Karen Mountney, Children’s Programme Director for the Edinburgh International Book Festival reveals the ins and outs of organising the 100s of children’s events that sit right at the heart of the book festival’s programme.

Since its inception in 1983, Edinburgh International Book Festival has grown to be the largest and most dynamic event of its kind in the world. Starting life as a one-off festival with a relatively modest programme of 30 events, the Book Festival is now held annually in August and in 2004 programmed 650 events and attracted 207,000 visitors.

It remains in its original home at Charlotte Square Gardens, a World Heritage Site in the heart of Edinburgh’s West End. Each year we create a tented village of venues, cafés and bookshops – an oasis of calm in this bustling festival city.

At the core of the Book Festival is the children’s programme, now regarded as one of the leading showcases for children’s writers and illustrators in the world and acclaimed as amongst the best experiences of books and reading available to young people.

Equal in size to the programme of events for adults, the children’s programme offers an unrivalled mix of author events, writing and arts workshops, specially commissioned artwork, panel discussions, free storytelling, and a host of other activities in an intimate and family-friendly environment. Our children’s bookshop, run independently by the Book Festival, stocks over 3,000 titles – a browsing haven for eager minds.

Over recent years, the Children’s Programme has expanded considerably. We have developed the programme for pre-school children, including collaborations with expert organisations such as Bookstart to ensure provision for babies and toddlers. Parents and carers are catered for in events, which help them to help their child to enjoy reading and emphasise the benefits of reading together. We are nurturing our teenage audience with a tempting mix of interactive panel discussions with authors at the cutting edge of writing for young adults, the response to which has so far been extremely enthusiastic. Events and activities are tailored specifically for each audience group so that everyone, no matter what their interest, is catered for.

Our programme of events for schools enables pupils from throughout Scotland to encounter authors face-to-face. In 2004, almost 11,000 pupils from 130 schools attended 61 events and workshops, programmed specifically for a school audience. For the past three years we have held a special Gala Day for primary schools when the site is open only to schools, which is attended by 3,000 pupils. Schools needing financial assistance to attend events can apply to our Bus Fund, which has expanded the geographical spread of our schools audience considerably since it was first offered in 2002.

Despite the Bus Fund, some schools are still unable to attend the Book Festival itself due to geographical remoteness or social disadvantage – so we take it to them. A five-day outreach programme, comprising a selection of the events for schools, tours to various locations in Scotland. We work closely with Scottish Book Trust in both assessing where we can achieve maximum benefit in providing these outreach events and delivering them.

The children’s programme isn’t just for children – it includes a significant number of discussion events for adults on children’s writing, illustration and publishing. In addition, teachers are able to hear leading educationalists in a special series of events exploring items high on the education agenda, and illustrators can learn from the best in the business in a programme of Picture Book Masterclasses.

At the heart of the Book Festival, throughout all elements of the programme for young or old, the focus is firmly on participation, imagination and creation. We aim to enable people to engage with the wonderful world of books in many different ways. We hope to empower children by creating an imaginative and engaging environment where they can expand their horizons and explore their own minds. We hope that we provide them with a positive cultural experience that stays with them and instils a love of reading and writing for life.

We are not striving to create this celebration of books just for our audience – the authors are, of course, paramount to us. We welcome over 500 authors and illustrators a year into our authors’ green room – a romantic conurbation of Bedouin yurts replete with everything an author could need to make their experience of the Book Festival memorable (namely whisky and Italian pastries). For authors, this is an opportunity to not only meet their readers and interact with their audience, but also to engage with their peers. Many a book has germinated from an idea planted at the Book Festival.

The Authors’ Yurt has welcomed Nobel Prize winners and Children’s Laureates, but crucial to the Book Festival is the diversity of authors that can be encountered. Yes, in 2004 you could hear the likes of Muriel Spark and J. K. Rowling, but you could also meet rising talent and discover new names for yourself.

And what about the staff? For the year-round team of nine people who put the Book Festival together, August is the time when we finally get to see thousands of people enjoying our 11 months of hard labour. It’s not all glamour – we are perhaps one of the few organisations whose sponsors have provided them with wellies – but despite the sometimes grim reality of life at the coalface, 18 days surrounded by people of all ages revelling in books is an absolute joy.

Karen Mountney is the Children's Programme Director of Edinburgh International Book Festival and a member of the Advisory Group for The Centre for the Scottish Children's Book.

The full programme of events for the 2005 Book Festival will be launched June 17 and will be available at www.edbookfest.co.uk.