EVER SEEN The Ghost and Mrs Muir? I promise you it's worth watching. Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz in 1947, it stars a splendidly grumpy Rex Harrison as the shade of an old salt, Captain Daniel Gregg, left to haunt his old house which has been rented by a comely young widow (the beautiful Gene Tierney). When Mrs Muir gets into a bit of a financial pickle, the late Captain Gregg offers to rescue her by dictating his racy autobiography to her - the proceeds of the publication will surely get her out of her bind. Sure enough, the marvellously titled Blood and Swash is a hit and Lucy Muir's troubles - at least the financial ones - would appear to be over. Too bad she's in love with a ghost.

The subject of ghosts and ghosting arises because the Galaxy British Book Awards, familiarly known as the Nibbies, are nearly upon us. See who is shortlisted for the WH Smith Children's Book of the Year Award, and you will find Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Francesca Simon, Fiona Watt and Katie Price - otherwise known as Jordan. My Pony Care Book is, therefore, pitted against the work of two former Children's Laureates. Problem?

Indeed, which brings me back to Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney. Yes, the Nibbies are all about success in bookselling; rather different than the thrust of other more “literary” awards. And yet. It is, as our children's book critic, Amanda Craig, has remarked, generally understood that Miss Price employs a ghost; surely she must, for these days, with autobiographies, novels and children's books, she's a one-woman publishing industry herself.

So is it fair - especially in a category that is so influential in the forming of future readers - to pit books that have actually been written by their authors (yes, it does happen) against books that have been, as the saying goes, ghosted?

It doesn't seem so to me. The difficulty is it becomes easy enough to imagine a world in which every Big Brother or Strictly Come Dancing “celebrity” is enjoined to leap on the kids' book bandwagon, and where would we be then? We are close enough to that world when it come to adult books, but I mind much less about that. It's children who need to discover how wonderful real books - that's the only way to describe them - can be.

www.britishbookawards.co.uk

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