Barnes Children’s Literature Festival

St Paul’s School is proud to be the Education Partner of Barnes Children’s Literature Festival, London’s largest dedicated children’s Literature Festival.

This year’s festival runs from Tuesday 22 – Sunday 27 June with more than 60 events free to families. It features some of the biggest names in children’s literature, including Julia Donaldson, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Lauren Child and Dame Jacqueline Wilson. They’ll be joined by festival favourite Axel Scheffler, master storyteller Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the Costa Children’s Book Award winner, Hilary McKay, the Blue Peter Book Prize winner, Elle McNicol, the winner of the Awesome Book  Award Ross Welford and the superstar author of the Who Let the Gods Out? series Maz Evans.

The ‘in person’ Festival opens on Tuesday 22 June, with its Primary Schools Programme, four days of specially curated, curriculum-linked sessions, provided free to pupils in all state-maintained schools in London.

The Festival is centred around Barnes Green beside Judith Kerr’s much-loved duck pond, which lends its village fair feel and this year’s event will include a wider, entirely outdoor programme with free family activities, live music and performances and circus acts. Family friendly events include the Covid for Kids science show with BBC Radio 4’s Professor Tom Solomon, Paddington Bear’s First Concert, the ABC of Opera with international artist Mark Llewelyn-Evans and family storytelling workshops with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

The Festival is presented in partnership with the University of Roehampton, the Barnes Community Association (BCA) and St Paul’s School.

Find out more here.