Wychwood ... Two Days to Go

The excitement builds, with only two sleeps to go until the Wychwood Festival begins, two whole days until the Children's Literature Festival begins but only one whole day until I get my train and head on over.

So we have looked in some detail at the events for Saturday (which will now include me meeting with Petr Horacek for a chat so watch this space next week when I report back with news from him), we have touched slightly on Sunday so now here are some more hints about some of the exciting sessions that you can look forward to ...

Names that are new to me and maybe to some of you too, always a good and intriguing sign - always good to meet new authors and illustrators and in fact anyone who is helping to create great literature for children ... Jenny Smith, Giles Paley-Philips and Mike Estedium ...

Jenny takes to the stage on Saturday afternoon and if her biog on the festival website is anything to go by she will be hilarious!

Apparently she enjoys crisps, trampolining at midnight and being a nosy neighbour, the perfect ingredients for being a great writer for children - all adding up to making her slightly mad!  

Her book The Abominators contains the most mischievous and crazy characters you are likely to ever come across, they love chaos, mayhem and filling toilets with jelly but they most definitely do not like making new friends with the goody-two-shoes new boy.  I can't wait to go to her event and have a chat! 

I have also mentioned Giles Paley-Philips.  Giles is the author of The Fearsome Beastie a book which has won a number of prizes for this musician turned author ... and which is the book he will be reading from but there have been others along the way including Tamara Small and the Monsters' Ball, The Things You Never Knew ABout Dinosaurs and Princess Stay Awake.  Then there is the collection of poetry he wrote There Is a Lion in my Bathroom so I am hoping that as well as hearing Giles read we may be treated to some music and poetry too!

These new names, alongside the more established are what makes the festival so exciting and something to look forward to with a growing sense of anticipation ...  I hope you feel it too ....