Pipers Corner Literary Festival

Following last year’s successful inaugural event, we will be hosting our second Literary Festival from 31 January to 13 February 2020. 

Six inspirational authors will be speaking during the course of the Festival, which is open to the public as well as parents and students. Aimed at varying age groups, starting at aged four upwards, the authors will be speaking about their latest books, as well as their own adventures and inspiration behind their writing. In addition, eminent writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development Jonathon Porritt CBE will be joining the line-up on the opening weekend of the Festival. Co-founder of ‘Forum for the Future’, the UK’s leading sustainable development charity, Jonathon will be speaking with Pipers Corner’s Environmentalist-in-Residence Phil Williams in a Question & Answer session. 

Ireland’s Laureate for Children’s Literature, Sarah Crossan will be kicking off the public events on Saturday 1 February. As a poet and award-winning novelist, she is best known for her books for young adults, including ‘Apple and Rain’ and ‘One’. She will be talking about her latest book. ‘Toffee’. 

Guaranteed to be a big hit is eco-journalist, naturalist and author Sarah Roberts. Having spent most of her career working with iconic predator species in some of the World’s most remote and challenging locations, she has some fascinating stories to tell. She has learnt first-hand how to clean a small shark bite wound, how to deter hungry grizzly bears and how to drag a metal boat up waist-high rapids, to name a few. She has written a thought-provoking book, ‘Somebody Swallowed Stanley’, which subtly educates children about the damage a simple plastic bag can do to wild animals. 

In the latter stages of the Festival, bestselling author and illustrator Kate Pankhurst – a descendent of Emmeline Pankhurst – will take to the stage as she introduces the stars of her new book ‘Great Women who Saved the Planet’. Also included in the 2020 line-up is Piers Torday (‘A Frozen Sea’). M.G. Leonard (‘Beetle Boy’) and Sita Brahmachari (‘Where the River Runs Gold’).

The School is delighted to be the venue for the ceremony to announce the winner of the 2020 Bucks Book Award, also held during the course of the Festival. The student-only event, will be hosted by Karl Nova, one of the UK’s leading poets and hip-hop artists. Pipers Corner students will have the opportunity to attend various other talks and workshops and three of last year’s well received attendees will be returning – author Onjali Q. Raúf, author and former journalist Wendy Holden and Auschwitz survivor Eva Clarke. 

For more information about our speakers, please click here. 
Tickets for the public events can be purchased by clicking here.