Tickets go on sale on Friday for this year’s Bath Children’s Literature Festival and, as 2026 marks the Year of Reading, this promises to be the biggest and widest-reaching event EVER!
The festival will run from Friday 25 September to Sunday 4 October, with a line-up to suit every kind of young reader.
Tickets will go on sale to Bath Festivals’ patrons, Longleat members, Bath Festivals members and friends and Waterstones Plus account holders at 10 am on Wednesday 1 July. Tickets go on general sale at 10 am on Friday 3 July. To buy tickets: bathboxoffice.org.uk/bclf-b51
Big names include: A.F. Steadman, Katherine Rundell, Michael Rosen and MC Grammar, Dame Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, Andy Day, Cressida Cowell, Rob Biddulph, Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong, Greg James and Chris Smith, the Spectacular Phoenix Comic Show and, shortly after the main festival, visits from master illustrator Levi Pinfold and the creator of Bunny vs Monkey, Jamie Smart. There’ll be live events featuring favourites including Supertato, Elmer the elephant, Horrible Histories, story time sessions, draw-alongs and masterclasses especially designed for young creatives.
This marks the second year of collaboration between the children’s book festival in Bath and Longleat in Wiltshire, one of the first stately homes to open to the public and which this year celebrates the 60th anniversary of the opening of the first drive-through safari park outside Africa. Two family favourite brands working together to bring exciting experiences to children.
Events for every kind of young reader:
- Illustrated chapter books which capture the imagination of children and build their confidence and pleasure in reading for themselves. Interactive events for this audience include Adventuremice, Pablo and Splash the penguins, crime-fighting alligators, The Investigators and graphic novel series DADBOT.
- For readers who love a series and are happy to invest time in following the adventures of their heroes and heroines. Katherine Rundell, will be bringing us The Neverfear, the third in her hugely popular Impossible Creatures fantasy series, soon to be made into a Disney film. And Cressida Cowell will be introducing us to the newest adventure in the How to Train Your Dragon School series, while Skandar creator, A.F. Steadman, will delight her fans with the Skandar origin story, The First Unicorn.
- Kids who delight in silliness, laughter and having fun. The festival has LOTS of these, including the Spectacular Phoenix Comic Show Draw-Off featuring FOUR fabulous comic book illustrators, TV favourite Andy Day always raises the roof with his live shows, this time introducing us the latest in his series Dino Racers, AND Bath Children’s Literature Festival is delighted and proud to bring to the stage Ridiculous Raps and Rhymes featuring the legendary poet Michael Rosen and award-winning rapper MC Grammar together. Be prepared to get rapping and rhyming. Grown-ups will be encouraged to join in the fun!
- Fact-finding readers. Those children who like to get stuck into finding out stuff, collecting stats and revelling in their expert knowledge, whether that be the world of football, the workings of the human body with TV’s Dr Ranj, or brilliant storyteller the Reverend Richard Coles with his tales of true crime! Compete in quizzes! Test your knowledge! The festival has plenty of opportunities to make your voice heard.
- The page turners, the readers who will lose themselves in a book because they LOVE a good story. The festival has plenty of events for these voracious readers, including Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Jasbinder Bilan, Emma Carroll, Holly Webb, Ben Miller AND Alexander Armstrong.
- For pre-schoolers, there are story time sessions, a perfect cosy introduction to live events for little ones.
- For young artists, there are draw-alongs with inspirational illustrators including Rob Biddulph, Horrible Histories’ Martin Brown and Chris Riddell, introducing his new Mermaid series.
Waterstones is the official festival bookseller and will be hosting FREE drop-in sessions at its Milsom Street bookshop during the festival, featuring four artists in residence
Bath Children’s Literature Festival was founded in 2007 by John and Gill McLay, and is delighted and proud that they remain artistic directors.
John McLay, festival director, says: “Every year Gill and I try to bring the most popular children’s authors and illustrators to Bath to entertain and inspire young book lovers. In this, the National Year of Reading, it has never been more important to foster a love of reading for pleasure and we think we’ve put together a truly stunning programme of events. Our biggest ever.
We hope our audiences will seek out and meet their favourite creatives, be in awe of their stories and laugh at their jokes. We love meeting them as well, and know their jokes are pretty funny. There are not many kids on mobile phones in our signing queues. They’re mostly reading books. We must be doing something right! If you’ve not been before, come and find out what it’s all about. If you’re a regular . . . welcome back. It’ll be great to see you again. You’re among friends!”
Bath Children’s Literature Festival’s Schools Programme 2026
The Schools Programme runs from Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October, reaching out to thousands of children in dozens of schools from across the south west region. Visiting authors and illustrators include: Liz Pichon, Mariesa Dulak and Rebecca Cobb, John Patrick Green, Kes Gray, Ross Welford, Shini Somara, MG Leonard, David Solomons, Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton.
To receive the Schools Programme Brochure, please email: education@bathfestivals.org.uk
About Bath Children’s Literature Festival
Bath Children’s Literature Festival is part of arts charity Bath Festivals, engaging children and young people with reading, writing, drawing and a love of learning. The festival is all about having fun, reading for pleasure, meeting the creators of children’s literary heroes, seeing illustrations come to life and sparking the imagination.
Share The Story
Can you help us to Share The Story with more children? Every year, we try to reach more children and introduce them to the incredible world of books. Helping children fall in love with stories and unleashing their imaginations is at the very heart of the festival’s purpose. We simply can’t do it without you.
At the point of booking your tickets, you will be asked if you would be happy to donate to our Share The Story Fund. 100% of your donation goes towards our fund, and donations will allow children who wouldn’t ordinarily attend the festival to take a book home with them to keep. Please donate!
About Bath Festivals
Bath Festivals is a charity that inspires and connects different people and communities through music and book festivals. All its work is designed to maximise inclusion and accessibility, ignite ideas, thoughts and conversations and promote and celebrate the positive impact that music, literature, and performance have on people’s lives. Charity number: 801617.
