How to write your first children's book - meet the experts

Cheshire has produced generations of award-winning children’s authors, from Lewis Carroll to contemporary luminaries such as Alan Garner. Now, in World Book Day month, we discover what it takes to pen a hit for young readers.

For me, it’s Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree. My daughters opt for Dame Lynley Dodd’s unlikely canine hero, Hairy Maclary. Friends and family suggest other titles – Shirley Hughes’ We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Lauren Child’s Charlie and Lola, Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. They’re all stories that endure – enthralling and inspiring young readers and making indelible marks on fresh imaginations in a way fiction rarely does as we mature.

In Warrington, international best-selling author Curtis Jobling traces his success back to childhood inspirations.

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