FCBG Conference 2025

The Federation of Children’s Book Groups Conference is one of the highlights of the book-ish year. Combining lovely people, amazing books, fabulous authors, illustrators and poets and lots of cake, it is a wonderful weekend- and this year’s was no exception!

Monmouth is a lovely town and was a fantastic setting for the weekend. As everyone arrived on Friday, the sun was shining, enhancing everyone’s good mood and making setting everything up so much easier.

One of the highlights of Conference is the publishers’ exhibition and the sports’ hall where it was held was massive, allowing plenty of room to wander round, browse and chat about all the amazing books on display. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and say hello as they were preparing for the weekend ahead. Being able to look at and discuss what is available and what is coming out soon is a wonderful opportunity and is a real highlight of the weekend for many people.

Registration opened at 3pm. Although many attendees are familiar faces, new comers are always warmly welcomed and well looked after. The FCBG conference is known as ‘the friendly one’ for good reason!

The weekend started with afternoon tea, celebrating the 45th anniversary of ‘Peace at Last’, the Jill Murphy classic. Everyone enjoyed cake and a cuppa whilst catching up with friends old and new.

Tea was followed by the publishers’ presentations, an opportunity for them to draw attention to some of the books which they are most excited about, sometimes highlighting books which they have proofs of to share. Following this, there was time to explore the exhibition and have a look at anything (and everything!) you particularly liked the look of.

After dinner, there was a wonderful poetry session with Alex Wharton (you can read my review of ‘Doughnuts, Thieves and Chimpanzees’ here) and Kate Williams (you can read my review of ‘Squeak! Squawk! Roar! here). Offering very different poetic styles, their passion for poetry shone through, inspiring everyone there. The evening’s entertainment closed with a story telling session from Mama G before the bar opened!

The following morning dawned sunny once more with the prospect of another fun-filled day ahead. Day delegates started to arrive, ready for the FCBG AGM. Amongst other business, new committee members were voted in whilst others were re-nominated to continue.

Jackie Morris opened the morning with a magical session, followed by Leslie Parr (you can read my review of ‘Fallout’ here). The conference programme captured the spirit of Wales and Welsh writers brilliantly! Whilst I was on the reception desk, I had the great pleasure of meeting Karin Celestine and having a close look at some of the needlefelt characters which star in their books.

Another tea break- and more cake! This time the focus was on the Nevermoor books by Jessica Townsend, accompanied by a goody bag for everyone. Then it was back to the main hall for a session celebrating some of the winners of the 2024 Children’s Book Awards (see photo above), Thomas Flintham (Press Start! reviews here) and Matt Goodfellow (review of ‘Let’s Chase Stars Together’ here, ‘The Final Year’ here and ‘The First Year’ here).

It is always really hard to choose which seminar to attend- and this year, it was practically impossible! Louisa Reid led a session called ‘Finding the Magic in YA’, Struan Murray led a writing workshop, Ben Hoare and Lily Dyu were discussing how to make non-fiction irresistible and Karin Celestine led a wonderful session on craft and storytelling where everyone enjoyed stick weaving whilst finding out more about creating stories. No one wanted to leave…

After lunch, the day continued with a fascinating session from Manon Stefan Ros, author of ‘The Blue Book of Nebo’. Her love of language - and Wales- shone through. This was followed by a panel event about ‘Neurodiversity in children’s publishing’ with Greg Stobbs (you can read my review of ‘Cloud Boy’ here), Scott Evans (you can read my review of ‘All Brains are Wonderful’ here) and Zoe Antoniades, another very interesting and thought-provoking session. This was followed by more coffee and cake, celebrating Jessie Burton’s ‘Hidden Treasures’.

Next came time for meetings for group or individual members- an excellent opportunity for sharing ideas and forward planning for two of the FCBG’s initiatives: National Share a Story Month in May and Nation Non-Fiction November.

Before the Gala Dinner, everyone gathered to share Famous Five cocktails with Chris Smith, author of The New Famous Five series. An Enid Blyton quiz and food were followed by the after dinner speaker, Barry Cunningham, celebrating 25 years of Chicken House.

Suddenly, Sunday and the final day of conference had arrived! Once again, day delegates starting arriving after breakfast and another exciting day of events began. Hannah Gold (you can read my review of ‘The Lost Whale’ here) and Gill Lewis (you can read my review of ‘Moon Flight’ here) opened with a marvellous talk about ‘empathetic eco-warriors’ which was followed by ‘The Magic of Graphic Novels’ with Neill Cameron, Sophy Henn (you can read my review of ‘I Hate Everything!’ here) and Billy Partridge. The very lovely Sophy had drawn me a picture of the little ghosts from her latest picture book!

More cake to celebrate ‘Pia’s Pet Club’, a new series from Serena Patel and Emma McCann, the team behind ‘Anisha, Accidental Detective’. Claire Fayers (you can read my review of ‘Welsh Giants, Ghosts and Goblins’ here) then chaired an excellent session with Piers Torday (you can read my review of ‘Midnight Treasure’ here), Ash Bond (you can read my review of ‘Peregrine Quinn and the Cosmic Realm’ here) and Sandra Saleh-Reyhani about weaving folk tales and legends into stories.

In the final session of the day the amazing Nicola Davies gave a very inspiring and impassioned speech about how everything is connected and the importance of children’s books in raising awareness about the state of the planet and its wildlife and encouraging everyone to take action. It was an incredible way to finish an incredible weekend!

The FCBG conference is a wonderful way of connecting with other book lovers dedicated to getting books into the hands of young readers, encouraging reading for pleasure and finding ways of engaging everyone with the joy books bring. There are other conferences throughout the year, but there is something very special about this one! If you are thinking about joining us next year, make sure you do- you won’t regret it!

FCBG Conference 2022

This weekend I went to Woldingham School, Caterham for the FCBG 2022 Conference. Always a fantastic event, this year felt extra special as the last one was in 2019 and so it was very exciting to actually be able to meet up with familiar faces and old friends again. My excitement was tempered by worries about Covid and being on crutches, but I needn’t have worried. The Executive Committee had organised everything brilliantly and there are no kinder or more helpful people than book-lovers! The following offers a taste of what it was like!

The weekend started with these fabulous cupcakes from Welbeck Flame, celebrating ‘Hedgewitch’ by Skye McKenna. It was lovely to hear Skye reading a section from her book before catching up with everyone and heading for the publishers’ presentations.

Hearing about all the new book-ish treats on their way is one of my favourite parts of Conference. Each publisher gave a presentation offering a tantalising glimpse of their up-coming books, making everyone’s must-have list instantly grow a mile! This session was followed by the publishers’ exhibition- a fantastic opportunity to chat to all the lovely publishing people and to have a closer look at some of their amazing books. It is such a treat to be able to browse through these, discussing them and finding out more. Thanks to their generosity and support, my TBR pile is massive!

The evening continued with an address from Michael Morpurgo before dinner and then a quiz led by Christopher Lloyd, the perfect way to end an exciting first day!

An action packed programme for day 2 started with Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre. Despite being ill with Covid, this fabulous pair still entertained us with a brilliant reading from ‘Kevin and the Unicorns’ before Sarah taught us all to draw Kevin- and turn it into our own character. Great fun!

Next was Anna James, discussing her ‘Pages and Co’ series so far and where Tilly’s adventures will take her next. These books are great favourites of mine and are very popular at school so it was a real pleasure hearing her speak about them.

After tea and more cake (this time courtesy of OUP!), Jess Butterworth, Roderick O’Grady and Eloise Williams formed the ‘sense of place’ panel in discussion with Annie Everall. This fascinating session was followed by Anne Fine, whose new book ‘Aftershocks’ is an excellent read.

Seminars followed lunch and as ever, it was a real struggle to decide which session to attend. I chose Coral Rumble’s as I love her poetry and her verse novel, ‘Little Light’. Not only did she talk about her inspiration for writing and share some of her work with us, she also led us in an activity to help us capture ideas for writing our own poems. Brilliant session! The seminars were followed by Tony Bradman whose historical fiction books are very popular in school.

Another coffee break- and more cake, this time celebrating ‘Goddess’ from Nosy Crow- before the AGM and group meetings. Time for a quick rest- and then off to Cocktails with Lauren Child, followed by the Gala dinner with Cressida Cowell speaking.

Sunday started with a fantastic session with Petr Horacek and Nicola Davies. Petr shared his new book, ‘A Best Friend for Bear’, which is absolutely delightful before starting a painting which he worked on whilst Nicola spoke about various projects she has been working on, including their latest collaboration.

The following session was Sophy Henn. Full of energy and enthusiasm as ever, Sophy talked about her inspiration and ideas, including her latest creation, Pizazz! Her agonising sense of self-awareness makes Pizazz is such a relatable character and shows that everyone can be a superhero in their own way.

The next coffee break was to celebrate 20 years of Bounce Marketing- the cake was delicious! At this point, Tom Palmer was presented with the CBA trophy he won for D-DAY DOG in 2020. Sarah also presented him with a lovely scrapbook full of children’s work.

Tom then joined Cat Weldon and Natasha Farrant as part of the history panel for a brilliant session, including readings from their books. The final session of the day was Poetry! Matt Goodfellow, Alex Wharton and Joseph Coelho shared a selection of their work and talked about the importance of poetry for helping people express themselves. Talk about finishing on a high note!

It was a brilliant, fun-filled weekend, with lots of book-ish joy. This just offers a snapshot of what happened- there was so much to enjoy and so many memories to take away. I really recommend the FCBG Conference to anyone who has never been - and can’t wait for next year!