Budleigh Literary Festival takes author into four local schools

Hundreds of schoolchildren benefit from author visits

More than 350 children from four East Devon primary schools were treated to visits from well-known young author Katya Balen - thanks to Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival.

The visits were arranged at Bassetts Farm, The Beacon and Withycombe Raleigh Primary Schools in Exmouth and St Peter's Primary School in Budleigh Salterton as part of the Festival’s charitable aims, which are to promote a lifelong love of reading for young people.

Children at Bassetts Farm Primary were particularly thrilled as they had already read her book Birdsong as a class reader and many of the children had read other books by her, including bestseller October, October.

Award-winning (Carnegie Medal) author Katya Balen explained how, where and when she writes and showed the children how to start writing their own stories. A mudlark on the banks of the River Thames, she also revealed that she lives near Crystal Palace and is a Crystal Palace fan and asked why so many children supported teams such as Manchester City and Chelsea rather than Exeter City!

Lisa Broad, Deputy Head at St Peter's said that the children, who had just finished their SATS, enjoyed the session. She said: “It was lovely and the children were so inspired by her writing and the talk. The novella went down particularly well with some of our budding authors who don't write at length!”

In these visits, funded and organised by the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, the schools were each presented with a set of Katya's books for their school libraries so that all the children who saw her could enjoy her work.

David Marston, of Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival’s education and outreach committee, said: “As well as bringing amazing authors to our town twice a year, the festival has charitable aims which are to promote a love of reading to young people. Every year we have a marquee just for families, we hold events for young people, such as our Simon Armitage event at St Peter’s Church for older students this March, and we arrange author school visits.

“There’s lots of research which shows how important reading is for young people’s development, and we’re pleased to be able to support our local schools and colleges.”

In July, the Festival will be bringing children's authors Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre to four Exmouth schools.

This year’s Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival takes place in venues across the town from September 18 to 22. The line-up, which always features a diverse range of interesting speakers, is due to be announced in July.