Wokingham Childrens Book Festival

When Is It?

The Wokingham Children’s Book Festival will be held on the weekend of Saturday October 15th to Sunday October 16th. Put a note in your diary and don’t forget to book some events!

A two day festival where you can meet and listen to talks by authors of children’s books. Learn about the process of writing and have a lot of fun! We are fully back in person this year with some sessions also being streamed.

Meet The Authors

There will be 16 sessions where you can meet authors giving sessions on subjects such as the writing process and their characters.

What does it cost?

In person tickets remain at £3 per seat. Access to the streamed sessions is £3 per household. Links to where you can purchase books online will be available on the authors page. You will also be able to buy books at the event.

Book Tickets

Please click above on the shopping cart for the full list of events and booking links. There are many exciting and entertaining events that are happening over the two days of the festival. Spaces are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment. For advice and help with booking online please contact us

Bookseller

Each workshop is followed by a book signing and we are pleased to announce that Fourbears will be our official bookseller with stalls at each venue. Fourbears can take card payments. There are many cash points available in the Town. Nearest to the Town Hall are HSBC, or Barclays. Nearest to the Library is Lloyds TSB.

Joining your event

Joining an in person event

Wokingham Town Hall (RG40 2AX) is in the centre of Wokingham, 5 to 10 mins walk from Wokingham Railway Station and less than 5 mins walk from the Broad Street bus stops. Nearest car parks are Cockpit Path and Denmark Street. There is also a large multi story in the Carnival Development just over 5 mins walk from the Town Hall. There is limited on street disabled parking outside the Town Hall.

Please enter via the Book Festival marked entrance of the Town Hall for tickets to be checked. We will be operating a one way system through the building, where ever possible.

Wokingham Library (RG40 2AF) is in the new Carnival development. Just over 5 mins from Wokingham Town Hall. It is 5 mins walk from Wokingham Railway Station and nearest bus stops. Nearest car park is Carnival Multi story.

Please ensure you have read the requirements for attending via the terms and conditions of entry. You can find that information both on the terms and conditions of every ticket sale and also on this website.

Joining an online event

On signing up for your session on Ticketsource you will receive an email containing the link to that session. All sessions will be hosted on Crowdcast.

You will need to register for your session on the Crowdcast platform. Please use the same email address as the ticketsource account so we can track attendees.

Please ensure you read the terms and conditions for information regarding staying safe online during the event.

The event uses software that opens a window in your browser, no special technology is required. We advise using Google Chrome on the day.

Manjeet Mann

Manjeet Mann is an actress, playwright, screenwriter, and director. She is the founder of Run the World – an organisation that works with women and girls from marginalised backgrounds and helps to empower them through sport and storytelling.

Amanda Quartey

Amanda Quartey has been drawing ever since she can remember. She was born and bred in London. At the age of fourteen she moved to Ghana and studied art at school and later returned to the UK to study graphic design.

Christopher Edge

Christopher grew up in Manchester where he spent most of his childhood in the local library dreaming up stories, but now lives in Gloucestershire where he spends most of his time in the local library dreaming up stories.

Dapo Adeola

Dapo Adeola is a multi award winning author and illustrator and visual development artist. Mostly know for illustrating the Look Up picture book series as well as writing the British Book Awards wining Hey You.

Holly Webb

Holly Webb is one of Britain’s best-loved children’s writers. She has written over a hundred books for children and her work has been translated into over thirty languages.

Jane Elson

After performing as an actress and comedy improviser. Jane fell into writing stories and plays. Her books have won many awards including Peters Book Of The Year two years running. Her debut novel, A Room Full Of Chocolate was longlisted for the Branford Boase Award and she has twice been nominated for the Carnegie Medal.
Jane is honoured to be on the Women Beyond The Box first UK’s Top 50 influential Neurodivergent women list.

Louie Stowell

Louie Stowell started her career writing carefully-researched books about space, ancient Egypt, politics and science but eventually lapsed into just making stuff up.

Michael Catchpool

Michael Catchpool has authored several picture books as well as numerous sketches and scripts used in schools. A former primary school headteacher with a PhD from Cambridge University, he is currently a schools effectiveness adviser.

Nizrana Farook

Nizrana Farook was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the beautiful landscapes of her home country find their way into the stories she writes. She has a master’s degree in writing for young people, and lives with her family in Hertfordshire.

Ross Welford

Ross Welford was a journalist and television producer before becoming a full-time writer. He lives in London with his wife, children, a border collie, and several tropical fish.

Sean Taylor

Sean Taylor is the author of over 60 books. He is best known for picture books such as Hoot Owl Master of Disguise, A Brave Bear and How to Be Cooler Than Cool!. Sean also writes plays for young audiences and has many years’ experience of encouraging children to try their hands at creative writing themselves.

Sophy Henn

Sophy Henn is an award-winning picture book author and illustrator with an MA in Illustration from the University of Brighton. She is the creator of the much-loved Bad Nana fiction series, the Pom Pom series, the Ted board book series and has recently created the non-fiction titles Lifesize and Lifesize Dinosaurs.

Steve Antony

Steve Antony is an award-winning author and illustrator of many books including the bestselling The Queen’s Hat and Please Mr Panda. He recently illustrated the Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang picture book, adapted by Peter Bently.

Sufiya Ahmed

Sufiya Ahmed worked in advertising and in the House of Commons before becoming a full-time author. In 2010 she set up the BIBI Foundation, which arranges visits to the Houses of Parliament for children from underprivileged backgrounds.

Tim Tilley

Tim Tilley studied illustration at Anglia Ruskin University and now teaches the children’s book illustration course at City Lit in London. He is always watchful of the world around him and loves collecting and drawing beautiful snapshots of nature, relishing the small things people often miss.

Rikin Parekh

Rikin studied art at the Camberwell College of Arts and the University of Westminster. He has since worked designing monsters for the film industry and selling books for a national chain. Rik’s latest picture book Yes You Can Cow by Faber is published earlier this year.

Yijing Li

Yijing Li is a London-based graphic designer and illustrator. Originally from China, she graduated from London College of Communication and founded a design studio in 2014. Through the Forest is her debut picture book.

Authors into Schools

Wokingham Borough Libraries will be offering Wokingham schools and homeschoolers the opportunity to take part in online author visits this September and October.

We will be providing a variety of authors that your pupils will be able to engage with. There will be a selection of illustrators and authors to choose for each year group.

Contact Information

Feel free to contact us with any of the below medium:

Business Hours

Call us on 0118 974 0889

Monday-Friday : 8.30am to 5pm
Address

Wokingham Town Hall
E-mail

artsandculture@wokingham-tc.gov.uk

For full terms and conditions of the festival please click here