Five new speakers announced for the Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival

Five new speakers have been confirmed for the Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival taking place on November 17-19 2023.
The following authors will join Tanya Goodin, Ann Cleeves, Nigel Biggar, Rory Cellan-Jones and Puneet Bhandal as speakers throughout the weekend:

James Naughtie - The Spy Across the Water
James Naughtie is one of Britain's best-known broadcasters, and the author of three espionage novels. For 21 years he presented Today on BBC Radio 4 and is now a special correspondent for BBC News.
He has presented the network's Bookclub for 25 years.
In addition to his fiction, he has written books on politics and music, and on his travels and work in the United States, which he has been visiting and writing about since the 1970s.

Ann Bryant - Peter and the Timber Wolf
Ann Bryant is the author of around 125 books, roughly 75% children’s fiction, including the best-selling Ballerina Dreams series, and 25% Primary School music resources.
Teaching Key Stage 1 Music won the 2002 Music Publishers' Award for Best New Product.
These days, Ann enjoys combining fiction and music, with books such as Pictures, Poems and Percussion, which won the Primary Music Magazine’s Best Composing/Improvising source, and her series Introducing Classical Music Through Stories.
She has narrated her stories at The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and at the Royal Festival Hall, London.
In 2019 she narrated her book Peter and the Timber Wolf extensively in the south of England with Kidenza Orchestra.
As well as writing character and story-based music curricula for pre-schools in India, Ann held a three-year tenure as Patron of Reading for all the primary schools in the Bailiwick of Guernsey and, this year, Hal Leonard published Instant Primary Music Lessons, comprising 33 lessons each with a piece of classical music introduced through an original story.
Ann is currently working with ALT Animation developing a series for TV for pre-schoolers about listening.
She also enjoys school author visits both in the UK and internationally, giving workshops and presentations, which always include a music/drama element.
Ann attended the Gibraltar Literary festival in 2019 and 2022 and is delighted to be back this year.

Martin Brown - Horrible Histories: The Worst in the World
Martin Brown is best known for being the illustrator of the phenomenally successful Horrible Histories series, now celebrating its 30th anniversary year with Horrible Histories: The Worst in the World.
Selling more than 35 million copies, the series has been adapted to become award-winning stage and TV shows, exhibitions, games and a movie.
However, Martin is also the writer and illustrator of Lesser Spotted Animals and Lesser Spotted Animals 2 - fun non-fiction books about some of the world’s more unfamiliar wildlife. And Martin’s second Nell and the Cave Bear book, The Journey Home, came out in March.
Martin was born in Melbourne, Australia, but has lived in England for nearly 40 years. He lives with his family in a sleepy rural village in Dorset.
A great believer in ‘drawing is for everyone’, Martin inspires children (and their parents) to pick up a pencil and have a go.

Sally Gardner - The Weather Woman
Sally Gardner, the daughter of lawyers, grew up in London's Gray's Inn.
Her severe dyslexia was undiagnosed until she was twelve and she didn't learn to read until she was fourteen.
In spite of this, she was awarded a place at St Martin's School of Art where she gained a first class honours degree in Theatre Design.
She worked as a theatre designer at the Royal Court Theatre, the National Theatre and the Coliseum.
She moved from set design to costume design and worked on many operas in Europe.
She considers her observation of audiences' reactions to the plays gave her an insight into story-telling.
After the birth of her three children, she turned to illustration until an editor at Orion Books suggested she write a full length novel for 9-11 year olds. This was I, Coriander, which won the Smarties Prize in 2005. Sally went on to write acclaimed books for children and young adults, and her YA novel, Maggot Moon (2012), won both the Costa Children's Book Award and the CLIP Carnegie Medal in 2013.
In 2016, her first adult book, An Almond for a Parrot, was published.
The Weather Woman, set in late 18th century London and Paris, is her fourth book for adults.

Esme Young - Behind the Seams
A judge on the much-loved TV series The Great British Sewing Bee, Queen of Fashion Esme Young’s passion for sewing and designing was born when she found refuge in her sketchbooks as a child after discovering she was partially deaf.
Moving to London as a teenager, her life progressed from living in a squat and studying at Central St Martins to launching Swanky Modes, a cult shop and clothing line with three like-minded women. She went on to design outfits for films including Trainspotting, Bridget Jones’s Diary and The Beach, has altered a dress for Cher and watched the Notting Hill Carnival with David Bowie.
She has now moved onto the small screen herself as a judge on The Great British Sewing Bee working with presenters Claudia Winkelman, Joe Lycett and Sara Pascoe. As well as designing and judging, Esme also works as a senior lecturer teaching fashion at Central Saint Martins.
More speakers are to be announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets will go on sale on 1st October 2023.