Brighton Festival Events

The weekend is over, and my Brighton Festival events complete. All went well, thankfully, and I really enjoyed both of them.

On Friday evening I chaired a panel on the theme of "Creating Books for Very Young Children." The very talented Polly Dunbar, Chris Fisher and Axel Scheffler were speaking. Each gave a short presentation, followed by a group discussion and then questions from the audience. There was some resistance to the idea of addressing a particular age group at all, though Polly most clearly creates books aimed at the youngest of readers. Chris Fisher was lively and entertaining, which was especially impressive since this was his first event aimed at adults. And Axel showed a great array of images from his books, including various novelty titles (puzzles, pop-ups, etc.). All said that they really create images for themselves, that speak to them. We had an audience with many aspiring illustrators with keen questions, and the panelists kindly gave advice and looked at sample illustrations during the book signing which followed the event. Hilary Cooke who organizes the 26 Letters children's book events at the festival, was an efficient and friendly host. And she let me borrow her watch, since I continue to resist being a slave to time (though I am very punctual). This event was sold-out to around 200 people, and there was a great buzzy vibe.

Then on Saturday I attended a poetry workshop with Adisa, a very tall, charming and energetic man. I am writing an evaluation for the Children's Discovery Centre who are running an Arts Council-funded series of performances and workshops at book festivals. I was impressed with how Adisa engaged the children from the beginning, getting them to fill in the blanks for his rhymes in his poems, then write some of their own metaphorical poems about the place that feels like home. I'd definitely recommend him to anyone looking for an inspiring poet/performer.

And on Sunday, I interviewed author Patrick Ness. While the audience was smaller than the Friday night event, those people who made it got a real treat. Patrick, who wrote The Knife of Never Letting Go and his new book, The Ask and the Answer, was honest and full of wisdom. He spoke about his own writing development and gave several writing tips to the teens and adults in attendance. He also gave two lively readings to help bring the book to life for all of us there. Since I'm such a big fan of these books, I had no problems asking lots and lots of questions (I didn't even get to all of them). He went on afterwards to see the new Star Trek film, and I've heard he gave it two thumbs up. So there you go.

I love doing these sorts of events, as I luckily don't have a fear of speaking in front of crowds, and am just so keen to get to talk to people involved in creating children's books. Hilary was very kind (she called me her favorite chair so far), so hopefully there will be more to come at next year's festival. Watch this space...