Cuckfield Book Festival Schools’ Day 2023

By Shauna Bevan

We were delighted to hold our inaugural Cuckfield Bookfest Schools’ Day at Cumnor House Sussex on 16th May. Cumnor has been a gold sponsor of the festival for several years now and we are very grateful to them for their support.

The idea behind the Schools’ Day was to bring children from different schools in Sussex together, enabling some of those who might not otherwise be able to do so, to meet and hear from popular authors. First up was Christopher Lloyd, founder of WhatonEarth books. He gave a fantastic talk on his new book It’s Up to Us which features a foreword from the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III. Using an exciting array of props from his coat with many pockets, he gave a whistle-stop tour of the challenges we face from climate change and ideas of how we might meet them. The book features stunning illustrations from artists based all over the world. Attendees from Danehill Primary and Grove Park, a specialist school in Crowborough, joined children in Years 4-6 from Cumnor in the theatre. Christopher then headed to Holy Trinity Primary School in Cuckfield where he spoke to Years 4 and 5 in turn.

Back in the theatre at Cumnor, multiple award-winning author Sarah Crossan gave a wonderfully inspiring and very funny talk on poetry to an audience of Year 7 and 8 children from Cumnor House, Oathall and Warden Park. Her session included an incredibly witty deconstruction of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and also two students from Oathall and Cumnor House joined her on the stage to recite the opening rap from the hit musical Hamilton. Children were able to buy copies of her books including her poetry anthology Tomorrow is Beautiful from the outdoor pop-up bookshop.
The day was rounded off with a visit from Sufiya Ahmed who gave a fascinating talk about the inspiration behind her novel Rosie Raja: Churchill’s Spy, including her time working at the Houses of Parliament. Children from Holy Trinity, Cuckfield joined Year 6 at Cumnor and were captivated as she wove her story encompassing politics, human rights, the history of the British Empire, immigration, morse code, spies and fighting the Nazis during WW ll.

Cuckfield Bookfest would like to thank everyone at Cumnor House Sussex, Cuckfield Bookfest volunteers, RDH Coaches, the wonderful authors and the teachers and children at the participating schools, all of whom contributed to making the day such a resounding success.

Cuckfield Book Festival 6th – 8th October and please note that the date of the literary quiz has been brought forward to Friday, 22nd September. Please expect the publication of the programme in mid August edition of Cuckfield Life.

Mid Downs Radio at the Princess Royal Hospital

Sampling the delights of Cuckfish at MDR

Mid Downs Radio has continued to broadcast 24/7 throughout the pandemic from studios on the first floor of the Princess Royal Hospital. The station is a registered charity and provides music, entertainment and regularly updated information on health, hospital, social care and community matters to patients, staff and visitors to the hospital complex as well as to the wider community.

All the MDR presenters are volunteers who host a wide variety of shows. Production Manager Paul Barnett presents his ‘Tiffin with Paul’, an eclectic mix of music, poems and lively banter with co host Cathy, on Thursday afternoons from 3-5 pm. He has also been seen regularly in the Outside Broadcast Unit compering Cuckfield Christmas Night with MDR Technical Manager Gary Simons.

MDR has been delighted to help promote the brilliant Cuckfield Bookfest since its inception as well as the Music Festival, the 100th anniversary of Cuckfield Tennis Club and the opening of Cuckfish. Since launching the Listen Live service through the website and TuneIn App there has been an increase in listeners. MDR continues to support other charities and organisations by publicising their work and events through interviews and in some cases providing promotional fillers that go out regularly on air. If you would like to know more about promoting your charity through MDR please contact Wendy Swinton-Eagle at wendy@mdr.org.uk.

MDR funds itself through Grants & Membership fees but mainly through hiring out our distinctive Outside Events Unit and now the new fully equipped Mobile Disco complete with professional DJ, Lee Gillet all at very competitive rates.

To find out more about Mid Downs Radio, to read our latest magazine or to Listen Live please visit our website at www.mdr.org.uk

Events for younger bookworms - Cuckfield Bookfest

By Heather Gosling

This year’s Cuckfield Bookfest for Children and Young People (which took place on Saturday 6th October) was a whirlwind of creativity. With sessions ranging from telling tales of WWI to learning about dinosaurs, the day was packed with fun for children and young adults.

Tony De Saulles started the day with his Bee Boy trilogy. Tony engaged the audience with drawing bees, quizzes on bees and he even played his Bee Song on the guitar.

The audience were captivated as Tony drew us into his world of writing, illustrating and bee-keeping! The Bee Boy trilogy takes an eye-opening approach to educating people on bees and how they help us. Tony devised a competition to design a poster showing the significance of bees in our world and all the entries were magnificent!

Well done to all the winners who each received two of the Bee Boy books: Bee Boy Clash of the Killer Queens and Bee Boy Attack of the Zombees. The third book of the trilogy (Curse of the Vampire Mites) is to be released in February next year.

The following session was held by Caroline Crowe who read from her two books: Is that an Elephant in my Fridge? and Pirates in Pyjamas. This was an exciting session for the younger audience, who enjoyed singing, dancing, reading, and rhyming with Caroline.

Nicky Dee and Rebecca Skimming transported us back in time to 200 years ago when some of the first dinosaur fossils were found in Cuckfield. The pair taught us about how dinosaurs were discovered and why they became extinct. After much audience participation, quizzes and fun facts we learnt how to walk like a dinosaur!

Alison Milford told the touching story of Sam and Rose, a brother and sister who got caught up in The Great War. Alison skillfully weaved the tale of Sam and Rose and their wartime memories through the letters, postcards and Rose’s scrapbook. The audience were entranced by Alison’s version of the song If You were the Only Girl in the World - there wasn’t a dry eye in the room!

Gillian McClure, Pippa Goodhart and Rosemary Hayes, all three well known children’s authors, gave tips to budding writers, including several young people. This session was extremely thought provoking as it outlined important skills needed to engage the interest of a young reader.

The storm of creativity continued in Joshua Raven’s session. Joshua Raven is a Cuckfield-based author whose books are filled with adventure and fantasy elements - perfect for readers who enjoy a fast-paced narrative that grabs your intrigue from start to finish.

Joshua read from his Five Fingers series and challenged the audience to come up with their own alternative ending. At the end of his session, Joshua unleashed yet more energy when he announced the winners of his creative writing competition.

The day ended as many books do: with a happy ending. What a wonderful end to a very special day; the end of the Cuckfield Bookfest for Children and Young People was enjoyed with music, refreshments and admiring everyone’s hard work. Well done to all the competition winners who will each receive a school visit from either Tony or Joshua. Thank you to the wonderful volunteers and everyone who participated. And of course, a very special thank you to all the generous sponsors - Cuckfield Bookfest wouldn’t be here without you!