Our Hay Festival Adventure 2014 - Part 2: Plastic and Pooches

Sadly Hay Festival ended - but what an amazing time we had! Yes, there was lots and lots of rain, but we had some great events and learnt a lot about books. In fact, the last two Templar authors gave great talks about the environment, animals and the First World War. 

Have you ever wanted to know where burgers and rubber ducks come from? Or the best way to recycle your rubbish? Christiane Dorion, author of  the fantastic How it Works series of books hosted a wonderful workshop with answers to this and so much more. 

From creative design where the audience was encouraged to draw something that could help the environment in the future to a fascinating talk about animals, how they survive and what we can do to protect them and their habitats. At the end of the event Christiane encouraged people to take a look at some of the exotic things she had brought along with her (including ivory tusks and leopard fur) which had been confiscated by customs at airports around the world for being illegal items. We all left the event feeling much more informed about what we can do to help preserve the wonderful planet we live on.

Our Hay Festival Adventure 2014 - Part 1

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.

HAYFEVER - stuck in the mud ... almost!

The Templar team turned out in force for this year's Hay Festival in the lovely town of Hay-on-Wye on the border of Wales and Hereford.  In the car with me (Jayne) this year were Emma Dodd and Kelly Gerrard - full of energy and wise-cracks and tucking into the Haribo emergency snacks, we made good time on Bank Holiday Tuesday.

Up bright and early on Wednesday morning - despite a low mist, there was none of the rain which had deluged down over the weekend before.   The Charlie and Bandit team were already in the Green Room and sampling coffee and cakes before their 11.30 am event - a graphic novel workshop.  Despite being in the Digital Tent, which had raked seating all the children and their parents (including Mariella Frostrupp and her brood) got down to some great drawing.

Emma and Kelly signing tent

A little later that afternoon the call went out for illustrators to help Korky Paul with his massive illustration marking 25 years of Winnie the Witch.  Emma and Kelly duly obliged!



Around lunch time a clutch of Duddles arrived and very excited they were too.  And that's just the children ....  Jonny's event that afternoon was a sell-out with around three quarters of the audience dressed as pirates.  Lots of ooo aaargh's in true pirate style accompanied Jonny's reading - and as ever, his roughly drawn pirate drew lots of laughs.

Ooooaaargh!

In the signing tent, Jonny had a dedicated helper - his daughter Daisy - giving out postcards to the children with books.






Harriet Castor and family had also arrived on Wednesday afternoon and were making the most of their first visit to the Festival.

Thursday was Emma's birthday and she celebrated with a glass of bubbly and not many 'bumps'.  Harriet's event was with William Osborne, who turned up in true Hay fashion (i.e. large black wellies).  It was tipping it down by now.  Again, a terrific audience - great questions and lots of interest in the Tudors and William's setting of Nazi Germany.



Harriet also had a little helper at the signing - her daughter Maud and a great job done by her too.













Setting off late Thursday afternoon - slight worry about getting the car out of the mud, weighed down as it was with crates of wine for the talent (Emma and Kelly) - we made it home safely.

Thanks again to Sophie and Rhodri for their great teamwork and another terrific Hay Fever programme.

Hay Festival Frolics

THE HAY REPORT

It always feels like going on holiday when I set off for the Hay Festival and last week was no different.

I love the setting, the way its so laid back, the eclectic mix of folk - the amazing events and of course, the lovely Templar illustrators and authors who came along this year, to what seemed a bumper number of visitors.

Jonny Duddle and Adam Stower quickly teamed up and had lots of fun – their events were great too. Though poor Adam had a late Friday afternoon session, when it was at its hottest. The Hexagon venue was a mini-conservatory and at one point a few of the children were lying spread out on the cushions almost comatose – but still listening to the story.

For Jonny’s events people were encouraged to dress up in pirate costume - and they all joined in with their ooo aaaargh’s in hearty pirate voices. Jonny looked a pretty convincing pirate too, in his new gear and I rigged up our very sad parrot on his flip chart.

Thomas Docherty brought his usual magic to the festival and his two events were lovely – the children and parents really joining in, and lots of compliments from teachers there with their own children.

On Friday evening Adam very kindly met up with 15 students from Hereford Art College for a mini-masterclass – they passed around their sketch books and chatted about life as an illustrator. I think Adam was very impressed with the standard of their work.

Not too much partying that night as Adam had a 9am event on Saturday morning – which went well. Much cooler for a start and he had charmed the bookshop lady so he was signing books for ages.

Johnny O’Brien arrived in the nick of time for his 11.30 event - which played to an audience of over 100 and everyone loved the enactments and his memorabilia. He also took a writing masterclass later that afternoon with about 10 people ranging in age from 12 to 30’ish. Then he was off – flying to Japan I believe.