'The new master of books for children' The Times
Experience one of the first great Christmas adventures!
Before Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia came John Masefield’s The Box of Delights.
Find out more with our teaser trailer and rumpage your way to Wilton’s this Christmas
A massive thank you to everyone who entered our Box of Delights drawing competition – we loved seeing what you imagined would be in the Box.
It was a really tough decision but myself, designer Tom Piper and actress Josefina Gabrielle finally chose this entry from Ruby, aged 10. Well done Ruby!
I am delighted to join Ben Okri, Carol Ann Duffy and Frank Cottrell Boyce as contributors to Alt-Write, a new collection of writing from major authors intended to “debunk xenophobic myths and … help [readers] discover the natural human quality of empathy”.
Okri is contributing his poem Grenfell Tower, June 2017, written after the disaster, Cottrell Boyce has written a “fable about the lost”, The Burning Bush, and Duffy is donating her poem History to the anthology. Aimed at young adults, with all profits to go to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the anthology, subtitled “Creative reactions to uncertain times”, will feature work from 50 authors and illustrators who also include Benjamin Zephaniah,Michael Rosen, Chris Riddell, Sarah McIntyre, Celia Rees, Philip Ardagh, Alex Wheatle and Jackie Kay.
The past year has delivered a tumultuous series of world events that has left people reeling. Authors and illustrators asked themselves what they could do to help and the answer was to do what we do best, to write and draw and create. When you don’t like the story the world is telling, tell a different story,” said editors Mary Hoffman and Rhiannon Lassiter, who are looking to crowdfund publication of the anthology on IndieGogo. “This collection, to be published in spring 2018, is an outpouring of those emotions, an appeal to reason and a way for us to contribute to those in need of help.”
To help crowdfund the book, please click here.
I am delighted to announce that I have been appointed Patron of Reading at St. Silas Primary School in Toxteth, Liverpool, for the rest of this academic year.
A Patron of Reading is a school’s special children’s author, poet, storyteller or illustrator. The school and their patron develop a relationship over a period of time. Everything the patron does is related to helping encourage and develop a reading for pleasureculture in the school: book quizzes, blogs, book recommendations, discussions, plays, poetry bashes, blogs, book trailers and visits. The possibilities are virtually endless.
First mooted by head teacher Tim Redgrave, the idea has now spread to almost 200 schools across the British Isles.
The teaching staff at St. Silas are visionary, determined and inspirational about their mission and the school has a wonderful sense of family and community.
The children are also full of joy and passion for learning and reading, and I cannot wait to see what we can achieve over the coming year.
There May Be A Castle has been nominated for a CILIP Carnegie Medal 2018, one of a 121 titles nominated for this 80 year old award.
The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded annually by CILIP for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people.
Previous winners of the CILIP Carnegie Medal include Neil Gaiman, Sally Gardner, Patrick Ness, Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman and C.S. Lewis.
Librarians all over the country begin reading the nominated books now in order to make a Longlist announcement on 15 February 2018, with the shortlist announced on 15th March, and the winner revealed on 18th June 2018.
I am thrilled to be listed along with so many other wonderful books and authors – good luck everybody!
To celebrate the world premiere of my adaptation of John Masefield’s The Box of Delights Wilton’s is running a drawing competition for Key Stage 2 (years 3-6).
We would like you to draw or paint a picture of what you imagine might be contained within the magical Box of Delights! The winning entry will be printed on the front cover of The Box of Delights programme for the duration of the production’s run at Wilton’s, 1st December 2017 – 6th January 2018.
The winner will also receive four tickets to see a performance of their choice of The Box of Delights, subject to availability.
What You Need to Do
Delighted to finally announce our incredible cast for my brand-new stage adaptation of The Box of Delights at Wilton’s Music Hall:
National Treasure Matthew Kelly and West End superstar Josefina Gabrielle are to star, as part of an ensemble cast in the gloriously Christmassy surroundings of Wilton’s Music Hall. Joining Kelly and Gabrielle as part of the stellar lineup will be Mark Extance, Safiyya Ingar, Tom Kanji, Samuel Simmonds, Rosalind Steele and Alistair Toovey.
Matthew Kelly is an Olivier-award winning actor best known for television and stage acting and presenting family favourites Stars In Their Eyes and Game For a Laugh. Having appeared in several West End productions; Of Mice and Men, Waiting For Godot, Funny Peculiar and Sign of the Times to name a few, Matthew has most recently been appearing in Desire Under The Elms at the Sheffield Crucible. Three-time Olivier-nominated Josefina Gabriellehas appeared in countless West End shows, including Stepping Out, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Sweet Charity and Merrily We Roll Along. Her television credits include Miranda, Doctors, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Heartbeat.
The original great British children’s literary classic, which has inspired authors from C S Lewis to J K Rowling, The Box Of Delights was reinvented as an award-winning BBC television show in the 1980s and became an instant cult classic, creating a fanbase of thousands around the world. This brand-new stage show tells the story of young orphan Kay Harker, the boy who must save Christmas. On the train home for the holidays he encounters an old magician, Cole Hawlings, who tasks Kay with protecting his Box of Delights, a wondrous device with time travelling powers. And so begins a tale of adventure that transports Kay through time and space, as he must protect the Box against Cole’s nemesis, the evil sorcerer Abner Brown.
Matthew Kelly says ‘I couldn’t be more delighted to be returning to Wilton’s, a magical venue and the perfect setting for the Christmas classic The Box of Delights. How they will achieve the effects of snow, flood, talking animals, miniaturised children and flying cars in this exciting time-travel adventure I have no idea. If anybody can do it, Justin Audibertdirecting and Tom Piper designing can and that’s why I’m on board. Hurrah.’
Josefina Gabrielle says ‘I’m so excited to be joining the cast of The Box of Delights. And I can’t wait to see what this incredible creative team has in store for us in bringing this wonderful story to life at the very special Wilton’s Music Hall this Christmas.’
Packed with Christmas spirit, festive fun and magic, this family show is brought to life by our acclaimed creative team including Director Justin Audibert (Royal Shakespeare Company; National Theatre) and Olivier award-winning Designer Tom Piper and takes place in the wonderful Wilton’s Music Hall, a venue so Christmassy the smell of mulled wine positively oozes from the walls…
The judges for this year’s Costa Book Award have been announced…and I’m one of them.
Along with Sanchita Basu De Sarkar from the Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill and Fiona Noble from The Bookseller, I’ll be one of the category judges for the Costa Children’s Book Award.
We’ve been spending the summer reading, and I mean READING. This is a photo of just some of the forty plus children’s and YA titles I’ve been lucky enough to read this summer.
Our shortlist is will be revealed on Tuesday 21st November 2017…it’s going to be a very, very difficult decision.
Finally, There May Be A Castle is out in paperback! With a fabulous new magical, shiny version of the acclaimed cover by Rob Biddulph.
Just in time for Christmas…
To celebrate, please join me at Waterstones Greenwich on 7th October for the launch, where I’ll be reading, taking questions and signing.
I also have some signed copies to give away, which you can enter to win below:
It was a pleasure to talk to John Craven about Roald Dahl (they knew each other) about how Dahl was inspired by the countryside on a special tribute episode of BBC Countryfile.
I enjoyed a great morning with John and some local school children discussing Dahl in the beautiful Angle Spring Woods outside Great Missenden. It’s believed that whilst walking in these woods Roald Dahl came up with the idea for Fantastic Mr Fox…