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Join us as we celebrate the winner of the 2019 Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists over 60 – in conversation with Piers Torday, author and founder of the prize; Anne Youngson, author and this year’s prize winner for her novel Meet Me at the Museum; and Anita Sethi, journalist, writer, and one of our 2019 judges.

Paul Torday published his first novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen aged 60 and his family generously set up this prize to celebrate first novels by authors aged 60 or over. The prize was awarded for the first time in 2019 and received over 60 submissions.

Our panellists will be discussing the prize itself and writing as a ‘wonderful second career for those with a life of well-lived experience to call upon’.

Tickets and booking

SoA members: £5
Guests: £10

THE POWER OF STORIES

Celebrate magic, nature and the joy of storytelling at our half term events for families. From visiting authors to Shakespearean storytelling sessions and workshops, there’s something for all the family to enjoy in the half terms at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Join award-winning author, Piers Torday, for an animated, interactive insight into how he became an author, what inspires him and the importance of sharing stories.

Hear how he learned to write books through The Last Wild, the very personal story which led to There May Be A Castle and why he wrote his latest series, The Lost Magician, including his newest book, The Frozen Sea.

Recommended for: Ages 5 -12

Tickets

£8

(All those under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. All adults and children must purchase a ticket to the event.)

A £2.50 transaction fee per order applies online

Running time: 1 hour, 4.00pm – 5.00pm

AGE 10-14

Scarlett Thomas is the author of the enchanting Worldquake series, which Joanne Harris called the ‘most exciting debut in children’s fiction since Harry Potter’. Piers Torday is the bestselling author of The Last Wild trilogy and winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Join a spellbinding discussion on the latest instalments in their captivating series covering talking animals, forbidden spells and two magical libraries.

Novelist Piers Torday takes you through The Chronicles of Narnia, C S Lewis’s fantasy world of mythical beasts, talking animals and adventuring children. In addition to adapting Christian themes, Lewis freely borrowed characters and ideas from Greek and Roman myths as well as British and Irish fairy tales. Expect an open discussion; you can read the stories ahead of the event or be inspired to pick them up afterwards.

This full day Guardian Education Centre conference, in association with British Library Learning, for secondary school teachers and librarians will explore strategies to engage young people with reading, putting books at the heart of learning.

The conference for secondary teachers and librarians will focus on inspiring students to read for pleasure, reflecting diversity in reading choices, creative writing, visual literacy, critical analysis and reading strategies that raise attainment. Throughout the day there will be opportunities to share good practice.

All conference sessions take place at the Guardian starting at 9.15am and finishing at 3.30pm. Delegates will then get the opportunity to visit the Writing: Making Your Mark exhibition at the British Library at 4pm.

The event will be chaired by the Guardian’s Children’s books editorJulia Eccleshare.

Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild Trilogy, There May Be a Castleand The Lost Magician, will discuss the value of sharing stories and the power of childhood reading and writing for pleasure.

There will be sessions and workshops on successful and practical classroom reading for pleasure strategies and engaging students with a diverse range of authors and texts from the British Library Learning the English and Media Centre, Gautam Malkani, Harry Venning and teachers and educators.

The conference will explore:

• Ideas for promoting enjoyment and engagement in reading.
• Raising attainment in reading and writing.
• Strategies to include a diverse range of voices and texts in the classroom.
• The writing process and what makes a good book.
• Different forms and genres of writing.
• Creative writing inspired by reading for pleasure.
• Visual literacy.
• Critical analysis of texts.
• Working with organisations that promote a love of reading.
• Being creative with books.
• Sharing good practice.

The conference costs £120 plus VAT (£144) which includes lunch, resources and optional visit to Writing: Making Your Mark exhibitionat the British Library at 4pm (normally £14).

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Children from schools in the Bailiwick took up the challenge to write a story of no more than 300 words on the theme of their Imagined World. We are delighted to celebrate the winning stories at a special prize-giving ceremony with awards to be handed out by judges Huw Lewis-Jones (Head Judge), Ross Collins (Primary Category), Piers Torday (Intermediate Category) and Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Senior Category).

Please join the Guardian Children’s Book Award winner, author of The Last Wild trilogy Piers Torday. He will talk about his new book, The Lost Magician, inspired by the C.S. Lewis Narnia stories. Come with Piers to the enchanted land of Folio, to meet the Reads and the Unreads. And discover why the most powerful magic of all is the kind found inside a good book.

Age 9+

Blackwell’s in Oxford are hosting a day of events in association with Authors4Oceans, an alliance of over 50 of the UK’s best known children’s authors and illustrators, who are campaigning against plastic pollution in our seas. I’m delighted to be joining the following star-studded panel . We’ll be talking about the Power of Stories to Change the World:

Lauren St John is the best-selling author of the White Giraffe, Laura Marlinand One Dollar Horse series. Her latest books are Kat Wolfe Investigatesand The Snow Angel. A passionate conservationist and ambassador for the Born Free Foundation, she has helped rescue dolphins from Turkey and return them to the wild. Lauren is also the founder of Authors4Oceans.

Linda Newberry has written for young readers of all ages and won the Costa Children’s Book Award for her young adult novel Set in Stone. Return to Flambards, her acclaimed new novel, is out now. She is a long-standing supporter of environmental and welfare organisations including Greenpeace, Compassion in World Farming, PETA and the League Against Cruel Sports.

Katherine Rundell is the author of Rooftoppers, The Girl Savage, The Wolf Wilder and The Explorer which won the 2017 Costa Children’s Book Award. Into the Jungle, her multi-award-winning new book, is a dazzling reimagining of the early lives of the characters in Kipling’s classic. She is also a Fellow in English Literature at All Souls College Oxford where she occasionally goes climbing on rooftops late at night.

As if all this wasn’t exciting enough, former Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell, will be live drawing the panel and they will be joined by a special Mystery Guest!

This is a free event, but please do register your intent to attend. For more information, please call Blackwell’s Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.