Epic steps at Lady Bay

Words are pretty amazing things- whether they're blobs on paper, or lights on a screen, or vibrations in the air, they can mean different things to different people all at once (especially in the brilliant, confounding, inspiring craziness that is English), and stand out for all sorts of brilliant reasons…

I’ve just read a lovely group email from Mary Small and the team behind the Nottingham Children’s Book Festival to say a big thank you to everyone who played a part in their very first festival on Saturday – hundreds of families joined us in the rain to get stuck into stories, poems, illustrations – and Epics!



Epic preparation!

The young (and not quite so young) writers who joined us for 'Your Epic Starts Here!' on the day were superb as always – and I was amazed again just how creative we can all be – all it takes is a little inspiration and encouragement.  I saw princes in swamps (a bad place for a prince to be, so a good place to start a story!), soldiers resting between battles, and worlds you could only reach in a way that was simple and amazing all at once.  Even the volunteers joined in (to the lady who shared her epic hero – write that epic, or I will!)

But once the pens are collected in and the room goes quiet before the next workshop, you wonder what will happen next to those stories… then I read Mary’s email and saw one word from the great feedback the festival had collected on that day-

‘Epic’

Something tells me that for at least one of those Epics, it's only just the beginning – and I’m honoured to play a part in inspiring people to create their own Epic tales. 

If you'd like to know a bit more about what 'Your Epic Starts Here!' is all about, take a look here.