This page lists up to date news and events. Do keep checking back, as I’ll be updating it regularly, showing news about all my books including The Cost of Living and highlighting events where I’ll be appearing to talk about books and writing.
Coming up…
2017 21st September – Publication of The Cost of Living!
2014 The official launch of Water Born, the sequel to The Drowning, at Waterstones in Bath on Tuesday 29th July, 6-7.30pm. All welcome. The event is free but please ring Waterstones on 01225 448515 to book a place.
2013
25th Jan: Chicken House Big Breakfast, London
7th Feb: Chicken House Little Breakfast, Bath
23rd Feb: Crime-writing workshop, Staple Hill Library
27th Feb: Libraries in the Rhondda Valley & Pontypridd High School
2nd March: Youth Librarians South-West, Trowbridge
4th March: Beechen Cliff School, Bath
7th March: Oxford Spires Academy for World Book Day!
11th March: Sibford School, Banbury
22nd March: Mayfield School, Essex
24th March: FCBG Conference, Bury St. Edmunds
9th April: St Bernadette School, Bristol
16th April: Redland Green School, Bristol
24th April: St Edmunds School, Salisbury
24th May: Hay Festival, schools!!
11th June: Saltford Festival
Events 2012
11-15 Sept: Berlin
16-18 Sept: Hamburg
2 Oct: Roedean School
3 Oct: Brighton College
Events 2011
20th January – Chicken House Big Breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien at the South Bank
15th January Crime-writing workshop at Kingswood Library – great to meet some really talented young writers. Good luck with your short stories!
3rd March – Wellsway School for World Book Day.
11th March – Nailsea School
18th March – Hounslow!
25th March – Colstons School, Bristol
April – Amsterdam, to celebrate ‘Deadline’ being nominated for the Dutch Young Jury Prize. I didn’t win, but it was great to meet Dutch writers, lots of keen readers and the lovely people at my Dutch publisher, Lemniscaat.
23rd June – Sir Robert Woodward Academy, Lancing, West Sussex.
1st July – Salford for ‘An Audience with Rachel Ward…
5th July – Official launch of ‘Numbers 3: Infinity’ at Waterstones, Bath. 6.00pm.
14 July: ABC day at the Frome Festival! 13:35/14:45 at
Holy Trinity Hall, Frome + TeaTime Treats 16:00/17:00 at Frome Library
17th September – UK Youth Librarians Conference, London.
18th September – live webchat at the National Book Store Booth at the Manila International Book Fair! 4PM, Philippine time.
27th September – Bath Kids Literature Festival
14th October – Frankfurt!
19th October – Bristol Literature Festival
20th October – English Bookshop, Stockholm.
3rd December – book signing at Montreuil Book Fair, Paris (14.00-16.00hr)
Events 2010
15th January 2010 – Went to London to help Chicken House Big celebrate its 10th Anniversary. Happy Birthday Chicken House!
29th January 2010 – visited Oldfield School, Bath and spoke to the whole of Year 8. Great audience and loads of good questions. Thanks for listening…Really impressed with the school and its facilities – amazing view from the Library!
2nd March 2010 – I had a great visit to St. James School, London. What a lovely school! I gave two talks and there were lots of questions about writing and being published. Thanks for all the letters afterwards – I am going to reply as soon as I get a quiet five minutes…
17th March – Trip to Leipzig to help launch Numbers: Den Tod in Blick with Chicken House Germany! It was a fantastic trip, really interesting and great to meet young people in Germany and to visit a German youth centre and school.
24th March – To Tooting to help celebrate the very first FAB (Fabulous Award for Books) in Wandsworth. I was so pleased and surprised to win – it means a huge amount as this award is voted for by readers and it was great to meet so many keen readers at the event.
20th April – London Book Fair for a seminar on Writing for Teens with Barry Cunningham, Sophia Bennett and chaired by John McClay. The seminar was packed! Good discussion and lots of interesting questions. Great to see you all there.
21st April – Home in Bath to help celebrate the Centurion Book Award. I was runner-up to Gemma Malley, who won with ‘The Declaration.’ Congratulations to Gemma! It was lovely to meet lots of local school students, all keen readers.
17th May – Had a great time in Angus, Scotland where I won the Angus Book Award. Amazing ceremony where the students’ love of books and reading was very clear – a real tribute to all involved. I loved spending time in a part of the world where my great-grandfather lived and worked.
25th May – Enjoyed meeting enthusiastic readers in Leeds at the Leeds Book Awards.
22nd June – Launch of Numbers: The Chaos at Waterstones, Bath. Thanks so much to John Lloyd and all at Waterstones and to all the friends, family and enthusiastic readers who joined me for a very memorable evening.
2nd July – Blackpool Teen Book Award. Great to meet readers there and see their love of books and reading.
6th July – Great to be part of the Oxfam Bookfest and hurray for Keynsham!
9th July – St. Bede’s School, Bristol. So good to meet such enthusiastic staff and students. Great questions! A really inspiring afternoon for me.
14th July – Branford Boase award, London. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go – but congratulations to lovely Lucy Christopher and equally lovely Imogen Cooper!
16th July – Norton Hill School, Midsomer Norton. Thank you for a very warm welcome. Shame about the fire alarm! (It wasn’t me, honestly.)
13th August – Jersey Library, St. Helier, Jersey. Thank you so much for a lovely welcome and your very thoughtful gift! I very much hope to return to Jersey which is a jewel of an island.
5th September – Hunting Raven bookshop, Frome, 2.00pm. Lovely to meet such keen bookshop people and a lovely group of readers. Who knew that my own son could ask so many interesting questions?
7th October – Oxfordshire Book Awards in Abingdon. Lovely awards ceremony and great to meet readers at Matthew Arnold School!
13th October – Weatherhead School, Merseyside. Wow, what a day – quite intense, but great to meet so many readers and fantastic to find a school so committed to promoting reading.
21st October – Yate Library, South Gloucestershire. Really lovely event. So pleased to see libraries really connecting with and enthusing young adults. Thank you so much for the warm welcome!
25th November – I was in Stockport to receive the Key Stage 4 prize in the Stockport Schools Book Awards. I had a great time in Stockport – lovely to meet the other winning authors including the super-talented Cathy Macphail and Andrew Norriss. There are photos of the event on Andrew’s website and also on the Bookwitch’s blog. I also enjoyed visiting 3 schools; Stockport School, Cheadle Hulme High School and Hazel Grove High. I was really impressed with the schools, and their enthusiastic staff and students. Thank you for making me so welcome!
News andEvents 2009
5th January 2009 – ‘Numbers’ published
12th January 2009 – ‘Numbers’ is shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
June 2009 – ‘Numbers’ is shortlisted for the Southern Schools Book Prize and longlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Book Prize.
6th May 2009 – Rachel helped to open the new Learning Centre at Ralph Allen School, Bath
30th June 2009 – Rachel spoke as part of the pre-Festival programme for the Keynsham Music Festival, in the Pomegranate Cafe in Temple Street. It was a lovely evening and it was great to meet local readers and writers – there’s alot of creative talent in Keynsham! Maybe next year, we could put together a panel event to showcase local writing…
5th July 2009 –Rachel was part of the ‘Writing Children’s Books’ session at the Frome Festival, with Barry Cunningham and Imogen Cooper of The Chicken House, at Frome Library.
23rd August 2009 – Rachel was on the panel for ‘Compelling Novels, Vulnerable Children,’ at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The reporting of fellow-panellist Anne Fine’s words about the effect of grim endings to books on readers who have difficult lives themselves caused a huge media debate, both about happy endings and also how comments are reported and spun. Interesting.
24th September 2009 – Rachel was part of the ‘Writing Children’s Literature’ session at the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature with Barry Cunningham (founder of The Chicken House), Linda Strachan and Lucy Christopher. It was a great evening and good to meet so many enthusiastic readers.
6th November – Hampton Community College. Rachel met the pupils who championed ‘Numbers’ in their Battle of the Books earlier this year. What a great group of people. Thanks for a really inspiring visit.
7th November – Rachel visited Upper Norwood Library and spoke to a small, but select, audience on writing for teenagers and what it’s like being published. Thanks to Fiona for hosting my visit, and great to meet up with the multi-talented Alex ‘Mousehunter’ Milway.
20th November – visited Hayesfield School to meet some of the Year 9 students. Thank you for such a warm welcome.
4th December – visited the Book Club at Wellsway School Library – what a fantastic group of keen readers! Great that Book Club is so thriving. Loved your Library – a place to really inspire and delight.