On Sunday 29th June, the fun continued with another nine incredible authors and illustrators…
Tola Okogwu
Tọlá Okogwu is an award-winning children’s author and journalist. She studied Journalism and spent some years exploring the world of blogging, haircare and freelance writing before returning to her first love…fiction. Tọlá’s debut novel, Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun was shortlisted for the British Book Awards and The Week Junior Book Awards as well as longlisted for The Jhalak Prize. Her self-published picture book series, Daddy Do My Hair is a firm family favourite and Tọlá also writes as Lola Morayo. She lives in Kent, England with her husband, two daughters and far too many books.
Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre
Philip Reeve is the author of Mortal Engines, Railhead, Here Lies Arthur, the Utterly Dark series, and many other novels for older children and young adults. He also collaborates with co-author Sarah McIntyre on books for younger readers including Oliver and the Seawigs, Pugs of the Frozen North, and their new series, Adventuremice. He lives on Dartmoor.
Instantly recognisable in her pointy specs, Devon-based writer-illustrator Sarah McIntyre found inspiration in her collection of model ships and bath toys to create the Adventuremice series with her co-author Philip Reeve. They come up with story ideas together and Philip does most of the writing, but Sarah helps, and Sarah paints most of the illustrations, but Philip helps with the initial pencil sketches. She’s also the author and artist who created the Grumpycorn picture books and other wild romps, such as ‘Dinosaur Firefighters’ and ‘There’s a Shark in the Bath’. You can find fun, free activities at Adventuremice.com and on her own website, Jabberworks.co.uk.
Naomi & James Jones
Naomi and James love playing with words and pictures to create beautiful artwork and stories. Their books have now been translated into 19 languages and shortlisted for several awards. They live by the sea in Cornwall together with their two boys and their dog.
Clare Helen Welsh
Clare Helen Welsh is a picture book writer who loves dreaming up stories for young readers and their families to enjoy. For many years she was a primary school teacher, which ignited her love of storytelling, reading and role-play. Clare lives in Devon with her husband, two children and her dog, Hope. When she isn’t imagining new worlds and creating characters, she enjoys walking on the beach and in the countryside and takes lots of inspiration from the natural world.
AF Steadman
Festival Patron, and the best-selling author of the remarkable Skandar series, dropped by to sign copies of her latest book – Skandar and the Chaos Trials.
Neill Cameron
Neill Cameron is a cartoonist and writer, creator of the award-winning Mega Robo Bros and How to Make Awesome Comics. Since 2011 his work has appeared in the weekly children’s comic The Phoenix, where he produces – amongst other things – the robotic soap opera comedy Mega Robo Bros, and (with artist Kate Brown) the Cornish-set fantasy drama Tamsin and the Deep.
Onjali Q Rauf
Onjali Q. Raúf is a multi award-winning children’s author and women’s and refugee human rights activist. She is the founder and CEO of Making Herstory which works to end the abuse, enslavement and trafficking of women and girls in the UK, and O’s Refugee Aid Team which mobilises aid convoys and funds to help frontline refugee response teams across northern France and beyond. She is the author of Sunday Times bestseller, The Boy at the Back of the Class, which won the Blue Peter Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2019, the Sakura Medal of Japan in 2020 and the Janusz Korczak Prize in 2022 amongst others. Her follow-up stories include The Star Outside My Window, The Night Bus Hero, The Great Food Bank Heist, The Lion Above the Door and a non-fiction title, Hope on the Horizon. She was awarded an MBE in 2022 for her services to women’s rights and children’s literature.
Onjali is also a Patron of VIP Reading, Facefront Theatre, and NIA Women; an Ambassador for Museum of the Home (London) and A Walk With Amal, and a contributor to BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought. An alumni of the Cambridge University Senior Faith in Leadership programme, she was listed as one of BBC’s 100 most influential women from around the world in 2019 together with Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Djamila Ribeiro and others. Her first children’s play, The Hero Next Door, was staged and toured nationally in 2023.
