STAHS Children’s Book Festival

MG Leonard – AKA Maya Gabrielle – is the bestselling author of the Beetle Boy, Twitchers and Adventures on Trains series, and the winner of countless awards. These accolades include the CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children 2022 and Sainsbury’s Children’s Book of the Year 2021 for Twitch. Maya spent her early career in the music industry, managing bands such as The Divine Comedy, then trained as an actor, finally working as a digital producer for Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Opera House before making her fiction debut with Beetle Boy in 2016.

mgleonard.com

Sam Sedgman’s first novel for young readers was The Highland Falcon Thief, which he wrote with friend and fellow STAHS BookFest author MG Leonard. The first instalment in the Adventures on Trains series, it won the Children’s Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2021. A former digital consultant for the National Theatre, Sam’s first solo middle grade book, The Clockwork Conspiracy, is a mystery about an aspiring inventor on the hunt for his missing dad.

samsedgman.com

Manjeet’s debut YA verse novel, Run, Rebel, won the 2021 CILIP Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Award and was named among The Guardian’s Best Books of 2020. Subsequent literary successes include The Crossing, a profound look at the refugee crisis from the perspective of two teenagers, which won the 2021 Costa Children’s Book Award. Manjeet’s most recent offering, Whirly Twirly Me, is her second picture book (which features illustrations by fellow BookFest guest Amanda Quartey). As well as being an author, Manjeet is an actress, playwright and screenwriter.

@manjeet_k_mann

While Amanda always loved drawing and studied graphic design at college, she didn’t commit to a career in illustration until 2016, after majoring in Classics at university and working in finance. She has collaborated with one of our BookFest authors to great acclaim: Small’s Big Dream by Manjeet Mann won the Readers’ Choice prize at the Diverse Book Awards 2023.

@amandaquartey

Steven is best known for the Ted and His Time-Travelling Toilet series, in which our hero travels back in time via his toilet’s u-bend. His other literary projects include a collaboration with Ivor Baddiel on children’s joke book How to be the Funniest Kid in School. Steven is also a stand-up comedian, voice-over artist and brand marketing expert, who runs his own content creation company.

@stevenvinacourauthor