Anticipating glorious sunshine and countryside, Templar Publishing embarked on a journey to a very wet Wales last weekend for Hay Festival; a truly exciting celebration of literature and the arts, with very special children’s authors and events.
We were lucky to have five authors and illustrators invited this year, with the first of two sold-out events on Saturday hosted by Jonny Duddle, creator of The Pirate Cruncher and Gigantosaurus.
Dressed as a swashbuckling pirate, Jonny read excerpts from his fantastic adventures into children’s books to a captivated audience. Breaking the spell, he then went on to demonstrate his artistic talent for drawing pirates amid plenty of piratey ‘arrrrghhhhhhs’ from the crowd.
On Sunday, Jonny gave another performance dressed as an explorer. This time the topic was his dinosaur book Gigantosaurus,. Lucky attendees to this event would have walked away with a pirate or dinosaur sticker as well!
Outstanding talent Michael Foreman, who has created over 300 books during his stellar career as an illustrator treated his audience to delightful talk about his career and inspiration, including fart noises and singing like a frog!!! His latest book, The Amazing Tale of Ali Pasha is based on a true story and everyone present was shown photos of the real-life tortoise it is based on.
Monday saw Adam Stower hold an interactive event where we all learned how to draw a Troll from his wonderful picture book Troll and the Oliver. Even the staff from Templar Publishing had a go! What we love about this book apart from the artwork, is that it has a lot of cake in it, and Templar Publishing love cake almost as much as books. Adam said that to avoid being eaten by a troll, one should always carry some around.
We still have a lot of events here at the festival and there is so much going on; colouring, woodwork, dancing and of course lots and lots of reading! What’s more… I think there might be sunshine this week (although we do love wearing our wellies and stomping around in the mud).
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