Burford Literary Festival

Published on Friday, October 6th, 2023

A few weeks ago, Dick’s son Giles went to Burford Literary Festival to talk about his dad. Here’s his report –

It was great to be invited to take part in the Burford Literary Festival, organised by Kim Harvey of the excellent Mad Hatter Bookshop. The picture shows me talking about Dick to children from Burford Primary School and Southrop School – a really enthusiastic and knowledgeable group of kids, many of whom had read several DKS titles. They were particularly interested to learn about “Ambrose Follows His Nose“, and I left copies of “Ambrose” (paperback edition signed by Dick’s co-author and great-granddaughter Josie Rogers!) and the 40th anniversary edition of “The Sheep-Pig“. Special congrats to the young super-fan who told me afterwards that she has read “nearly all” of Dick’s books. Wow!

These events are always very rewarding, especially when the children have been able to do some reading or research beforehand. Most of my school visits have been in North Devon, where I live. Biggest audience – 250 at Pilton Bluecoats (very good questions as well). Best prepared – St. Helen’s School at Abbotsham, who had even watched the BBC’s “The Repair Shop” episode featuring Juliet (Dick’s elder daugter) and Wilfred (Dick’s childhood toy rabbit)! Top marks. You can watch this episode of The Repair Shop here.

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