SINCE THE START of 2007, a small group of Philippa Pearce’s friends, family and colleagues have been organising a series of memorial lectures. These lectures are to be spread over five years, and will be delivered by various distinguished speakers with an interest in children's books. Some of the speakers may be authors themselves; all, from their different perspectives, will provoke thought. In this way and in Philippa Pearce's honour, we seek to acknowledge and understand excellence in writing for children, and to emphasize its continuing vital importance.
On 11th September 2008, at Homerton College, Cambridge - an institution with which she was always happy to be involved - the inaugural lecture will take the form of a direct tribute to Philippa Pearce's work. Subsequent lectures will range more widely, over the works of others, but will tend to reflect her own wide-ranging literary interests in, for example, the short story, the ghost story, the picture book and, of course, the novel.
In 2008, her own best loved novel, Tom's Midnight Garden, will have been in print for 50 years. Also in 2008 will come the publication of her very last story, A Finder's Magic, completed just before she died. Both will be widely celebrated by children, parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians and book lovers of every kind: a fitting context for the Memorial Lecture itself. Alongside the inaugural lecture, there will be a small exhibition in Homerton College library, relating to Philippa Pearce's work.
NEWS: Booking for the 2008 lecture is now closed. To attend you must have already booked a place via this site. For more information click on the booking link above.
For directions to Homerton and other details, you can visit the college's website: www.homerton.cam.ac.uk Also, the following links will provide you with PDFs of the locality and of the college grounds:
Map of Homerton campus (pdf, 220k)
Map of Cambridge showing Homerton College (pdf, 320k)