Children's Books North - Summer social

 Celebrating two years of CBN - Summer Social, Leeds


On Thursday 30th June, Children's Books North finally managed only our second ever in-person social event (due to Covid) since our launch in February 2020. 

Since that first launch our membership has grown from 60 to over 350, with more than 50,000 blog views and nearly 6,000 followers across our social media. It was a genuine joy to be able to celebrate more than two years of supporting and promoting our members' work, and championing regional diversity in children's publishing with everyone.

In those two years we have been joined by the CBN Committee - Tom Ashton-Booth, Maria Rifiuti and Shaniah Shields - who contribute a huge amount to the day-to-day running of the network and were able to meet many of our members for the first time.

Maria, Emma, Tilda, Tom, Shaniah

We are now into our second year of the CBN mentor scheme for aspiring publishing professionals which aims to support mentees from the North of England and Scotland on their journey to a career in publishing, and helps to show the possibilities available for aspiring professionals without moving to London. We were joined at the social by some of our mentees from this year and last. 

Tilda, Helen Varley, Sarah Nuttall, Joanne Ruffell, Emma

Co-founder Liz Scott was unable to make it to the social due to Covid but said: 

‘Our intention with Children’s Books North had always been to host regular in-person networking events to connect CBN members from across our regions. While that hasn’t been possible in our first two years, we’re incredibly proud of our virtual events, the collaborations we’ve delivered, and the impressive growth in our membership. Children’s Books North is here to stay and we have exciting plans for further growth.’


Co-founders Emma Layfield and Tilda Johnson

There is so much happening in publishing in the North and we're proud to be of a part of it. We can't wait to celebrate with you all again in another of our regions.

Emma, Tilda and Liz x 


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