Ian is an Author/Illustrator who started his career designing album covers (including Elton John’s Yellow Brick Road) then moved on to Children’s Books. He has illustrated traditional tales like Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid and Philip Pullman’s Puss in Boots, as well as his own stories like The Teddy Robber. His most recent novels for older children are the Tom Trueheart series.

A qualified teacher and performance poet, Valerie will bring the atmosphere of the Caribbean into UK schools and festivals. Valerie’s writing is heavily influenced by her Jamaican background – she even begins most of her performances with a crash course in Jamaican Patois, so that non-speakers can enjoy the Patois poems in her set more!

Tony Bradman is an award-winning writer of many children’s books, a well-known editor with a particular focus on diversity and finding new voices, and a respected book reviewer. Tony has written for children of all ages – poetry and picture books, beginner readers. In recent years he has written a lot of historical fiction which has been very successful in schools, particularly Viking Boy and Anglo-Saxon Boy. Tony has edited many anthologies of short stories and poetry, and has been a lead author (‘show runner’) and series editor for educational reading schemes such as Project X. He also came up with the idea for the highly successful Scholastic series Voices, a series of novels about hidden communities in Britain written by authors such as Patrice Lawrence, Bali Rai and Benjamin Zephaniah. Tony has visited hundreds of schools (in the real world and virtually!) and appeared at all the major literary festivals. He’s happy to entertain children from nursery to lower secondary, and also talk to grown-ups about the writing process, stories, children’s books and his passion for history.

Fiona Clark is an author, teacher, poet and workshop leader living and working in the UK. A teacher and school leader for over two decades, and now a member of the National Association of Writers in Education, Fiona regularly takes up the role of writer in residence in schools across the UK, running creative writing workshops. Evidence gathered through a Knowledge Exchange programme with UCL, shows that Fiona’s workshops improve children’s writing skills, improve well-being, boost self-esteem and increase confidence. All seven creative writing workshops are shared in full, with photocopiable resources, in the publication A Practical Guide to Creative Writing in Schools, available from Routledge along with her poetry anthology The Leaf and the Pea available from Amazon. 

Fiona is also a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and has written for the TES. Her well-being book for youngsters Things Nobody Tells You When You’re Growing Up has received praise from children and grownups and after first publication quickly reached number one in the Amazon best sellers list of books for adolescents. Fiona can work with students and run training for staff.

Ex-Children’s Laureate, two-time Carnegie Prize-winner and two-time Whitbread Award winner, Anne is a popular and extremely prestigious author visitor for primary, secondary and adult audiences. She might have written How to Write Really Badly, but her many titles which include Madame Doubtfire, Road of Bones and Tulip Touch prove her writing is anything but!

Jon is an award winning performer and artist who has travelled the world with his diverse repertoire of deadpan, funny and stylish, artistic oddities.

Toy elephant wrangler, varieties answer to Picasso, Zen master of the obstacle course, contraption creator, friend to bullet catching (puppet) Frank the dog

Renowned for his speed painting act Jon works across a variety of areas, often comedic, always with an anchor in visual awareness and the joy of making; skills developed through Fine Art training and as a scenic artist and prop maker.

He performs across theatre, cabaret, street theatre ,TV and corporate events. Solo, in collaborations and as a member of award winning variety troupe Slightly Fat Features.

He has appeared in sell out shows at The London Palladium and The Royal Albert Hall, made an Art Attack style video for The Kaiser Chiefs, performed at the Magic Circle, been on Blue Peter (twice), is a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe and been a guest act with Olivier Award winning La Soiree.

In recent years he has been sharing his knowledge with schools and can provide performances and workshops, both art and performance based, giving children an insight into the power and joys of lateral and creative thinking and an understanding, outside traditional academic structure, of the power in method, focus and practise.

At the heart of all Rosie’s work is a mission to champion imagination. Over the last twelve years, she has been trusted to produce and deliver events for some of the best-loved children’s books as well as her own interactive stories. She is currently the writer, producer and presenter of The Puffin Books Story Maker Show. Rosie believes that learning should be an adventure and that stories are our most powerful resource. Known for her engaging and humorous storytelling style and innovative literacy workshops, Rosie’s sessions are fun, interactive and bursting with magical moments. A proud dyslexic herself, she strongly believes in removing barriers and making literacy learning fun and accessible for everyone. A popular choice from nursery classes to year six and for literary and family festivals. 

Clare Luther gets her inspiration from being a Mum, her previous career as an Occupational Therapist and a Life Coach and running a dachshund hotel (she looks after 6 sausage dogs a day!). There are 6 titles in her ‘Little Paws Hotel’ series, each written in rhyme from the perspective of different breeds of dogs and beautifully illustrated by Maria Floyd. Each book deals with different thoughts and feelings (separation anxiety, fear of new experiences, uncertainty, bullying, grief) which can be gently explored with little people who will definitely be able to relate with their own experiences. Ideal for KS1/lower KS2, Clare’s sessions carefully raise important topics about children’s own feelings but also learning about how they might be able to come alongside others to help support them.

Chris Prowling is an ex London Headteacher and was for many years book editor of Classic FM. He has taught at all levels from infants to post-graduates. He’s the author of 90+ children’s titles, from picture books to novels. Recent works include 10 titles for the Project X series and re-writes of Shakespeare stories for upper juniors. His talks to primary age children are always a huge success and he receives excellent responses from fellow professionals for his INSET sessions with teachers. 

Zeb Soanes is a trusted newsreader and reassuring voice of the Shipping Forecast to millions of listeners on BBC Radio 4. On television he launched BBC Four, where he presented the BBC Proms. He studied Creative Writing and Drama at UEA and has written for The Observer, Country Life and The Literary Review. His best-selling first book for children, Gaspard the Fox, illustrated by James Mayhew, began a series of stories inspired by his remarkable encounters with a real urban fox, for which he was made the first patron of The Mammal Society.

His latest book, Gaspard’s Foxtrot has been set to music by Jonathan Dove as a major new narrated orchestral work for children in the tradition of Peter and the Wolf. Zeb enjoys school visits and can be accompanied by the musician Chris Warner, on numerous instruments, giving children a rich experience of storytelling and music.

The books jackets tell us to “Laugh your socks off with Jeremy Strong” and junior school kids (and adults) do! Hugely popular, multi-award winning Jeremy is an ex-headteacher with a special interest in children who are becoming independent readers and those not particularly interested in reading.  Children love the extraordinary twists he brings to real-life situations.

Award-winning Author / Illustrator Chris Wormell has produced over 20 beautiful children’s books including George and the Dragon, Eric the Hero, Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice and One Smart Fish. Amazingly, he is self taught – which is why (he modestly says) he holds the tools the wrong way. His illustrations are mostly from watercolours or wood cuts, and often feature highly detailed depictions of animals. His talks get children making up the stories to go alongside pictures they draw – and he even creates highly original mythical beasts directed by his audience.

Zohab Khan is an educator, spoken word poet, motivational speaker, didgeridoo player and hip-hop artist. Zohab won the title ‘Australian Poetry Slam Champion’ in 2014. That same year he was also runner-up in the International Poetry Slam championship held in Madrid. Zohab has performed and conducted poetry workshops in over 30 countries across the world and is the co-founder of The Pakistan Poetry Slam. As an educator, Zohab’s poetry and self-development workshops are in high demand. His workshops aim to inspire change and confidence in young people through spoken word poetry and brain hacks. With the incorporation of self-development techniques, spoken-word poetry becomes not just a platform for self- expression but also one to inspire change, acceptance and increase creativity.