It was reassuring to hear that Claire Fayers, who introduced this Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival event, was actually in the audience five years ago, when it first took place, wondering if she’d ever get her work published. She now has two children’s books published (the Accidental Pirates series), which proves that these things can happen! She introduced us to author Horatio Clare and literary agent Philippa Milnes-Smith, who shared their advice on writing for children and getting published.
#cdfkidslitfest
Jacqueline Wilson at Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival
Jacqueline Wilson is an impressive author. I read and loved her books when I was a child and she is still churning out brilliant (and fabulously illustrated) books, year after year, with 38 million books sold in Britain alone. The Story of Tracy Beaker has been turned into four different series on CBBC, and Hetty Feather has been adapted for TV and stage. She also has her own magazine and regularly speaks at events around the country. I should not have been surprised, therefore, to see a queue of families snaking its way outside Cardiff City Hall in anticipation of this event. Continue reading
How Welsh is Roald Dahl?
If disaster strikes on the other side of the globe, the Welsh media always succeed in finding some Welsh person whose second cousin or neighbour’s son was present at the event. This habit of claiming everything for Wales can be amusing and ridiculous, but in the case of Roald Dahl, we (I count myself as Welsh now, after living here for seven years) can definitely claim at least a small part of him for ourselves. He was born here, baptised in the Norwegian church (his parents were Norwegian) and spent his early childhood living in Llandaff (which is now a suburb of Cardiff, although it pretends not to be). Continue reading
Do we take children’s literature seriously?
Last night I attended a lecture on this topic, which was organised as part of the Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival. I was unsure what to expect. My own opinion is that all literature should be taken seriously, including books written for children. At the age of ten I was regularly reading adult books and yet as an adult I am happy to re-read the books of my childhood. I even organised a Roald Dahl themed party for my thirtieth birthday. So what’s the problem? Continue reading