Patrick Hardy Lecture

PATRICK HARDY (1936-1987) joined Constable Young Books as Grace Hogarth’s assistant, where he succeeded Grace as Editor. Constable Young Books then became Longman Young Books and from there Patrick transferred, with his list, to Penguin, where he founded Kestrel Books. Between 1982 and 1985 he ran his own company, maintaining the high standards he had always set himself.

November 1989 saw the very first inaugural Patrick Hardy Lecture, given in the form of a dialogue between Jill Paton Walsh and John Rowe Townsend. These series of lectures have continued, occurring annually, with honoured speakers from the world of children’s books such as Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Horowitz and Meg Rosoff.

Previous Speakers

2012 Marion Lloyd
Throwing Off the Invisibility Cloak

2011 Jonathan Stroud
The F Word: Writing Fantasy for Children

2010 Cathy Cassidy
It's Not Enough to Write A Brilliant Book

2009 Jeremy Strong
A Week in The Day of Myself

2008 Verna Wilkins
The Right to Be Seen

2007 Michael Rosen
The Bigger Picture

2006 Meg Rosoff
Why Would Any Sane Adult Read Children's Books

2005 Anthony Horowitz
The Need for Adventure

2004 Michael Morpurgo
We Are What We Read

2003 David Almond
The Echoing Darkness: Thoughts on Writing for the Young

2002 Anne Fine
So Many Books, So Little Time

2001 David Fickling
Narrative Heaven – The Editor’s Tale

2000 Jacqueline Wilson
Not in Front of the Children

1999 Quentin Blake
The True Story of the Unidentical Twins