Performances
The Children’s Bookshow brings some of the best children’s authors from the UK and abroad to local theatre venues and gives teachers and school children the opportunity to hear world-class artists talk about their work.
Autumn performances 2022
Booking is now open for our autumn programme! Click on the links below to find out more and to book tickets:
- Valerie Bloom performance, London, Tuesday 27th September
- Daniel Morden performance, Manchester, Tuesday 4th October
- Frank Cottrell-Boyce performance, Newcastle, Friday 7th October
- Alexis Deacon and Viviane Schwarz performance, Exeter, Wednesday 12th October
- Jon Agee performance, Hull, Thursday 13th October
- Michael Rosen performance, Sheffield, Friday 14th October
- Yasmeen Ismail performance, Milton Keynes, Tuesday 18th October
- Jessica Souhami performance, Ramsgate, Wednesday 19th October
- Jan Blake performance, Weymouth, Tuesday 1st November
- Catherine Rayner performance, Wolverhampton, Thursday 3rd November
- Hilary McKay in conversation with Nicolette Jones, Ipswich, Friday 4th November
- Neal Layton performance, Barnstaple, Tuesday 8th November
- Jo Empson performance, Coventry, Wednesday 9th November
- Kwame Alexander performance, Bristol, Friday 11th November
- François Place performance, London, Thursday 17th November


Can't make this year's performances?
Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to find out about our next cycle of events:

More about our performances
We give children the chance to experience an inspiring ‘live’ encounter with an artist. Our authors and illustrators talk about their working lives, show children the paint brushes and notebooks that they use, the tools and tricks of their trade, and in doing this, they offer children a real insight into what it means to work creatively. Feedback from children show their strong appetite for new and challenging experiences, their feeling of personal connection to the writers whom they have met, and their sense of being inspired by contact with creative artists. We want children to feel that great literature and art is for them; that they can engage with it, enjoy it and practise it.
View by Cycle
Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development… Reading widely and often increases pupils’ vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Reading also feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious minds.
Want to help more children attend events like these in the future?