HAVING discovered that church kneelers made excellent hockey pucks down the central aisle when turned upside-down, while hymn books made an almighty crash when dropped face down, Chris Riddell’s mother realised the now Observer cartoonist needed something more creative to occupy him during his father’s sermons.

Giving him a pencil and some paper served that purpose, and when an elderly woman with the most “fantastic” handbag sat next to him began feeding him wine gums in return for a drawing, he knew his career was made.

And today the Children’s Laureate kicked off the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature for its ninth annual season with an entertaining amble through his life as an illustrator and writer – completing a number of sketches as the morning went on, which were beamed live onto a large screen behind him as they took shape.

“The best bit – obviously – about being children’s laureate is that they give you a medal,” he told the packed hall at The Ridgeway School on Monday morning, as he swiftly sketched a self-portrait of himself wearing said medal. Although he revealed that among friends he is often referred to as the Children’s Laundrette after a German friend of his mistranslated the title bestowed on him last summer.

“It’s not funny, I am very important – it is very a very important job,” he told the pupils, to loud laughter. This seamlessly Segwayed him to begin talking about how his wife had laundered his jeans – without him asking her to – resulting in his old phone (now known as a stupid phone) being replaced with a new, smart phone – all the while, sketching onto the page. This had awoken him to the brave new world of social media and the endless hunt for little blue thumbs ups that signal success.

Childhood memories of the Ladybird Reading Scheme – including Peter and Jane’s daring adventures to the park and cooking with mother – prompted him to seek the wider world of literature. When furnished with all sorts of books from the school library he became fascinated with Tolkein’s The Hobbit – and revealed he very nearly could have become a friend of Tolkein’s grandson, had his father not been sent to a new Parish in Brixton from their sleepy Worcestershire village.

When the floor was opened up to the pupils he took the novel way of responding to their questions quite often with an illustration, and even though he was unable to complete a portrait of a pupil who asked what he could draw in just seven seconds, he came in very swiftly afterwards, to her and her classmates delight.

"What I enjoy most is being able to go out and talk about children's books and reading for pleasure," he told them. "I can talk about the importance of a really good school library and the importance of having a properly trained librarian to bring it all together."

The festival continued with the Two Steves at Kingsdown School during the afternoon, while pupils tomorrow will be treated to talks from Stan Cullimore and Chris Priestly.