prestiguous Carnegie award on behalf of the late Siobhan Dowd, was forthright in his comments about the state of libraries today: "It is an absolute public disgrace that for the last 30 years the main bulwark and protection for children and their reading in our culture, namely the public and school library services, and particularly the spending on books, has been cut, cut and cut again until our libraries are now a brave but struggling shadow of their former selves."