Barnes Children’s Literature Festival 2021.

Hidden in a pictoresque marque in the heart of Barnes, I found a chapter of children’s fairy tales nestled in the woodland trust area.

Where all sorts of magic happens that is much too big to contain in a tent, but it’s swiftly realised, it doesn’t have to be.

The magic doesn’t just come in the boxes of puppets or single appearances of Authors from near and far, something hopeful and inspiring happens at these events, with every smile shared, confetti of joy sprinkles over the heads of each audience member, and there’s enough for everybody.

Every child, and even adult, leaves with a little bit of sparkle on their hearts.

In the rush of trying to find Barnes, in getting my head around London travel, I have to say, by the time I headed to the Festival office, and collected my volunteer pass, I got to the event, and I felt in a slight early summer time haze.

I was set to volunteer at the Judith Kerr stand, helping with Julia Donaldson’s event.

The stand, named in honour after the wonderful late Judith Kerr, of genius children’s book hall of fame (The Tiger who came to Tea, The Mog cat series) is one of the many tributes Barnes has payed to Judith.

Having lived in Barnes for over sixty years after escaping Nazi Germany, Judith Kerr became a patron to Barnes Primary School and each year from 2019, Barnes Festival has organised a special memorial part of the festival in loving memory of Judith.

She later went on to atttibute fleeing the day before the election of Hitler, to be the saving grace of her following 93 years.

This year, my first time attending the event, the magical Helen Oxenbury delighted audiences with a special tribute to Judith, having asked to do the illustations for the event too.

I would have loved to see it and see her reading We’re going on a Bear hunt too. I hope, if she’s there next year, to be able to visit her stand!

Michael Morpurgo

I arrived for the last segment of Michael Morpurgo’s event, and I have to say, these fifteen minutes or so, were the highlight of my day.

There was something truly special about his energy. When Authors write everlasting, legendary, truly Important books for children, for those children then to remember as an adult and share them to their children, you don’t expect that their personas should mirror all the time exubrency or generosity (even if you quietly hope they will.)

But his sincerity and honesty was received well by the children in the room, I could absolutely feel that relief in the room that ‘‘Yes… this is just what we wanted him to be like.’’ The feeling was palpable.

There was nothing too sweet or overwhelmingly warm about his interactions, but everything was lined in sincerity and that in its self feels respectful to these slightly older children who want someone to talk directly, frankly to them.

In the ten minutes I saw of him, I soaked up so much wisdom that I could only have wondered how many more notes in my notebook there would be if I had been able to see all of it.

Suprisingly, Michael wrote War Horse twenty five years before it became popular among audiences all over the world. Theatre directors and Puppeteers came across War Horse and eventually The National Theatre made an adaption of War Horse with Puppets, which is now, of course, an adaption so beloved that when someone references War Horse I can see the puppet of Joey being moved by people dressed in black, giving life to the horse with puppet sticks in an extraordinary way.

Although you could see the mechanics of Joey’s form physically on the stage, it was as if he was moving all by himself at the same time.

I think this is why you truly care for the horse, even though you can see the puppeteres, they almost act like part of the horses limbs, part of the mechanics of the function, not people at all for the duration of the play.

And the care it takes to show every emotion, every triumph, tragic burden on the horse’s body, is shown with such nurture by the people moving him across the stage.

It almost makes it more profound that you can see them harness his body across the stage, seeing how his every move is being held and felt by the humans underneath, a beautiful metaphor for the bond of Albert and Joey.

He joked how his book sales went up and up after the National Theatre’s adaptions.

Back at Barnes, Michael asked if he could have a question from an adult, to the suprise of every child, adult, and the interviewer, because he felt it was important to hear this perspective.

He wanted to hear a question from a Mother and a Father.

He chose a lady on the front row, and she said ‘‘I’m really sorry but my son… he just wants to ask you a question so much. Would that be alright?’’

‘‘Well I can’t say no to that! I feel mean now!’’

The boy asked what is his most inspirational book.

To which Michael replied: ‘‘That’s a good question. But don’t ask me. Write 148 of them. If 147 are rubbish but there is one that’s not then…brilliant.”

And brilliant is what I thought the answer was.

And deeply reassuring and grounding to bring me back to the most important part of writing children’s books, to enjoy it so much with a humble heart. It is a beloved hobby and the more i enjoy and write, the more it will resonate. But it is vital it doesn’t become laborious because the magic will not be felt by the reader or by you anymore.

A really beautiful and thoughtful question too from a child (they were amazing all of the questions!) was whether he needs to visit all the places that set the scenes in his books.

He used the Butterfly Lion as an example.

He talked about how Virginia Mcenna gave him advice about being around wild animals like lions as this was a great love of hers.

And while this is an example he said ultimately, you can’t go back to world war one, but you can speak to someone who was there.

He was so simplistic in his answers, so conscise, but so deeply wise.

Every person in the audience could feel it.

In one of the last moments of the question and answer, a child asked what made him a successful author, to which he replied,

‘‘You live every character, you mean every word.’’

Michael Morpurgo, a class act.

Inspiring those children I’m sure under the wisdom of his Grandad style hat. Other styles of hats seen watch in awe.

Julia Donaldson

Show Time!

Seeing Julia Donaldson ‘‘and friends’’ was so exciting! I had no idea what the day would be like before, and how many people would be there, but I was rather suprised at how close we were in vicinity to her and her husband Malcom who plays the guitar for her and was in character at the fox in the Iconic Gruffalo!

I did not want to bother them, especially before, so I watched and marvelled at the stage being set up, voice testing on the microphone, and costumes being hoisted around, particularly ingrained in my mind is dissected parts of The Gruffalo costume in a cut off part of the tent which I think my childhood self would be traumatised by.

I listened to their rehearsal of their songs, while I wiped down the chairs of the previous audience here for Michael Morpurgo.

A couple of times, Julia smiled at me while getting ready to go on.

The audience of Julia Donaldson are typically going to be younger than Michael Morpurgo, so there was more of a show feel and children coming into the magical world of where The Gruffalo exists, rather than Julia, more so her characters, so I could see how her persona seemed quieter because In her show she is being a character, sometimes multiple characters.

She seemed pleasent though and even signed my book as I had to leave earlier to make sure I got my St Pancras train.

It was rather special to see how the children reacted to The Gruffalo in person, after i’m sure, countless times Imagining a version from the page.

To see the character, such a huge part of story time, in person looked to be almost unbearingly delightful.

A melody of emotions.

Delight.

Terror.

Anguish.

And after The Gruffalo’s perfromance, as The Gruffalo was walking out of the Marquee, a child chased him, feeling the prickles on his back and tail much to the dismay of the person helping The Gruffalo transition on and off the stage.

I felt empathy for the child, because seeing someone so real to them, I could see how it would be irresistible to have an understanding of how all of the senses feel when you meet (lets face it) a celebrity of the children’s book world.

After the event finished, I wiped down the chairs once more, reflecting once more again of what I had experienced and what the children will have.

A group of children ran up to me and they just couldn’t believe it. They couldn’t believe they had seen The Gruffalo, and they were so amazed and terrified they wanted to come back to find him.

A little girl ran through the marquee trying to find Julia herself.

It was so endearing and hilarious.

The postcard moment of The Gruffalo making an apperance, coming out of the marquee to wave to the children was just so special for the children to expereince, and for their parents around them.

‘‘BUT THERE’S NO SUCH THING’’ A boy said outloud in a state of disbelief. Of course this is such a significant part of the book (‘‘But there’s no such thing as The Gruffalo!)

It was hard to know if this was something he was thinking that accidentally came out aloud, or if he was quesitoning the very presence of The Gruffalo, honouring the story.

I was reading The Gruffalo’s Child to some children the other day at work and before I read to them, I like to talk about who the author is and the Illustrator. (A great opportunity to explain what Illustrator means too!)

And he said ‘‘Oooo I love Julia Donaldson!’’ And it was the first time I had experienced a child talk about and express adoration for the Author as oppose to a character in the book.

We chatted about her and I said I even met her and The Gruffalo and by this time all the children were listening and couldn’t believe he was friendly or that he didn’t eat me.

I was talking about a children’s character, but to them it’s more than that, I think the genius of The Gruffalo (and Julia Donaldson in general) because it presents the idea of friendliness and humanness beyond what we look like and to know that he really WAS friendly, I think would have meant the world to them.

It was a lovely moment and I have promised to bring in pictures of it.

I told my brother and he said ‘‘Are you sure you didn’t feel like you were the one who met a celebrity?’’ And he probably is right. I think my childhood self was definitely on top of the world.

All of this magic in a day to take away, held within the fragile walls of an open Marquee, Is a generous serving of childhood magic, enough to last forever.

I look forward to discovering more Marquees (so… more marvels) next year.

The Gruffalo meet and greet.

The first moment The Gruffalo is seen by the children!