Island Schools Welcome Top Authors During Literary Festival

The joy of books and reading was brought into 28 Island schools during this year’s Isle of Wight Literary Festival.

The expanded schools programme saw 18 authors deliver 78 sessions across the Island in just two days.

The topics ranged from fantastic tales for younger readers to more challenging sessions for secondary school age students.

Ian Charles Dickens, a great-great grandson of Charles Dickens talked about his ancestor’s time on the Isle of Wight, writing part of David Copperfield, and the rags to riches tale of Dickens’s life.

Andy Stanton, celebrated author of the Mr Gum children's book series also gave entertaining and inspiring sessions.

Children in the Wootton Primary and The Bay Secondary Schools sessions wrote comic strips together with Kev F Sutherland and then built the front cover with Kev in real time, ending with all the pupils doing caricatures of themselves in the same process.

Stuart Lawrence, brother of Stephen Lawrence, who was the victim of a racially motivated murder in London, which sent shockwaves across Britain, told students from Year 10 to Upper Sixth about the effects it had on him, and how he has been able to live his life since.

Ra Hennessy, who delivered the schools programme, said:

“I loved delivering the programme this year for the festival.

“With a great team of volunteers, engaging authors, cheerful schools and a lot of work behind the scenes, we hopefully ignited a fire for reading and even possibly book writing in the 5,000 children and young adults we reached.

“I’m running it with an even bigger team next year and we have ambitious plans to take it to more schools and home-schooled children on the Island.”

She said they were also hoping to work with other programmes across the Island and introduce a full calendar of events across the school year.

The programme is free to the schools and donating are always seeking assistance and charitable donations to support the delivery of the programme, as it which aims to raise literacy levels and encourage a lifelong love of reading and writing.

Maggie Ankers, Isle of Wight Literary Festival chairman, said:

“The schools’ programme has been bigger and better than ever this year, and, along with our other successes in 2024, it has been wonderful to see it develop.”

The festival was sponsored by Red Funnel and other Island businesses.