2025
VALERIE BLOOM
A special event in memory of Professor Morag Styles
2024
Joseph COEHLO
'Creativity through Poetry'
About the Lectures
PHILIPPA PEARCE
'a fitting reflection of Philippa’s own wide-ranging interests'
The prestigious Philippa Pearce Lecture is an annual event that celebrates excellence in literature for children. It provides a platform for the very best children’s authors, poets and illustrators to reflect on their art. Always thought-provoking, the lectures have tackled such topics as the significance of time, the place of fear, and what poetry is for.
“She was one of the very finest writers British children’s literature has ever had, and everything she wrote has a touch of the particular vision and understanding of human nature that was hers alone.”
Philip Pullman

The 2025 Lecture

We are were all greatly saddened when the founder of the Philippa Pearce Lecture, Morag Styles, died in December 2024. This year's lecture was therefore in loving memory of Morag and a celebration of her life and work. Morag Styles was Professor of Children's Poetry at the University of Cambridge, and championed the work of Caribbean poets both in the UK and the Caribbean. You can read more about Morag's life and work here.

For the 2025 lecture we were therefore thrilled to welcome poet and performer, Valerie Bloom.

A video of the lecture will be available shortly.
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Valerie Bloom, MBE
VALERIE BLOOM, MBE

Explore the Lectures

Most of the lectures are available as a video recording; a few are audio or text only.