Bath Children's Literature Festival

Gigantic Fun with Rob Biddulph - Sat, 30 Sep 23 10:30

Age recommendation: 5+ Family

Back by popular demand, join award-winning author and illustrator and festival favourite Rob Biddulph in this fun-packed event for all the family. In a session fizzing with laughs, creativity and of course drawing, Rob will bring to life his award-winning picture books, including his brand new character Gigantic, a small whale with a big heart. And have your pencils at the ready as everyone will learn to draw one of Rob’s new underwater characters step-by-step in one of his famous Draw with Rob draw-alongs. 

Rob Biddulph is an award-winning author and illustrator who lives in London with his wife, daughters and Ringo the cocker spaniel. His first picture book, Blown Away, published in 2014, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Since then, Rob has illustrated 12 of his own picture books, created a range of bestselling activity books and a middle-grade fiction series opening with Peanut Jones and the Illustrated City. Rob’s series of #DrawwithRob videos, designed to help parents with children at home from school due to the pandemic, have captured the imaginations of families, children and artists, young and old, around the world and have been watched almost six million times on YouTube alone. Rob holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest art lesson when over 40,000 families joined him online to draw a whale in May 2020.

The Ministry of Unladylike Activity with Robin Stevens - Sat, 30 Sep 23 15:30

Age recommendation: 8+

Festival favourite, bestselling author Robin Stevens is back by popular demand to tell us all about her newest thrilling mystery! March, 1941. Britain is at war and a secret agency called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up children as spies – because grown-ups always underestimate them. Enter May, Eric and Nuala: courageous, smart and the Ministry’s newest recruits. Robin will share her tips and tricks on how to write the perfect murder mystery and the inspiration behind her new team of detectives. You will also get the chance to put your own sleuthing skills to the test and ask your burning questions, like any good detective.

After being unable to stay for a book signing at last year’s festival, Robin is delighted to be able to stay on after her event this year for a book signing with fans.

Robin Stevens was born in California and grew up in an Oxford college, across the road from the house where Alice in Wonderland lived. She has been making up stories all her life. When she was 12, her father handed her a copy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and she realised that she wanted to be either Hercule Poirot or Agatha Christie when she grew up. She spent her teenage years at Cheltenham Ladies' College, reading a lot of murder mysteries and hoping that she'd get the chance to do some detecting herself (she didn't). She went to university, where she studied crime fiction, and then she worked at a children's publisher. Robin is now a full-time author and the creator of the internationally award-winning and bestselling Murder Most Unladylike series, starring Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong, and the brand-new Ministry of Unladylike Activity. She still hopes she might get the chance to do some detecting of her own one day. She lives in Oxford.

Cressida Cowell: 20 Years of How To Train Your Dragon! - Sat, 07 Oct 23 10:00

Age recommendation: 7+

CRESSIDA’S COWELL’S HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON PARTY

It’s the 20th Anniversary of Cressida Cowell’s worldwide sensation, How to Train Your Dragon! Come and celebrate – Cressida will teach everyone how to draw Hiccup, give everyone top tips on becoming an author or illustrator, and give behind the scenes details of how they became a film and TV megahit. Viking hats will be on offer and Cressida has written a new short story in the Dragon world, How to Train Your Hogfly. As a former Children’s Laureate, Cressida is a well known speaker: her events for children are inspiring, and she has sold out every major literary festival. This event is UNMISSABLE!

After the event, the fun continues with our friends at The Little Theatre Cinema where we will be showing a special family screening of How To Train Your Dragon with a very special introduction by Cressida herself!

Cressida Cowell is the author and illustrator of the bestselling The Wizards of Once, How to Train Your Dragon and Which Way to Anywhere books series, and the author of the Emily Brown picture books, illustrated by Neal Layton. She was the Waterstones Children’s Laureate from 2019 – 2022.