St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature 2024

Last year, I had the best time at the St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature and so was delighted to be able to go again this year. This is rapidly becoming my favourite festival- and I go to quite a few throughout the year. Not only are tickets only £1 each, but there is such a warm atmosphere of community and joy which some other festivals lack…

I arrived in plenty of time and was able to get my bearings and enjoy a quick cuppa before my first event, but the dedicated team behind the festival had obviously been hard at work for quite some time. Last year, the festival was held just on the Saturday, but this year it had expanded to all weekend with school events on either side.

My first event was the wonderful Ross Montgomery. The session I attended was for younger children as his second event based around ‘I am Rebel’ (fantastic book!) clashed with another event. This is the biggest problem with St Austell Lit Fest- there are just so many brilliant sessions to choose from! Ross was marvellous and kept the very young (and considerably older!) members of his audience thoroughly entertained, creating characters and developing stories.

The Festival Hub was bursting with activities for children to enjoy, authors signing books and the wonderful Reading Rocks Bookshop which offered an incredibly tempting range of reading matter! This space was full of excited children queuing to get their books signed and to have a word with their favourite authors- and there were some huge queues! Although I had to choose my sessions carefully to make them fit, there was still plenty of opportunity to have a book signed by the other authors and have a quick chat. I know I have already commented on the atmosphere, but this really was something special.

Next, I went to see Justyn Edwards for a truly magical session which kept the audience on the edge of their seats trying to solve the tricks and illusions he performed! Like everyone else, I thoroughly enjoyed his event and I was very excited to learn that the third book in ‘The Great Fox’ series is coming out later this year!

Next, I headed to a church for a panel event about whales with Chris Vick, Hannah Gold and Jasbinder Bilan. These three passionate, engaging authors gave the audience a quiz to test their whale knowledge, shared plenty of whale facts and each gave a reading from their book. It was such an interesting session- and my first literary festival event held in a church!

Back to the bookshop for more book signing and catching up with more friends. I took Fed Ted with me and everyone was pleased to see him! Although I could only go on the Saturday, other members of the FCBG attended on Sunday and also had a brilliant time. Huge congratulations to the team behind this amazing festival- and I look forward to seeing you all again next year!

You can visit their website here

You can read about last year’s festival here.

St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature

Yesterday, I had great fun attending the St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature. Originally, I intended to go for the day, but as it’s nearly 3 hours from home, we decided to make a weekend of it, with my husband and son meeting up to walk some of the SW coast path, whilst I enjoyed the festival.

Festival events were being held in four different locations- the library, White River Cinema, Unit 4 and the Pop up venue. Never having stopped in St Austell before, I was delighted to find that the three venues where I had events were all really close together with parking nearby. The Festival Hub was also located in White River Place, using an empty shop, which offered a wonderful space for the bookshop and some creative activities to take place.

The bookshop was provided by Reading Rocks- and what a selection was on offer! It was lovely to meet up with Heather again and enjoy some book-ish chat with her in odd moments when she wasn’t being everywhere and doing everything with her wonderful team of helpers!

My first event was in the cinema! I have heard many, many authors speak over the years, but this was definitely one of the most comfortable locations! Having just reviewed the new Rosie Raja book, ‘Mission to Cairo’ for Reading Zone, I was delighted to have the opportunity to hear author, Sufiya Ahmed, talking about her writing. It was a great event with lots of thoughtful questions from the audience.

My next event was at the Pop up venue, another empty shop which was being used for the excellent purpose of hosting events. Non-fiction author, Isabel Thomas, treated the audience to a fascinating session which generated plenty of excitement. Having written over 250 books (including ‘Moth’ which I frequently use in Y6), she told us she often gets asked to write about things she knows little about and so has to start with questions, silly ones being the best as they often lead to really interesting science! The children in the audience came up with some brilliant ones- and she gave equally brilliant answers!

Next, I headed to Unit 4 which is a dance studio. Here, Rebecca Cobb read some stories, including a new book which she has illustrated for Julia Donaldson called ‘Who Lives Here?’. She showed everyone how to draw Aunt Amelia and shared the story behind her story ‘The Something’!

Back at the cinema, I joined an excited group listening to Clare Helen Welsh reading about Lenny the lemur in ‘Poo! Is that You?’. Illustrator, Nicola O’Byrne, sent a film showing how to draw Lenny and some lovely lemur pictures were created. Clare then read her new book ‘Sunny Side Up’ (review here) and everyone enjoyed making their own sunny-side specs!

There were so many events to choose from that I could easily have attended twice or three times as many had I been able to fit them in! I managed to catch up with Sarah Tagholm, but missed many others like Emma McCann, Justyn Edwards, Anna Wilson, Julie Sykes…there was so much choice! Unbelievably, tickets were only £1 each- I have no idea how the organisers managed it, but this was a wonderfully successful festival and I shall be back next year when I hope there will be another one! Huge congratulations to all concerned!