Shropshire Magazine

Shrewsbury Children’s Bookfest president Jacqueline Wilson is thrilled to be returning to this year’s event.

Neil Thomas sees how the power of the printed word is being harnessed for Shropshire children

Some of the UK’s top children’s authors will visit Shropshire to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of Shrewsbury Children’s Bookfest. Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpurgo, Ian Whybrow and Jeremy Strong are set to thrill young book fans next month.

One of the most popular children’s authors of all time, Jacqueline Wilson is Shrewsbury Bookfest’s president. She forged her reputation writing with humour about contemporary children coping with the modern world. She has sold more than 10 million books and been translated into over 30 languages. Her work has been adapted for stage, radio and television – her 1991 book The Story of Tracy Beaker, about a child who lives in residential and foster care, has had three TV series. She adapted her 1995 book Double Act, about identical twins, for Channel 4, winning the Royal TV Society Best Children’s Fiction Award. In 2005, Jacqueline Wilson became Children’s Laureate, and in 2007, became a DBE.

The 63-year-old author will appear in The Auditorium at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, in An Audience With Jacqueline Wilson on Saturday May 2, from 7pm to 8pm. She will introduce her most recent book, My Secret Diary and discuss some of her best loved titles.

This will be Dame Jacqueline’s fourth visit to Shrewsbury Bookfest since she appeared at the very first one in 1999, but is her first since 2003.

She says: “I’m thrilled to be returning to the Shrewsbury Festival. It’s always a pleasure to visit the town and I’m really looking forward to seeing the brand new theatre.

“Children’s authors go all over the world speaking at book festivals. But I can honestly say that I have had the most fun at Shrewsbury, and I know all my fellow authors agree with me.” 

Also returning to Shrewsbury this year will be Bookfest’s two patrons, former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo and Ian Whybrow, author of the Harry and the Dinosaurs series, which will also be celebrating its 10th birthday at The Trinity Centre in Vicarage Road, Meole Brace, with an event for five- to seven-year-olds featuring fun songs and interactive games. 

An Evening With Michael Morpurgo will be at Shrewsbury High School in Town Walls on Friday, May 1, when he will talk about many of his wonderful stories including some of his latest books like Kaspar and Born to Run.

An award-winning author of more than 70 titles, Jeremy Strong will also be making a return visit to Shrewsbury and there will be appearances by top writers for teenagers, Robert Muchamore and Louise Rennison. 

Support

“In addition to some of the wonderful authors who’ve given us tremendous support over the last ten years, we’re also excited to be welcoming some other top authors who are visiting Shrewsbury for the first time,” says Sophie Peach, chairman of the Bookfest organising committee.

Robert Muchamore, who has taken the children’s book world by storm with his exciting Cherub series of stories about a team of young secret agents, will be at Theatre Severn to talk about his brand new series, Henderson’s Boys, set in World War II.

Louise Rennison will be recounting some of the hilarious anecdotes from her books, which include Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, now a major film, and Stop in the Name of Pants.

There are also lots of events for younger children, including a special 40th anniversary celebration of the much-loved Very Hungry Caterpillar, a 10th birthday celebration of Giraffes Can’t Dance and a magical recreation of The Rainbow Fish.

There will be a chance to watch how illustrator Barrie Appleby brings Dennis the Menace and Gnasher to life, a Glitterwings Academy of Dance with author Titania Woods and a chance to learn how to Think Like a Pony with Lynn Henry.

Rounding the festival off on Bank Holiday Monday, Image Musical Theatre will present the much-loved classic The Railway Children, at Theatre Severn.

Caroline Thewles, one of the annual event’s founder members.

The idea of the Bookfest came about in 1998. “Four of us had just run the Coleridge Festival,” explains Bookfest founder member Caroline Thewles, who remains part of the organising committee. “We had enjoyed ourselves so much that we thought ‘Let’s go on and do something for children’. It went from there quite quickly with the first festival the following year.” 

Since 1999 the Bookfest has established a reputation for excellence amongst authors, publishers and keen supporters and is now firmly established as one of the most highly regarded events of its kind in the UK.

The Bookfest has always been an independent, not-for profit organisation, run entirely by volunteers who collectively put in hundreds of hours work throughout the year. It obtained charitable status in 2007.

The Bookfest is still a long way, however, from being the kind of mammoth literary event which festivals like Hay-on-Wye have become. And that is where much of its charm lies, reckons Caroline.

“Michael Morpurgo always says he loves coming up here to our Bookfest because it’s a real children’s festival, focusing on children and their families. It’s still small and friendly enough to have that personal touch.” 

Sophie says the line-up of top authors would not be possible without generous support.

“As a registered charity with no statutory funding, we’re extremely grateful to local businesses and trusts for some incredibly generous sponsorship. Thanks to the David Penney Practice, Hatchers Solicitors, Shropshire Horticultural Society, SADAA and Redan Publishing, we’ve got a fabulous line-up of fun events running throughout the May Bank Holiday weekend and across the town for children of all ages, bookworms and reluctant readers alike.”

Sophie, who became involved when she took her own children to a Bookfest event, says: “It’s wonderful to see how inspired and enthused children are by the experience of meeting a real author. You appreciate just why the top children’s writers are so hugely popular with their readers. As you can tell from their books, they have a wonderful and instinctive gift for understanding how children think and how to inspire their imaginations. It makes the Bookfest events very special.

“We know from the huge success of Bookfest events how much children love meeting authors. For even the most reluctant readers, it really brings books alive and inspires their imagination. And we know from our conversations with teachers how very much they value it too,” says Sophie.

“The Bookfest Committee wants to give that sort of experience to as many children as possible. So in the last few years we have expanded Bookfest activities to include an Authors in Schools Week, when we can offer schools in and around Shrewsbury the chance of having an author come and spend a whole morning or afternoon with their pupils.

“The fact that we’re an independent and small-scale organisation means that we have the flexibility to work with local schools on an individual level.”

Between March 16 and 20, more than 3,000 children in 22 schools in and around Shrewsbury had the chance to meet and talk to some of the country’s top children’s writers, illustrators and storytellers. 

Feel

“We’ve come to know a lot of the local schools well and we’ve been able to get a good feel for the kind of authors and events they are looking for that suit the needs of their children,” explains Sophie. “So just as we do for the main festival in May, we select our visiting authors for schools very carefully and work closely with the schools to try to ensure that the children get the most out of the visit.

“We are also particularly pleased to be able to support the work of eight junior schools throughout this year in their efforts to raise the reading culture among their pupils. Albrighton, Greenacres, Greenfields, Longmeadow, Maesbury, St John’s Bridgnorth, Severndale and Sheriffhales Junior schools are all taking part in a 12-month pilot scheme called Reading Connects, organised by the Literacy Trust, looking at imaginative ways of developing pupils’ interest in the written word.”   

Children taking part in the Reading Connects initiative have been designing book covers and writing blurbs for a competition organised by Shrewsbury Bookfest.

• Visit www.shrewsburybookfest.co.uk for event and booking details. Tickets are available from Theatre Severn box office on 01743 281281.