Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture Newsletter, Winter 2011

September’s lecture was a great success and we are delighted that the lecture series seems to have established a committed following. We now have a video (and a transcript) of Philip Pullman's 2011 Philippa Pearce lecture available at www.pearcelecture.com/lectures/2011

(Above - Philip Pullman-AP)

Secondly, we thought you would like to know that although the lecture series was originally planned to run for five years, we have decided to extend the series for the foreseeable future.

Thanks must go to Homerton College who continue to sponsor the lecture series.

The lectures are funded entirely by donations and one annual collection. The series is run by unpaid volunteers. Nevertheless, admission to the lecture will continue to remain free of charge and we are now actively looking for new sponsors. We are of course immensely grateful to all of our initial sponsors (listed below). And particular thanks is due to Constance & Lewis Counts’ continued support throughout the entire lecture series. If you wish to contact us about sponsorship please visit: www.pearcelecture.com/contact

The 2012 lecture will be given by Malorie Blackman (on the 6th of September) and in 2013 by Kevin Crossley Holland. More information can be found at www.pearcelecture.com

From the Steering Committee

Key sponsors: Sally Christie, Constance & Lewis Counts (donations made in memory of John Hammond), Homerton College, Oxford University Press, Puffin Books and Walker Books.

A little history:

At the start of 2007, a small group of Philippa Pearce’s friends, family and colleagues began organising a series of memorial lectures to be delivered by various distinguished speakers with an interest in children’s books.
The inaugural lecture was held on 11th September 2008, at Homerton College, Cambridge, and focused on Philippa Pearce ’s own writing and contribution to children’s liturature. Subsequent lectures have ranged more widely, but we hope that they will all 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. Many of 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.
2008: Julia Eccleshare, Victor Watson, David Wood
2009: Michael Rosen
2010: Michael Morpurgo
2011: Philip Pullman
2012: Malorie Blackman
2013: Kevin Crossley Holland