As has been so evident this afternoon British children's literature has been for many years an extraordinary success story and I am glad that we have been able to celebrate this great achievement here at Buckingham Palace."
[4] For the occasion, the palace grounds were transformed into scenes from children's books, including places like the Hundred Acre Wood, with 80 costumed characters and a model of the BFG sitting at a huge piano.
[5] The main attraction of the party was a pantomime-style play called The Queen's Handbag, written by children's author and playwright David Wood and directed by Trevor Nunn,[6] which was performed on a stage resembling Buckingham Palace and broadcast live on both BBC One and the CBBC Channel.
[7] The play ended with a rendition of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" by the entire cast, led by the London company of the musical Mary Poppins.
Throughout the programme, the audience was kept up to date about the status of the missing handbag with reports from both BBC News and Crimewatch.