In the Reading Corner

Richard Lambert was born in London. He has had many different jobs including teaching medieval history. For the last ten years, he has lived in Norfolk where he works for the NHS and writes stories and poems. One of his stories was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award and another won the Fish Short Story Prize, and his poems have been in the Times Literary Supplement, The Spectator, and The Forward Prize Anthology. His second poetry collection, The Nameless Places, was published in 2017 and many of the poems in it are a response to the landscape around the River Waveney, on the Suffolk-Norfolk border. The collection was shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards.

His first published YA novel, Wolf Road was published by Everything with Words.

In this episode, he talks to Nikki Gamble about his second novel for children, Shadow Town.

About Shadow Town
In a dangerous land enslaved by the cruel Regent, where the Dreamers have the magical power to turn dreams into reality, Toby meets Tamurlaine, a strange girl who has lost her memory. To uncover the mystery of her identity and get Toby back home, the pair must go on a thrilling journey to the heart of the kingdom, the castle of the Regent A haunting piece of Gothic magical realism.

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In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Joanna Nadin author and senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Bristol. She has been nominated twice for the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, while the TV adaptation of her novel Joe All Alone is now a BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated BBC drama.

In this episode, Jo talks to Nikki Gamble about her novel No Man's Land set in the not too distant future.

About No Man's Land
'I could feel it coming. War, I mean. Creeping up on us, into our town, down our street, into our house.

Smiling like a friend, like it was Batman come to save us when really it was the Joker all along.' With far-right Albion on the brink of war with Europe, ten-year-old Alan and his little brother Sam are sent away to safety. Dad tells Alan he has to be brave, like the superheroes he loves, but Alan isn't too sure. He wants to be wherever Dad is, and, anyway - can he really be sure who's a hero and who's a villain?

A heartwarming, heartbreaking story of acceptance, love and bravery in all its different forms, from the acclaimed author of Joe All Alone.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. and by purchasing books from our online bookshop, Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Flora Delargy is an author and illustrator from Belfast. She has a master's degree in Children's Book Illustration from Cambridge School of Art. In 2019, she was selected for the Illustrators Exhibition at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Rescuing Titanic is her debut book for children. In this episode, Flora introduces her work and discusses her creative process.

About Rescuing Titanic
This exquisitely illustrated story of quiet bravery tells in rich detail how the little ship Carpathia saved 705 passengers of the Titanic from the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Written and illustrated by debut Northern Irish artist Flora Delargy, whose grandfather and great grandfather both worked in the Belfast Shipyards where the Titanic was built. With the approaching 110-year anniversary of the ship's sinking, Rescuing Titanic and its story of the Carpathia offers a fresh perspective on the incident from an author-illustrator uniquely connected to the story.

In the middle of the night, the Carpathia received a distress call from the sinking Titanic. The intrepid little ship heroically changed course and headed straight into the frozen sea to help save as many people as it could. Follow the Carpathia as it risks everything to navigate remote, treacherous ice fields in the dark and come to the rescue of passengers on the world-famous ocean liner.

Along the journey, you will learn all about Morse code, navigation tools, the different roles of the crew, how the ships found each other, and by-the-minute details of exactly what happened on this cold and fateful night. The illustrations set the scene and take the reader into the frozen eerie night in the North Atlantic. Beautiful full-bleed illustrations and vignettes give great detail about how everyone on the ship made their own contribution and showed true bravery.

Rescuing Titanic shows that a glimmer of hope can be found even in great tragedy and that heroes are not always big and mighty, but can also be small and unassuming. This is the debut book in the Hidden Histories series, which explores with beautiful illustrations and vivid details the untold parts of stories we thought we knew.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. and by purchasing books from our online bookshop, Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Kieran Larwood is the author of Freaks and was the winner of the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2011. He is best known for his popular animal fantasy series set in The Five Realms.

Kieran trained as a teacher and worked as one of only two male reception teachers on the Isle of Wight.

In this episode, he talks to Nikki Gamble about animal fantasy and the creation of The Five Realms.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. and by purchasing books from our online bookshop, Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Nick Lake is an editorial director at HarperCollins Children's Books and an acclaimed author of YA novels. He is the winner of the Michael L Printz Award for In Darkness (Bloomsbury). Locked Out Lily is his first middle-grade novel.

Emily Gravett is an award-winning illustrator and picturebook creator. As well as writing and illustrating her own books, she has illustrated novels for A F Harrold and Matt Haig and poetry collections.

About Locked Out Lily
Lily just wants things to go back to the way they were: before she got sick before her parents decided to have another baby. So when she's sent away to stay with her grandmother while her mum has the baby, Lily is determined to go home.

But she doesn't expect to find people in her house - people who look like her parents, but definitely aren't ... Together with some unlikely animal companions, Lily must face her fears and summon the courage to break into her own house, and defeat 'The Replacements' before the night is out.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. and by purchasing books from our online bookshop, Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Yaba Badoe is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and writer. Yaba was born in Ghana but now lives in England with her husband. She has been nominated for the Distinguished Woman of African Cinema award. Her debut children's novel A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars and two further novels Wolf Light and Lionheart Girl are published by Zephyr.

Yaba joined Nikki Gamble In The Reading Corner to talk about the strong women that comprise the cast of memorable characters in Lionheart Girl.

About Lionheart Girl
African myth and magic beat in the dark heart of this fable about witchcraft, superstition, the bonds we choose and those we cannot. Born into a family of West African witches, Sheba's terrified of her mother who can turn into a crow. But like mother, like daughter - magic runs through her blood and Sheba discovers powers of her own.

Her touch can unravel people's innermost thoughts; their hopes, their fears - their secrets. Sheba too can shape-shift. Through the communion of ancient magic, blood and friendship, she slowly uncovers the murderous truth about her stolen childhood and steels herself for the future.

She must protect the hunted from the hunter - her mother.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. and by purchasing books from our online bookshop, Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Lisa Fuller is a Wuilli Wuilli woman from Eidsvold, Queensland, and is also descended from Gooreng Gooreng and Wakka Wakka peoples. She won a 2019 black&write! Writing Fellowship, the 2017 David Unaipon Award for an Unpublished Indigenous Writer, the 2018 Varuna Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship, and was a joint winner of the 2018 Copyright Agency Fellowships for First Nations Writers.

Lisa is an editor and publishing consultant, and is passionate about culturally appropriate writing and publishing. Lisa is a member of Us Mob Writing, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, the First Nations Australia Writers Network, and the Canberra Society of Editors. Lisa still lives in her Australian birthland.

Lisa previously published poetry, blogs and short fiction, but her first YA fiction title, Ghost Bird, was an instant prizewinner in her homeland.

About Ghost Bird
A thrilling, multi-award-winning, teen ghost story, from an indigenous Australian author, drawing on ancient mythology and folk wisdom. Stacey and Laney are twins and mirror images of each other but as different as the sun and the moon. Stacey wants to go places, do things and be someone different while Laney just wants to skip school and sneak out of the house to meet her boyfriend Troy.

When Laney doesn't come home one night, the town assumes she's just doing her normal run-off but Stacey's gut tells her different. Stacey knows her twin isn't dead - she just doesn't know where she is; she can see her in her dreams but doesn't know if she is real or imagined. Holding onto the words her Nan taught her is one thing but listening to those around you is another - who will Stacey trust? As the town starts to believe that Laney is missing for good, can she find her twin in time?'

Support the show

Thank you for listening. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. and by purchasing books from our online bookshop, Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Catherine Barr started writing children’s books after looking for a book on evolution for her daughters but finding the available material dry and uninspiring. Having slipped unexpectedly into writing for children, she has gone on to write books on many subjects with a strong theme of environment, and conversation. With a background in ecology, and having worked for Greenpeace and the Natural History Museum, she is well-placed to write about these subjects.

Jean Claude is a self-taught illustrator from the UK, currently living and working in Lisbon, Portugal.

In this episode, they talk to Nikki Gamble about the first book in a new series: Let's Save the Planet.

About Let's Save the Planet: Antarctica
Discover why we must protect Antarctica from climate change. Home to millions of penguins, ancient dinosaur fossils and huge blue whales, Antarctica is our last great wilderness. This fascinating picture book brings to life this extreme and exciting continent for young children, exploring its icy landscape and extraordinary wildlife.

It also shows the incredible scientific research that happens there and therefore why it is so important that we act to protect this special part of the planet from climate change and plastic pollution.

About Let's Save the Planet: The Amazon
Discover why we must protect the Amazon from climate change. Bursting with all kinds of life, the Amazon is one of the most incredible places on Earth. This richly illustrated picture book brings to life this extraordinary region for young children, exploring its tropical rainforest and scenic landscapes.

It showcases the lush wildlife, diverse communities and life-saving medicines that can all be found there and therefore why it is so important that we act to protect this special part of the planet from the impact of climate change.

Thank you for listening.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. And if you are interested in the books we have featured, purchasing from our online bookshop Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. It is produced by Alison Hughes.

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates, follow us on Twitter @imaginecentre

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Michael Rosen's battle with Covid was followed with concern by fans and well-wishers. Hoe has spoken about the impact of the virus on his health and the road to recovery. Now he has written a memoir for younger readers which tells the story of his recovery and pays tribute to the people who helped him. Michael joined Nikki Gamble to explain his reasons for writing the book and how he hopes it will help children understand the importance of resilience and perseverance.

About Sticky Mcstickstick
A powerful and personal story from one of Britain's best-loved authors about his recovery from coronavirus. After being admitted to hospital in 2020 with coronavirus, Michael Rosen had to learn to walk again. With the support of doctors and nurses and a walking stick he names "Sticky McStickstick", he manages to embark on the slow steps to recovery.

This moving picture book from the former Children's Laureate, with illustrations from Tony Ross, tells a story of perseverance and hope and is a testament to the importance of overcoming fear and learning to accept help.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. and by purchasing books from our online bookshop, Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk

Olivia Lomenech Gill is a fine artist, printmaker and children's book illustrator. She is the illustrator of J K Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She has also illustrated two books for Michael Morpurgo, the poetry collection, Where My Wellies Take me and a story about Elizabeth Frink, Much and Magic.

Now Olivia has illustrated a superb new feminist retelling of the Medusa myth, written by Jesse Burton. Olivia spoke to Nikki Gamble from her home in Brittany.

About Medusa
A dazzling, feminist retelling of Greek myth from the internationally bestselling author of The Miniaturist, stunningly illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill.

Exiled to a far-flung island by the whims of the gods, Medusa has little company except for the snakes that adorn her head instead of hair. But when a charmed, beautiful boy called Perseus arrives on the island, her lonely existence is disrupted with the force of a supernova, unleashing desire, love and betrayal Filled with glorious full-colour illustrations by award-winning Olivia Lomenech Gill, this astonishing retelling of Greek myth is perfect for readers of Circe and The Silence of the Girls. 

Illuminating the girl behind the legend, it brings alive Medusa for a new generation.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support us by subscribing to our channel. and by purchasing books from our online bookshop, Bestbooksforschools.com

In the Reading Corner is presented by Nikki Gamble, Director of Just Imagine. 

Follow us on Youtube for more author events YouTube.com/@nikkigamble1

For general news and updates: follow us on X @imaginecentre  Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/justimaginecentre.bsky.social  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/justimagine_books/

Full details about the range of services we provide can be found on our website www.justimagine.co.uk