Guardian article on the WFA win

Here's a lot of what I typed in bed last night, written up by Alison Flood and headed 'Controversial teenage novel wins World Fantasy award':

Lanagan ... hit out at the articles claiming young adults are unable to handle the themes of her book. "There's this assumption that all children have the luxury of a childhood where their innocence is always respected and their main occupation is pleasant play – at the age of 18, or 21, they are then thrust into the real world and shown its uglier side, but not before," she said. "How on earth do people imagine we equip children for life, if we never show them the sorts of issues other people encounter, if we never talk through with them how they might deal with difficulty, or violence, or unexpected shocks and surprises?"

Lanagan also pointed to the current "fashion for vampires and all things gothic", which she said showed the appetite for "dark themes, sinister characters, and horrific events against which the kinder and sweeter aspects of human nature, when they do show, can shine even more brightly".

I'm on a nice high horse there, aren't I?