The 2027 London Schools Literature Festival returns Monday 17 May – Friday 25 June.
We believe in the magic that happens when children meet the authors and illustrators they love and the lasting impact this can have.
Because we believe that every child should have this opportunity, we provide our Programme FREE for state primary schools all over London, 20,000+ places in 2026 from Twickenham Stadium to Tower Hamlets.
Our Programme brings your students together with their favourite authors to crack open the National Curriculum and discover brilliant new books, guaranteed to help you turn up the volume on reading, writing and participation. Expect every hand in the air!
This year our free Programme includes former Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022-2024, Joseph Coelho, acclaimed author Katherine Rundell, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize winners, Onjali Q Rauf and Sharna Jackson, the 2024 Children’s Poetry Prize winner, Matt Goodfellow, British Book Award winner, MG Leonard, the Jhalak Prize winner, Maisie Chan, Diverse Book Award winner Rashmi Sirdeshpande, bestselling authors Serena Patel and Christopher Edge, and comics superstar Neill Cameron among many, many others.
Bookings open on Wednesday 11 February and places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Our sessions get filled fast so we do recommend you book as soon as possible.
We really hope you’ll bring your classroom to the Festival. We can’t wait to meet you and your students.
Thursday 21 May
Wednesday 3 June
Thursday 4 June
Friday 5 June
Thursday 11 June
Monday 15 June
Tuesday 16 June
Wednesday 17 June
Thursday 18 June
Monday 22 June
Friday 26 June
Onjali Q Raúf
Zoe Antoniades
Joseph Coelho
Onjali Q Raúf
Zoe Antoniades
Joseph Coelho
This year via our schools outreach programme, the London Schools Literature Festival, we will provide over 20,000 places completely free for state primary schools all over London so that every child can experience the magic of an author or illustrator event, regardless of their reading ability or background.
We work very hard to provide these places free for the schools but they are not free to produce. We have no major sponsor and receive no government funding of any kind.
We survive at all because we are all unpaid volunteers banging away around our big digital kitchen tables with no office and minimal running costs which means that when you give to the Programme we can use 100% of your donation to reach even more schools and communities.
It costs us £5 to provide each child with the opportunity to attend a London Schools Literature Festival event so please consider making a donation so we can offer a place at a free author event to every state school student in London. Whatever you can give will make a big difference.
