Bath Children’s Literature Festival set for star-studded return

Venues across Bath including The Egg, The American Museum, The Little Theatre Cinema, The Forum, Central Library and the Roman Baths Clore Learning Centre are set to play host to Europe’s largest standalone children’s book festival this autumn.

From September 29-October 8, Bath Children’s Literature Festival 2023 will bring over 100 debut, local and national writers, creators and illustrators of books and stories for children and young people to the city.

The festival features a raft of interactive book events as well as an inclusive schools programme, free family activities, arts and crafts, toddler time film screenings and a host of YA authors.

Young audience members

Award-winning picture book writer and illustrator Rob Biddulph is guest curator for creative/illustator events, and will be recommending some of his current favourites, after opening the festival on September 29 at an event for 1000 local school children.

Elsewhere, highlights of the programme include Cressida Cowell, author of the worldwide smash-hit series of How to Train Your Dragon! books – now also the subject of multiple TV and movie adaptations; historian and You’re Dead to Me podcasting sensation Greg Jenner, bringing his first children’s book You are History to Bath; and Sir Lenny Henry, who has written a succession of action-packed middle-grade books including The Boy With Wings and his new title, Clash of the Super Kids.

Crafting activities

Fantasy writer Katherine Rundell will present the wildly imaginative world of Impossible Creatures; poetry comes from Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, Joshua Seigal and Nikita Gill; while author and illustrator duo Nathan Byron and Dapo Adeola introduce their newest Rocket adventure, Speak Up!

Robin Stevens will be introducing her latest mystery and inviting young audience members to put their own sleuthing skills to the test. Bestselling author of Five Survive and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson will also be sharing insights from her writing process.

And for fans of YA and adult contemporary fiction, writer Holly Bourne is at the festival to discuss her book You Could Be So Pretty, a searing indictment of the dysfunctional lens through which society views women’s and girl’s bodies.

Multiple events are taking place every day, with authors including Nadia Shireen, Sue Hendra, Sophy Henn, Duncan Beedie, Nikesh Shukla, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Stephen Mangan, Helen Rutter, Greg James and Dermot O’Leary.

Across the festival, free and affordably priced tickets are available for those in receipt of a cost-of-living payment from the UK Government.

Bath Children’s Literature Festival 2023 is in venues across Bath from September 29-October 8. For more information and ticket links to all events, visit www.bathfestivals.org.uk and follow @BathKidsLitFest on socials.

All photos: Bath Children’s Literature Festival

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