NORTHERN HIGHLIGHTS Sarah J Dodd Why did you become a children’s writer?   It was something I always wanted to do from childhood. Apparently, I taught myself to read when I was three years old (though I have no memory of this!) and spent hours lost happily in books. They gave me such pleasure that I knew I wanted to invent my own stories. I went to a fairly progressive primary school, where we were allowed to choose what we did all morning, every morning…so I wrote story after story! They were mostly about animals, even then. As I grew up, I wanted to be able to bring that gift of escape and wonder to other children. Cover illustrated by Becky Thorns. Published by Firefly, 2021 Tell us about where you live I live in north Lancashire, not far from the border with Cumbria. I think it’s the perfect place to live because I love to be outdoors and the sea, moors and mountains are all within easy reach. Morecambe Bay is officially an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and...

NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT  EMMA LAYFIELD Why did you want to work in the children's book industry? I first fell in love with picture books reading Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman and, as I grew up, this love of picture books never left me. I worked in bookshops, always in the children’s section, and went on to do a BA and MA in publishing, as I was so keen to work with creatives and understand the industry. Over the years, I’ve worked on picture books, fiction and non-fiction, but my love and passion will always be picture books. Tell us about where you live. We moved from Manchester city centre to Chorlton a year ago and I could not be happier living here. Chorlton Ees Nature Reserve is on our doorstep and we spend every weekend walking along the River Mersey. At one end of my road is the brilliant Chorlton Bookshop and at the other is Beech Road, filled with indie bars, cafes and restaurants. And, not forgetting, we also have Chorlton Library and the Chorlton Book Festival here ...

  SPECIAL GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT Rebecca Wilkie, Durham Book Festival Durham Book Festival has been running for 31 years and is one of the country's oldest literature festivals. How has it grown and changed during that time? New Writing North have been producing DBF on behalf of Durham County Council since 2011 and in that time we’ve grown the audience hugely. I’m proud that over the last ten years we have developed two community reading programmes: the Big and Little Read, which see the whole of County Durham sharing the same great books.  This year’s Big Read is Lemn Sissay’s memoir My Name is Why - 3000 copies will be distributed across the county via the library service, prison library service and Durham University. Our 2021 Little Read is Look Up! by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola - 2000 copies will be going to every primary school and nursery setting in Durham, and we’ve developed a suite of online resources linked to the book, for teachers and families to use. We’ve al...