We’re delighted to be putting on lashings of things for children and young people to enjoy in the lead-up to and during Bridport Literary Festival.

With the support of Bridport Town Council, there will be a number of events at schools and also special posts on our website during festival week itself.

Today, Yarrow Townsend is at The Sir John Colfox Academy. A former teacher turned Young Adult author, she’s talking to Year 7s about her book and the writing process.

Tomorrow, environmental campaigner Hugh Warwick is at Bridport Primary, joined by Burton Bradstock School children, and at St Mary’s talking about hedgehogs. 

During the festival itself, writer and philosopher AC Grayling is at Colfox on 10 November. Festival goers will be joined by sixth formers when he talks about his book, For the Good of the World – Technology, Climate, Justice and Rights. 

Global problems and technologies are outstripping our moral and current political capacity to deal with them. Every day brings new stories about extreme weather events, spyware, lethal autonomous weapons systems, health and human rights imbalances. Grayling argues that we need to find a positive answer to the question Is global agreement on global challenges possible?

BridLit has also filmed students from Colfox and Beaminster School reading stories from books put together by the Bank of Dreams and Nightmares, an organisation in Bridport aimed at nurturing creativity in children.

The newly formed charity is doing wonderful things in and around Bridport for children and young people, encouraging them to fire up their imaginations and write.

This year they have published two books with stories by students from Colfox and Beaminster Schools which are very much the stories of dreams – or more accurately nightmares – and over six days of BridLit we ask you to check in each day from Monday 7 November to watch a new reading given by the students themselves.  

These writings are not for the faint-hearted and show you the true young talent emerging in our town.  We are delighted to have this new association with The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares and to bring you a snapshot of all the work they are achieving.

A different story will go up on the BridLit website beginning on Monday 7 November.

The day before, a film of author Hannah Shuckburgh reading Archie’s Apple will go up on our website. This is local publishers Little Toller’s first children’s book, which is illustrated by Octavia Mackenzie.

Archie’s Apple is the story of a boy who one day, deep in the woods, finds an apple quite unlike any other. His discovery hits the headlines worldwide and takes him and his dad on an adventure that neither of them could have foreseen.   

We celebrate this publication with the author reading her story out loud for everyone to enjoy, regardless of age, but especially for our young audiences.  This goes live on the first day of BridLit, Sunday 6 November, ready for a cosy afternoon with tea and toffee apples.